what skills should I focus on

[Tom Hamelrijckx]

Hi everybody,

Until 10 years ago I was active as a freelancer in the visualization industry, using mostly sketchup, vray and photoshop. I had quite some knowledge with max and finalrender as well. At a certain point I felt like having to redirect what I was doing professionally and by coincidence I left that 3d profile altogether because I got the opportunity to start as a furniture maker, since I also have some woodworking experience. I have been doing that for 10 years now, and although I love doing this, I also realize that I won't be able to doing it forever since it is a physically very demanding job, and I also miss being involved in architecture projects, the way I was when I was a 3d modeler and visualizer.

So I consider focussing on a 3d profile again, and since times have changed I want to inform myself on this forum what skills would be best valued.
Bim interests me a lot, but I have the impression bim modelers only got to do just that. Am I wrong about that?

I would like to know about how diverse the job description of a Bim modeler can be. Do you do visualization as well? Other techniques even, like photogrammetry, or even data analyses with the bim data that can be extracted?
In what kind of offices do you work in that case?

 

Thanks for your thoughts concerning this ...

[Scott Schroeder]

I think it really depends on where you work and what you consider BIM modelers to be. From my experience working at architecture firms, unless you are on the path to become a licensed architect, your role as a BIM modeler would very much be a CAD monkey. You'd be doing bathroom layouts for most of your day and anything cool would be done by the folks on the licensure path.

If you consider Rhino/Grasshopper BIM modeling, then you could expand a bit more as many of those roles may or may not be on the licensed architecture path.

In the end, what you are asking for is a definition for an extremely broad term that can vary from all places of employment. It is kind of like asking to describe a hamburger.

[Tom Hamelrijckx]

Well in the very beginning of my career as a 3d artist I was only working with a very well known architect in my country. I was only modelling (not even bim) and creating renders back then, so doing mostly 'monkey' 3d work like you call it. I didn't mislike that at all, since I consider my skills not so much situated in design but more in supporting techniques. So in that situation I could still work on very high quality projects, not too big in scale, and I wonder if a broader profile could be even more interesting for an small architect firm like that...

[Cody Brannon]

It seems to me that it’s good to sell NFT works now, because now it’s popular and with the right approach, you can secure your whole life in just a couple of months, if you’re lucky. With proper knowledge of marketing, your work will skyrocket in prices, I'm sure!