Is anyone finding that...

[RyanSpaulding]

...architectural viz is ripping out your love of cg art?

 

I've been working for 2 years in this biz. I was a long-time artist who found love and enjoyment in his work. After 2 years of rendering building after building after building, I'm losing my love.

 

I'm aware that I could do other art on the side, but I'm already at a computer for 8+ hrs each day doing work...I dont relish more time at a computer. I need to work out, have fun, chill with my girlfriend.

 

How are you all staying motivated and into your art...if it's just buildings on a backdrop of land all the time? Were you guys artists before arch-viz?

[Brian Cassil]

Every project I try to do something better. Always. I also do stuff on the side for fun, that is usually abstract in some way and would never fly as an actual project. Different things that aren't architectural too. I also try to squeeze in time for some sketching every now and then.

 

Great thread idea by the way. I'm curious to see others respond.

[Ricardo Eloy]

I don't know... I mean, I've been doing this for almost 10 years now and just don't get tired. Also, I teach, which proved to be a very nice way to keep this loving feeling up. It's nice to pass your experience forward and see how excited your students get when they learn what for you is pretty basic stuff. Reminds me of how hard it was to get here and also that there's always room for improvement.

[Sawyer]

Actually I just got a job that I am in love with. It's not for an architect its for a text book company but its the first time in a long time where I just thought how much I love what I do. But then I have more freedom and a long schedule and I am not working with architects.

I find I end up dreading quite a few jobs where I know the people I will work for and the expectations are just silly. And then I do still get a few jobs that are really fun because of the time crunch.

I have been doing 3d for 6 years and I am just begining to get the hang of it. And I like what I do now better than anything else I have done. Or actually seen.

[eric samuel]

Yeah is alot of hard work! But what can i say?

Try to find something that would not feel like work for u, thats the ideal job.

[Brian Smith]

Here's my 2 cents.

 

Although 3D was always fun, it started becoming a blast when I started sending some work out to subs. This allowed me to take in much more work and spend more time meeting potential clients, taking them to dinner, going golfing with them, and lots of other cool things. I now spend at least half my time outside of the office, coordinating work with the client - often far away from home. Teaching gets me out of the office and out of town too. My advice is mix it up and keep growing. I would probably not enjoy at all anymore if I was doing freelance by myself in my four wall prison, but that's just me. To each his own.

[otacon]

Try to work on a variety of projects also. If you are only doing stills, look into animation, that will add a lot of challenge and headaches to your day.

[Justin Hunt]

There are times when I get board with 3D, thats when I grab my pencile or paint brush and do some art for myself. As a general rule I always try it bring some form of artistry into my 3D work, regardless if its a quick study model or a fully detailed marketing image.

 

Next to my mouse is a drawing pad, so that whenever the computer is busy rendering I am sketching. I have always been like that, spent more time drawing than doing homework at school.

 

I have also gotten into digital painting and started submitting to CGTalk.com in the 2D forum. I have learnt alot there and inturn applied that to my 3D work as well. Check out my CGPortfolio http://hoppergrass.cgsociety.org/gallery/349696/

[jvlive]

nice thread. its 12noon, i just came back from an all nighter at work. just yesterday i was thinking of changing career... (wait, i always think that way every deadline)..... but i almost always feel good after meeting a deadline. like what octacon said, add challenges to your work. keep pushing.

[mahorela]

I got into to cg because I wanted more than anything to get into gaming but given the opportunities that were around at the time I somehow fell into arch viz. I thought it was just going to be temporary but somewhere along the line I fell in love with it.

 

Some time ago I read an article in a 3d world mag about whether cg professionals are selling themselves short and they gave an example about how cg professionals that are lucky enough to get to work in movie effects or cg movies may find themselves painting glitches out of frames for months on end or doing other mundane and repetitive jobs. They also mentioned that pro cg has become so specialized that artists never get to bring a project to fruition, they complete thier part and then pass it on to the next specialist. Making graphics in the gaming arena is limited by it's very nature, polygon limitations etc.

 

I think thats the beauty of arch viz, you get to model, animate, light and render a project at whatever quality level your pc can handle and complete it yourself.

 

the sense of achievement you get from completing a beautiful project on your own or in a small group is very hard to beat.

[STRAT]

i'm liking it more and more. i been doing cg archi for 8+ hours a day for 15 years or so and it's still getting better.

 

yup, i do some really crappy time wasting stuff in work, but every now and then i get nice jobs to shine on. also doing freelancing these days which really excites me.

[IC]

I never ever get bored of this.

I started in CG as a side interest to my architectural day job, building robots and cars-all the CGTalk stuff that seems more fun than our side of things.

