Just to vent a bit.

[Josamoto]

Hi all! Just a few questions you guys can maybe help shed a light on for me.

 

If you do a residential project viz where the client requires an animation of the house, am I being wrong in saying that this can take up to two weeks should they require exterior AND interior visualization? (Im using Lightwave 9 and Modo 201 BTW)

 

People look at me if this is supposed to take half a day or something, not thinking that I have to model, texture, bake and render their scenes and then maybe still do post processing or so.

 

Architects in South Africa tell me that they dont need visualization sometimes, coz their software does it for them. Yes of course, but it looks like cartoon cell shaded images, and they don't understand me when I say that my images are photorealistic. They are so ignorant they won't page through my portfolio.

 

Showing them my portfolio well, to them its just another bunch of pictures, and I'm having difficulty marketing my services to some people around me.

 

Some of them think, mmm......photo's......this Josamoto guy's an idiot.

 

I am currently working on a proper demo reel to properly explain what visualization involves, maybe it's because I live in an area where there are only but a bunch of grease monkeys left, maybe I am the one being stupid.

 

So hopefully someone will come along, slap me with an overgrown banana on the forehead and tell me what my problem is...and may that day come soon coz I'm fixing it.

 

I've tried low prices, I've tried offering complimentary "watermarked" jobs, and I am not performing sexual acts to get my stinking foot in the door.

[Ray]

. . . and I am not performing sexual acts to get my stinking foot in the door.

. . . slap me with an overgrown banana on the forehead . . .

Are you sure you want to say that?

[mahorela]

LOL, sorry don't mean to be laughing at your venting but your predicament is very sitcom.

[DennisHolland]

It's the same song all over the world, Jasamoto.

 

Remember one thing, you images are for SALES and not for the beauty of your shadows and cool lighting-scheme. In your promo-text, go with an attitude like 'my work will sell your stuff' or (for architects) 'my work will let you WIN the contest'...

 

They (both developers and archs) don't give a damn about the quality of your work OR the size of your banana

 

Take it easy, regards.

Dennis

[Arnold Sher]

Hey Josef,

 

I understand your predicament as it took us a long time to break into the industry. It is a double sided coin really because the big architectural firms do their work inhouse and the smaller firms cannot afford your services. The biggest mistake you can do is lower your prices because you will never be able to raise it as well as you are killing it for the other guys in the industry and yourself as you won't be able to make a good living out of it. Patience is the name of the game and agressive selling. We knocked on every door in town before somebody opened it. Also i would suggest to get a really hot portfolio and i do mean hot. If you want to play with the big boys you got to offer something outstanding because chances are that the big boys already have somebody decent and unless you are that much better there is no reason for them to change. Besides that there is not much else. There is enough work around South Africa you just got to create a name for yourself and that takes time. Believe i know, i've been doing this for a while... Good luck

 

Arnold

[STRAT]

josef - it depends who you're pitching to and what the end pictures will be used for.

 

in my office (i work as an inhouse cgi'er for a large firm of architects) they expect a faily high standard of rendering, which is normal these days, but i always like to take my images several steps further. i like to make my images as photoreal as possible, taking painstaking time over lighting and shadowing etc etc, but my bosses dont care for any of this. they're much more interested in their design and the building itself rather than my blood sweat and tears i've put in.

 

and they want a 3 week job done in 4 days or something. but then, if i freelance for a developer rather than an architect i find these guys much more sympathetic towards my efforts.

[Ian P]

Thanks Strat, was beginning to think its was just, me who was in that boat, I am sometimes scared to show my bosses (it says freelance on my profile but thats just cos i can't link the firm to stuff like this for some reason) something that is half way through in case they snatch it from me, claim its finished and god forbid show someone then tell them i did it

 

Their idea of finished differs wildy from mine, and probably everyone else who posts on here!

[bavanor]

Josamoto,

 

You might try doing some more of those "cartoony" renderings, or non-photo-realistic, but with your own style in the rendering for your portfolio. Because what I find happening a lot is in the preliminary design face you CAN NOT show the client a photo realistic rendering. Once you do that most clients assume that is how the final project will be. When in truth it will not, because more changes are to come. And you don't want the client to always say, "but I thought it was going to be like that rendering". Then you have to assuage the client for days to move along with some little design change.

