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Working in an office where a Linear Workflow has been dismissed as unnecessary.


TomasEsperanza
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OK my Mother was an Art teacher, my father an Architect. I am 40 and have always been an artist using one medium or another: music, painting... whatever I do it is a personal expression. I have seen what might reasonably be be called "arty" studios and the more sales type: "office" studios, and they were very different. The type of people, the atmosphere, the approach to the work. There are definately some people who are natural artists, and there are those who are not, (while they may be creative and produce stuff, they don't express themselves through their creativity).

 

There are artists, and there are craftsmen (or creatives). Many people are a mixture of both. Often people misunderstand the difference. Neither one or the other is better, and both are nessesary in varying degrees. We need less artists, and more craftsmen, and that's what we have. There are less positions available for artists.

 

Perhaps if it is too difficult to make a living producing art for the architectural visualisation market, I shall move into a field that facilitates more personal expression. Those here who are artists will relate to the fundamental need to be able to express oneself, irrespective of were the money is.

Edited by TomasEsperanza
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interesting discussion

 

arch vis is a craft / service much like a draftsman or an architect - that's a good thing. i don't want to devalue art practice by pretending it is an art form. if there are artists working in the field i would say there are very very few....people that combine that creative and technical excellence with a twist of their own language, and im not talking about adding blurry people and a red sky.

 

I don't consider what we do to be art, this is coming from someone that works in what might be termed in your words as an 'arty studio'

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There's an excellent documentary on Netflix about the movie poster artist - Drew Struzan - ("The man behind the poster") who did the posters for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars.

 

Just by definition of his metier he is an Illustrator. But all the people interviewed bow down to him as an artist par excellence, including Spielberg, Lucas, and Peter Jackson for his uncanny ability to go beyond a pretty picture to convey the essence of a film (frequently surpassing the film itself). You can find artistic expression in anything.

 

Just because Falling Water accommodated a program doesn't preclude it from being a work of art.

Edited by heni30
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They contracted you to come in to help with the project. Awesome.

 

As Nils said above, improving workflow involves time. At the bare minimum you have to reverse engineer, reorganize, adjust settings, etc.. If they contracted you to come in and help then they likely did not have time to spend on these items and spending time on them which has the potential to negate the amount of work you can get done during the short period of time you spent in their office. If they had you in to help outwith a pressing deadline then changing the workflow could be hazardous to meeting that deadline.

 

Even if you did not agree with their workflow it is beneficial to learn and understand the methods they are using. Everyone has "tricks" in the methods they use and you will often be surprised at things you can pick up that will streamline your workflow.

 

As for the term artist... everyone that starts in this industry on the production side of things is a "Production Artist" by Wikipedia definition. Though I have no desire to get hung up on what people want to call themselves. At the end of the day it is your work and skills that speak for you; this not only includes how nice the images look but also how well they met their clients needs and expectations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_artist

Edited by Crazy Homeless Guy
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Looking back at the original post, we have digressed a bit. No matter, it's all good.

 

The issue with this experience at this office was more that I was presented with a technical problem that I wasn't comfortable having to overcome, and I wasn't convinced it was necessary. Nothing more really, except as an aside I did not happen to enjoy that particular office. There was no animosity in the office I worked for because as I said I did what they asked. The question I came away asking myself is "how common is it to find such a situation, where people are not using a LWF and one just has to deal with it?" and "what do others here think about this?".

 

I summarised my understanding of the feedback a few posts back. The responses have been most illuminating, thanks to all who have taken part.

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The issue of using someone else's model is just usually they don't fully understand modeling, so they use a lot of bad practices. They don't understand so you need to have some dialog with them about it. A lot of the issues can be from mis-match scale, models that are modeled at an angle of 1.00004573 degrees which makes making clean changes almost impossible. Texturing issues. Flashing co-planar faces for animations. 6 trillion individual objects that all could be combined as one.

 

SketchUp in particular isn't a horrible program. It's downfall is that it is so easy to start modeling, a lot of people picked it up and just started creating objects with really poor understanding of how things really work. I doubt many of us would want/need to remodel a SketchUp scene provided by Peter Guthrie. One of our architects uses SketchUp really well so when we get his model, it's such a smooth transition to Max. Another architect on the other hand..... Well, let's just say I work in profanity they way other artists work in oils or clay. It's my true medium.

 

Ditto for Revit, though Revit can be a beast when dealing with curtain walls. But if the Revit model is cleanly created then you should have minimal rework in Max, usually doors and windows need replacing.

 

When the issue comes down to time, sometimes you just have to use the model provided.

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My manager insisted we didn't have the time and I couldn't really give him a good enough argument, partly down to the fact my German isn't perfect, but I also found it hard to convey the benefits.

 

 

I took German in high school and college.....I do know this "Mein Gott! Diese ist nicht gut! Achtung! Hallo?"

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Had similar experience once, was the only time I was employed actually. Needless to say, it ended up very much same way as yours ! :- )

 

Clean-up work is the worst. I do NOT accept anything pre-made by anyone else then me. If the client for some reason has a revit/sketchup model, it's really nice reference but not an inch of it will end up being used.

I also always ask enough time to make things properly and my way. Otherwise I simply don't pursue such offer. I never enjoyed the time-stress production and will never return back.

 

I really wish I could work this way too. Being the only artist in my company pretty much and turn around times of 1-2 days, I dreadfully have to get stuck using the awful models I am provided.

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...If the client for some reason has a revit/sketchup model, it's really nice reference but not an inch of it will end up being used.

 

LOL...and I thought I was the only one that does this. I could have saved that designer a lot of time if I just spoke up.

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