 

Gradually I drifted towards arch viz work and I realised how much art there can be in the work produced by people in this sector.

 

With every project I try to get closer to that and I don't care how long it takes me as I love what I'm doing.

If I didn't feel like that I'd stop tomorrow-let's face it, it's not going to make me rich!

[Ian P]

I have only been doing this for a year now, but I'm Findidng that the better i get the more I love it, Not just the Cg stuff but learning About architecture and Interior design (as my background and intro to CG was through Technical Illustration) I'm finding the ability to guess now where there was not enough info and my CG has improved beyond recognition (mainly thanks to this site). Also though what keeps it fun is, the more i learn, the more i find i need to learn, so its constantly challenging, just trying to achieve the level of Artistry and technical ability achieved on this site should keep me interested for the next hundred years or so.

[FlytE]

I love archviz but I think what really keeps me going is a love of learning. Every other day theres something new to look at, whether its software, technology, tutorials, even other artists renders. The more I learn, the more I realise how much there is still to learn, and that is such a motivation.

[bytor]

A most excellent thread!

I am very intrigued by the question posed and the variety of responses that have resulted. I don't bang at it for 8 hrs. a day like most of you, because there are 2 of us here in an in-house shop for an AE firm. My responsibilities are managing the efforts of the other guy that is full time, and supplementing his efforts when we are overly busy. I have thought about this recently as a way to keep his batteries charged, and his working environment motivated. Luckily - the work "style" varies a fair amount, and we have been diligent on progressively working in new skills or tools to his routine that helps to keep it interesting.

Personally - when I am doing VIS work it is usually on a project where I have also done some design work. I have found that this makes it a whole different ballgame. Especially when the vis work is part of the design / approval process during the course of a project. I was just at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week for a recent project, and being able to see completed project that you did both design and vis work on is very satisfying to say the least. The utimate compliment came when the CEO of the firm I work for and a management representative of the client stood outside the building and commented on how much the finished project looked like the imaging. Needless to say that goes a long way in charging the batteries for the next grind!

Dean

[RyanSpaulding]

Wow. So I'm the only one getting burned out?

 

Oof.

[filleone]

NICE ! ! !

[Chad Warner]

I find myself getting bored with working on certain projects, but I LOVE my job. I am a workaholic by nature anyways, so I like working on projects all night with short deadlines and being so busy that I don't know how to get everything all the way finished.

 

Like some of the others here, I try to improve my work with every rendering. It's funny because I look at renderings that I'd done only a few months ago and think that they look bad so I need to figure out how to make the stuff I'm working on today look better.

[alekzab]

yeah ive worked in viz for almost 2 years at an incredible pace, my days are long and worry free weekends are a rarity. between rendering, modeling and user errata, i feel burned out at times. theres been nights when i walk out the door and say f*ck this sh'. but in the morning i wake up and i head back to the studio and keep drilling projects. so i love it and love hurts!

 

alekz:mad:

[ecastillor]

Here's my 2 cents.

Although 3D was always fun, it started becoming a blast when I started sending some work out to subs. This allowed me to take in much more work and spend more time meeting potential clients, taking them to dinner, going golfing with them, and lots of other cool things. I now spend at least half my time outside of the office, coordinating work with the client - often far away from home. Teaching gets me out of the office and out of town too. My advice is mix it up and keep growing. I would probably not enjoy at all anymore if I was doing freelance by myself in my four wall prison, but that's just me. To each his own.

 

 

 

Same happened to me!

[Tim Saunders]

Wow. So I'm the only one getting burned out?

Oof.

Tired of arch-viz is one thing, burned out is another. I'm still a baby of just over a year of doing this stuff, but my love for the work continues to grow - big time. However, I have never been so burned out than I have been in the last 3 weeks. My office keeps piling job-after-job on my desk needing it done in 5 different views, in 5 different color schemes in 2 days. Once in a while, that's okay, but that's all I get any more. That is what I'm burned out on. I can't spend the time on the detailes I would like to make things look the way I feel they should. But that doesn't change my feelings about this work. I think I have the coolest job in the world. I just need it to slow down. I need a helper or something.

 

I don't know how busy your days are Ryan, but have you ever considered learning a new software? Your skills and speed have obviously improved dramatically over time. Maybe it's time to add a new 3rd party renderer or a new additional software all together. Some of my favorite users on thse forums are the ones I see posting input on almost all the forums. They seem to know almost every software out there. They also happen to be some of the best artists o the site as well. Just something to think about. Good luck.

[brianzajac]

If you find yourself truly limited/tired in your job, it's time to start owning your own business. I currently own two and I'm never bored.