advices for someone starting in ArchViz

[thomaspouwels]

Hello,

 

I am a former 3D rigger, I have been working most of my career in VFX companies for movies.

Now I am living in Eastern Europe and I want to start in archViz. I'd like to exploit a more creative aspect of 3D. I have skills in modelling and rendering (I did a specialised CG school in France, but I might have to actualise my knowledge as it was a few years back)

 

My questions are pretty simple :

- is it worth it ? I have read quite a few topics and it's pretty depressing, the business seems to die if I read correctly.

- I am not going to ask how much I can make, but instead : how hard and how long could it take to make about 1,000 dollars per month for someone with skills but no real contacts ?

- Where should I start ? I was thinking about creating some renders for a villa (interior, exterior), and then for a building, in order to show my abilities and hope to find some contracts. Is there something I need to pay attention to, here ?

- I have checked some freelancing websites and it's astonishing to see so many people applying for so many low paying tasks :s

 

Any piece of advice is welcome

Thank you !

[James Vella]

- is it worth it ? I have read quite a few topics and it's pretty depressing, the business seems to die if I read correctly.

Depressing is an opinion, if youre doing something you dont like it probably would be depressing.

 

- I am not going to ask how much I can make, but instead : how hard and how long could it take to make about 1,000 dollars per month for someone with skills but no real contacts ?

If you have good contacts and produce consistently good work you will easily earn this money, the money is the only reason I keep coming back

to archviz

 

- Where should I start ? I was thinking about creating some renders for a villa (interior, exterior), and then for a building, in order to show my abilities and hope to find some contracts. Is there something I need to pay attention to, here ?

Start at the first stair, and keep walking. A thousand step journey starts with the first step. Do research, implement your findings. Learn from

other peoples mistakes - Ronen Bekerman has a trove of past projects with great explanations of what/how they did their job.

- I have checked some freelancing websites and it's astonishing to see so many people applying for so many low paying tasks :s

You get what you pay for. Cheap artist = More problems

[Krisztian Gulyas]

is it worth it?

Currently we have so much work that barely can keep up, and our salesman only works half time (yes, we are a company of about 10 people, but if you are doing it alone, you'll have enough work and if you dont undercut yourself, you will have enough -and more- money as well).

 

How long does it take?

It depends, but as James said, if you are doing good work, you will get the right contacts. First it is hard, I would say (alert!! generalization coming) about a year from zero to good money inflow/profit, less if you already have a strong portfolio.

 

Where to start?

Again, as James said, first stair. I would say a strong portfolio, learn from the best. This and other forums like vray and corona and a lot more are out there that are good, but watch out not to take on challenges that are too big or which you dont understand at all (like for e.g. material scanning) because it will take a lot of time to learn and maybe add just a little to the overall quality of your images, i would say learn about materials overall and composition/lighting. Learn to watch reference, that is one of the most important skills in my opinion and pay attention to details BUT reference reference and reference. Learn to see the details and get as much out of the reference images as much you can (almost everything, materials, form, details, composition, reflections, the size of dust particles that shine as the sunrays hit them through the window etc).

 

low paying sites

The people you are looking for, are not looking at those sites, they want someone reliable and who does good quality (you need to be that one though).

There are companies that do 3D that are looking for artist to give work to, so you can look at those too, not just people who need an image for their marketing campaign.

[SkylineArch]

I have been working most of my career in VFX companies for movies.

... I'd like to exploit a more creative aspect of 3D. I have skills in modelling and rendering

 

Well, you're going the wrong direction if you think ArchViz is more creative than VFX (but I guess that is all relative to the company/projects)

 

Avoid the low paying sites, start ArchViz as freelance for a year or two until you build up a client base and get tired of working nights and weekends, then switch over to doing it full time.

[Scott Schroeder]

VFX can be very specialized. If you make rocks, that's all you do. 3D generalists who like to work on every aspect of a project have no place in VFX, hence why some of them come over to architecture where you tend to have far more ownership of the project. Granted you still have hovering art directors who tell you to do preciously the opposite of common sense, but you will still get to at least work on all aspects of a project from start to finish.

 

Honestly, find the niche areas of architecture to find the better work. Avoid residential at all costs, that's where you find the most competition for the bottom 5% of work. Go find interior design firms, look at commercial/medical/casino/theme park/sports/etc places and see if they need 3d work. Sometimes this work my not need the best quality, but the pay tends to be far better as these places cannot find good work. Unlike residential, who get 100 emails a day from el-cheapo outsource firms that have nothing but a bunch of premade Evermotion scenes in their portfolio. If you can get established in residential, you can make a very good living working on exciting projects, but you have to really work at getting out of the bottom where most of us start.

[SkylineArch]

I prefer residential over commercial. The pay isn't quite as good, but the projects go much easier, timelines aren't as tight and I have more freedom of creativity. I'm tired of the last minute information and changes, and revisions of commercial projects. So, if you have residential jobs you don't want, pass them my way. haha

[Chris MacDonald]

Avoid residential at all costs, that's where you find the most competition for the bottom 5% of work.

 

So true.