 

Maybe with a photo realistic and a different type of "sketchy" rendering style in you portfolio you will be able to get you foot in the door.

 

Just a suggestion,

 

Aaron

[Josamoto]

Ray:

My banana and sexual remarks were intended to spice things up a bit. I like to ad a bit of humor to life. Sometimes we take things to seriously.

 

mahorela:

You are allowed to laugh, my remark was supposed to be funny.

 

DennisHolland:

I always thought that potential clients see something different than I do.

 

arnold@asylumstudio.co.za:

It's good to know I have fellow South Africans working blood sweat and tears in the industry. I wish all the luck to you.

 

Currently, Im working on a demo reel which demonstrates the service I supply. I'm modelling a few houses, doing animations of them and I'll be incorporating a video composition of myself offering a presentation on my services. Hopefully that helps. Maybe my ugly face will chase more customers away, who knows?

 

I'll send you a copy of the DVD/CD when it's done!

 

STRAT:

A 4 week job in 3 days, I had exactly that problem. People think maybe we have a 500 PC renderfarm to our disposal. Or maybe they just think, "mmm, it can't be that hard."

 

Ian P:

It's sad to think that some people don't understand the complexity of 3D.

 

bavanor:

That's some good advice. Did'nt think of it that way. I'll keep your idea in mind when doing my portfolio. Maybe I should dump some photorealism, but with loosing quality, I loose a bit of quality to the viz artist next door. I have to be competitive, my work must be best quality, and I want people to know that. It's good to see things in a different light though.

 

To all:

Another thing that bugs me, when people hear that I use Lightwave and Modo, they lift their brow coz I'm not using Studio Max and VRay. They think I'm the Volkswagen Beetle gearbox in an F50 Ferrari.

[Josamoto]

arnold@asylumstudio.co.za:

I've looked at your website, your work is amazing! Keep it up.

 

Take a look at mine if you wish: http://www.cryoscene.net

[Justin Hunt]

Josamoto and arnold.

I left SA 8 years ago and have lost touch with the industry there. The last time I went back for a holiday I got to speak with a couple of friends who are in the commercial realestate industry. When I mentioned what people are willing to pay for Arch Viz stuff in the UK they laughed saying that no developer or architect would ever pay that much. Granted the UK market (in particular the London market) is very different to SA.

 

It would be interesting to know what the market is like these days. From what my dad says, he owns his own office furnture manufacturing business in Cape Town, it is next to impossible to get paid. I would suspect hat its even worse for you guys.

[Josamoto]

Damn right you are Jason. Life is expensive in SA and it costs seem to be ever increasing. With the Rand to US Dollar piercing the R7.50/US margin today, I'm not very feeling very encouraged to stay here for much longer.

 

I've been in the UK for two years on a working visa, and I promise you guys, that the first opportunity I get out of here, I'm gone. I thought the grass is greener on the other side, I tried it, and discovered it is.

 

I was thinking of starting to do freelance jobs internationally, but people don't trust a service provider that easily who is living on the other side of the planet.

 

If I can land a job as a modeller or anything of the sort in any 1st world country, I'll go. Sometimes the entrepreneurship blues is hitting me, youre face down, and things are happening so slowly. Dunno how much longer I can keep living of my savings, this bizz needs to start working for me or I'm going to be out looking for a job.

 

And nowadays, in SA, underprevileged people who have previously been neglected in this country are more keen to find a job than me. nderprevileged meaning women, disabled people and non-caucasian people. I am no rasist or feminist, but its fact. It is my turn to stand in the back of the line.

 

Can't find a job? Create one? That's the new motto here.

[Justin Hunt]

I agree with you that once you have seen whats going on outside SA its very hard to go back, just have to convince the wife of that.

 

That is one thing about SA is that no one else is going to do ot for you then you have to do it yourself. So hang in there.

 

JHV