Considering changing careers to 3D modeling.

[Mike Rod]

Hello all.  Just a few things I am wondering:

1) Is the 3D architect / interior modeler a saturated area? 
2) Is speed and/or quality what matters most (as in your portfolio is king)?
3) Does a certain age group get looked down upon?

TY

[Scott Schroeder]

15 hours ago, Mike Rod said:

Hello all.  Just a few things I am wondering:

1) Is the 3D architect / interior modeler a saturated area? 
2) Is speed and/or quality what matters most (as in your portfolio is king)?
3) Does a certain age group get looked down upon?

TY

1) Yes, it is incredibly saturated. However, there is hope. It is most saturated at the residential arch viz level, and it is beyond bloated at the Scandinavian interior, white/black, empty kitchen, unmade bed, chair in shadow, cabin/tent in the woods level. While some of the artists who do the work mentioned above do it incredibly well, most of what I see when reviewing portfolios for people to hire is 99% the same thing. It is literally hard to tell 10 people apart at times. If you can do commercial interiors, urban exteriors, and other areas then you will set yourself apart from the crowd.

2) Speed is the overall key. You need to maintain quality so you can modify the asset if you need to, but speed rules most everything. This also goes back to portfolio reviews and come to find out that the incredible piece of work took the artist 3 months to do and in those 3 months there were no changes allowed to be made. That simply just isn't reflective of how things work in most places. Most places you have 3-5 days to do a project from start to finish, so you need to be fast.

3) I would like to say there isn't an age bias in this industry, but that is a lie. However, most companies will not even look at age when it comes to hiring. If a company does, they are not a very good company to begin with and you are better off not working for them.

[Mike Rod]

Thank you!

1) I find it interesting how these "modern" homes look bit commercial to me.  Like a borderline office building.  Does it make sense to think if one can do commercial very well, they may also be able to spill those talents into modern home design?

2) Reading your reply made me start thinking: Is putting a completion time next to an image in a portfolio even a thing? 

3) What would you say is the average amount of hours/days/years required to put into learning before you reach the point of making realistic/photographic images?  Sure there are different rates of what people are able to do with their time when learning a new craft.  Some only have a few hours a day.  Some dedicate 8+ hours a day.  I'd like to gauge out how much time I would need before doing anything meaningful with the new material learned.  There are all sorts of levels between what looks like a rough draft/conceptual sketch to a final product, and I feel photographic quality is the end goal.

[Scott Schroeder]

1) Yes, if you can do one aspect of arch viz well then those skills will translate to other areas. Where I work, we do sports architecture. When I'm looking at portfolios to review, I know that almost no one will have sports architecture work in there and that is okay. What does help is that if they have a diversified portfolio. They have a good mix of commercial and residential work. And a good mix within those two areas. If a portfolio is phenomenal but it is all the exterior cabin/tent in the woods shots then I'm hesitant to think that the person can really do work outside of their comfort zone.

2) I wouldn't worry about putting completion time in your portfolio. Some people do, but it is rare. Typically it should come up in the in-person interview so that is when you talk about it. If you have a longer time running piece, just be honest and talk about the learning points you did during that time. If you shave time off your completion times, you'll be exposed to that falsehood very quickly should you get hired.

3) Endless hours. You really do not ever stop learning. Even after 18 years in this industry, I'm still learning new things every day and still trying to improve my quality. As far as how much time to learn, how much time do you have to give? If you can give 1-2 hours a day, then make the most of it. There is no real secret sauce to this. Some may tell you to drop everything fun and devote that time to learning, but I don't always agree with that. You need an escape or else you'll not want to learn either. However, say if you play video games, your balance is 4 hours of games and 1 hour of learning. You may want to re-balance that to 4 hours of learning an 1 hour of games.

[Mike Rod]

I find it funny to think people limit themselves in a portfolio.  I feel that it is only commonsense to show your diversity to increase your potential usefulness.  As in any technical career, never ending learning is most certain.  Software gets updated, new tools are introduced, new methods are developed, etc.  I'm just curious to the typical time needed before your results are customer acceptable.  But from reading a few other threads, some customers are perfectly happy with quicky rough drawings while others want detailed photographic shots at 100+ angles.  Learning wise I can do 1-5 hours a day.  I guess different levels of acceptability are reached with different levels of quality!

