What sort of 3d?

[klaas]

Hello,

 

since a year i've been working at an architectural office doing 3d work and designing. My 3d skills haven't been improving since i can't dedicate more time to it than (roughly) one day a week. This bothers me. Actually my interests in 3d have been increasing. So eventually i would like to do 3d fulltime. But i would have to choose to do the work at an architectural office, a 3d office or freelance.

 

My question is: what benifits do exist in doing 3d work in an architectural office or in a 3d office or freelance? How much "designing" can be done when working in a 3d office, since i don't want to lose the creative side of my work. I just can't go out and "test" out these jobs. Which 3d position is most fun?

 

Tell me your experiences.

 

Klaas

[STRAT]

my experiance -

 

i work as a 3d guy in a architecural practice. i never do any design. i only draw what im told to. this personally suits me fine and dandy

(bloody architects, need stringing up, the lot of them. but hey, thats for another post )

 

in my experiance as working freelance, in a 3d company and working in an architects office, you do one or tuther. 3d drawing is a full time job. designing is a full time job. imo you'd find difficulty putting all your efforts into both.

 

i've got an architect collegue in my work for example, who designs all day but would really like to get into 3d drawing and illustration. the bosses say he cant do both. physically impossible in our office. if he does 3d he'll really enjoy it and im sure it'd suit him fine, but then he'd loose out on the design side and even get rusty if he ever needs to turn back to it at any time.

 

ask urself what you'd prefer to do - 3d or design.

 

im sure there are guys out there doing both, so listen to their argument too

[doujay888]

Well, I work as an interior designer in a design firm as my full time job, however i also do freelance designing at the same time. On my full time job,

im a one man show, I do the designing, planning and visual presentations (3D visuals, sample boards etc.). With all the loads i have at work I always

make sure to alot a time for 3D lessons at home, sort of self study. I surf the

web, buy books, softwares etc., those sort of stuff to enhance myself.

 

It's not a matter of choice, it's just a matter of self discipline and time

management if you really want to learn. Coz right now I enjoy what I do.

Hope this would help.

[mbr]

For architecture, I begin with sketches and move quickly into 3D, then print, then sketch, then 3D, on and on. I design 1000 times faster in 3D than any other means and I have an accurate model once I (or we) are done.

 

Which is more fun? Well, that's why I am in this profession over architecture (after 7 years of education). I am working less hours than my friends, getting paid better, and have significantly less stress.

That being said, if you love design you love design and no amount of 3D will make up for it. I do agree that it's next to impossible to have the time to do it all, but you can try to balance things or do a little of one and a lot of the other.

 

It all comes down to personal preference, there is no 'right' answer. I don't think any of my friends would be satisfied doing 3D alone, but I find it quite enjoyable and satisfying. To each his own, as they say.

[klaas]

hey guys, thanks for the feedback.

 

The thing i'm asking myself constantly is: what do i prefer? I really couldn't tell at the moment. I've studied architecture in the Netherlands and used 3d right from the beginning. And in my current (and first) full time day job, i also do both. I guess that i really should try both things separately. A year 3d and a year architecture. But this sounds a bit risky to me, because the jobs aren't so easy to get over here.

And i've studied for architecture. It sounds kind of stupid to throw it all away.

 

doujay888: it sounds as if you have 30 hours in a day. How do you manage all that work? You have quite some freedom in your day-time job or don't you?

 

mbr: judging from your www, you 3d a lot and design a bit. Is that right? I could imagine that's a good mix for me. I would need an amount of creativity in my job and i assume that only 3d doesn't need a lot of creativity. Correct me if i'm wrong. I would love to here how much and where in the 3d process creativity is needed. That benefits of 3d you name (money, hours and stress) are offcourse quite appealing too.

 

klaas

[alexg]

hey klaas

 

I am doing both 3d and design in 50-50 percentage, but never do a 3d / design project at the same time.

I mean, once I decided to do the sketch / design part of the work, I never touch the 3d modelling on that same project. I just pass it to another colleague and just act as the supervising architect. That keeps your thought objective and keep the project rolling fast.

 

You can do both, of course, but you will lose a lot of time, because design involves global thinking and a LOT of decision making stages. 3d modelling involves a LOT of tiny detail thinking and a LOT of technical problem solving.

 

2 people doing separate work design and 3d is a lot faster in finishing 2 projects than having them work on each project from scratch to finish.

 

I love them both and will keep on practicing it this way.