An Introduction

[kalmarjan]

Hi there everyone. I have been lurking on these boards for a LONG time now. I love all the visualizations, and tell the truth, I am a bit intimidated by all of them.

 

A little about me:

I started making maps at a young age, (with drawings as well) from a lot of role-play gaming. Of course, in High School, I was convinced to find a "real" job, and left the art by the wayside. (I eventually became a chef.)

 

I have always had a bug for art, mapping, and recently, *like 4 years now* 3D.

 

I have not sat down and mastered any package yet, but then again, funds are limited...

 

I am at the cusp of changing careers, and ArchViz seems like something I would be interested in.

 

I have messed aroudn with Blender, Sketchup (Mostly modelling - no rendering yet..)

 

I half started a course with 3DS Max, but my trial ran out before I could finish the course! (And it is ONE expensive package to buy, and justify to the wife. LOL)

 

So, thats a bit about me. I am hugely interested in making and modelling stuff, and learning about the texturing from there. I am very proficient in Photoshop and Illustrator, so there are no worries there.

 

I live in Montreal, Canada, and of course, I am not sure about the prospects of working Freelance with the packages I know. Of course, I guess it's a catch-22 situation: can't pay for the licenses for the major packages to learn them proper, but to get into the industry, I keep hearing about how one needs to learn and use Max. Sigh.

 

I love Sketchup and it's ease of use. Blender is a little intimidating, but I am going through that.

 

Given what I have seen here, I am almost too intimidated to post anything I have done to date. (Mostly 3D maps for my games.) They are NOTHING even close to what I have seen here though.

[Dan Norfolk]

Welcome. I'm a newbie myself and learning very quickly that archviz is a very tough field. Getting some steady work but not enough to commit myself fulltime. Diversify-you'll probably hear this a lot. Product modelling, animation, whatever you can get paid to. Starting out is hard, you can't compete with more established viz studios. you can't compete with outsourcing. arch firms don't hire renderers. (they hire architects that can render, among other skills). If you browse through craiglist, you'll see alot of people offering 3d services. And you'll be surprised at how much they're charging. If you grew up here, you'll know you can't survive on those rates.

[kalmarjan]

Hey there dantheman. LOL. My best man is called that sometimes.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about outsourcing. I know that in order to compete, you just have to stick to not lowering yourself. It is the same across the board, I'm afraid. You see a lot of graphic design stuff go down in flames from freelancing sites that have people charging 50$ for a render, model, and the works. Never mind that it's from software that is obviously pirated .. but hey, as long as it doesn't affect the business's bottom line, right?

I went through the same stuff in my career as a chef - seems like everyone and their dog can cook. The thing I can tell you is to take heart. In my case, I kicked ass cooking because of what I brought to the table, and it was immediately noticeable. If you have talent, and drive, you CAN do anything. You might lose some contracts to outsourcing - but as most companies (and customers) are finding out... perhaps Joe (or should I say Joerinder) may not have the best interests of the company he outsources for in mind. The pendulum will swing back, quality and quantity ALWAYS trumps cheap and fast.