[Francisco Penaloza]

On 6/15/2020 at 2:00 PM, Mike Rod said:

Hello all.  Just a few things I am wondering:

1) Is the 3D architect / interior modeler a saturated area? 

I wonder about what you mean 3D modeler. do you mean to modeling actually the buildings and surroundings? or creating assets such, chairs, beds, A/C equipment?

For that question it will depend, how you plan to work, if working for an Architectural Engineering company, it will be very strange that will hire you to just model if you don't have an architectural degree, in that case they will want a drafter/Designer, that is also be able to do renderings.

If you plan to work on an ArchViz studio then they will rather also have someone well rounded in all areas of archviz, and then they can choose if you fit better just modeling or post processing artist.

Creating assets is almost very well cover, thought most of the assets are created for the European market, for USA assets, the quality and quantity is lower. most of the architectural companies rely on BIM libraries, that look very crappy. and then is about the ArhcViz person to make it semi decent depending on the time you have to do the whole project.

Regarding to the question how long it will take you to learn to be competitive, that all depend of your capabilities, there are people who take longer to learn than others.  Besides as @VelvetElvis mentioned, one of the most important things is being effective and efficient, if it take you a week to model a nice chair, that won't work for most studios. I work for an Architectural firm, and I have a few minutes to 'fix' furniture because I have a whole Hospital to render, so the more tricks I know the more efficient my workflow is, and that is all about experience.

I would recommend to learn the basics, Modeling, Shading, Compositing, Color theory, then try with some photo examples. and see how fast it takes you to get a nice image. Photo realism is not everything. If it takes you a month to create an image, then you need to practice more. usually less than a week is an commercial average, even a couple of hours should be the ideal but that depends of the scale of the project and if you have to model everything or start from a given model which is the trend for most companies now.

 

[Mike Rod]

Definitely not only asset building. I used the term 3D modeler because of what it is down at the core.  Creating 3D models in software.  Of course the main difference being architectural visualization is typically first designed by an architect for someone to then create in software from what I currently understand.  Not sure which direction I would take, though.   I see tons of renderings ranging from simple presentations by local home improvement shops to major commercial visualizations.  I am considering entering the world of doing residential/commercial interiors and exteriors.

Modeling or post processing is what I am not sure about.  I understand modelers simply create the base object while renderers add specific details?

I have done somewhat simple modeling with texture wrapping to then import into a game for a small project, but modeling is something I have never truly considered to convert into a career.  I have to say I really enjoyed it, though. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by Mike Rod

[KlarkBlack]

I may not be able to help you much, but I hope it will do you some good. When you decide in which direction to develop further, you will face the dilemma of choosing a company in which you will develop further, perhaps. Or maybe you already have your company that you want to develop, then my information will be useful. engre.co - a good platform for placing your services and not only. In any case, all the best!

[Jinmu Staddon]

Hi Mike,

I would try to think a little bit more holistically about archviz and cgi. I don't think it's fair to say that 3D modeling is what it is down at the core. Technology and the market has developed to the point where someone with very little technical skills can actually produce something realistic looking. Anyone can download a bunch of super nice furniture models from Design Connected or TurboSquid, throw in some IBL, and get the Scandinavian interiors that were referred to above. And this is a good thing! That means we can spend more time making the art good, instead of obsessing over photorealism. When I look at portfolios, what sets people apart to me is their skills as an artist. Do they show solid chops in lighting, composition, color, etc.? Do their images tell a story?

Now I'm not trying to say that our work requires no technical skills. That would be an obvious lie. I spend plenty of time modeling, texturing, etc. And, being fast at your job is a major advantage in almost any field. But, being able to hold the bow properly doesn't automatically make you a good violinist. I think overlooking artistic ability or the artist's unique voice is a big mistake. Automating art is still a ways off.

Those things take time to develop, and I wouldn't expect an entry level applicant to be fully formed there, but don't forget to cultivate those skills along with your technical ones.