How is Arch Viz weathering the economics around the world?

[Jessup3D]

A few months back the company I was working for had to lay off half the staff. Because of the economic slowdown in the housing market here in the Us, I've heard that the Arch Viz companies are being hit pretty hard (as compared to other 3D art businesses like FX and gaming companies).

 

Since the layoff I have been trying to build my own website (and I'm no web designer, so that's been slow going) to try to find some local work in Iowa, but there's very little work to be found at the moment here. I was wondering if the crunch here in the US was part of the larger global slow down, or if there was more work as a visualization artist in other parts of the world.

[Tim Nelson]

Jeremy, I think our market is not already globally affected, it will be in the very near future. I think we are just at the tip of the iceberg with some very radical changes heading our way that will impact everyone.

 

I'm sorry to hear that you lost your job. It is a very tough time to get started as a freelancer. My feeling for you is that maybe your best option is to start submitting proposals to architectural firms and developers to start up an in house rendering studio. It may not be exactly what you want to do, but would bring a certain element of security if you find a company willing to accept your offer. You'd have to find the big ones though to justify your salary and all the hardware and software costs that come along with you.

 

Good luck & hang in there.

[EddieLeon]

I agree with Tim. You might be better off at a large architecture firm. They will need a lot of 3d so they can market themselves better and compete for projects.

 

By the way, I think things are going to be brutal all over the world for the next 3 months. Hold tight and don't loose hope. Things will get better and there will be opportunities

[ihabkal]

Here in Lebanon we were not affected because of our relatively small economy, as a matter of fact housing prices almost tripled within the last 2 years especially after the 2006 war where hundreds of thousands of residential units were destroyed, but we have an ongoing problem: even though builders are making a ton of money, they are more than ever milking the worldwide situation and pressing for $200 renderings. Lebanese businessmen know how to take advantage and abuse the relationship, and that is in great part due to students using cracked software, and some unprofessional studio owners who want to compete at all cost for the love of breaking others and have their rich daddy cover their losses.