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Career advice

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#1

Hi all, my names matthew and i coming to the end of my 3rd year of a Multimedia Technology BSC. Unfortunatly the course wasnt as 3D orientated a sit first let on, with me only getting a 12 week crash course in 3D Max. Im glad im doing it though because its allowed my to find my true passion in life (3d, im sure you all feel the same). I was just wondering if it would be possible to get a little advice from you guys as im wondering what i should do next to aid in getting a career in 3d. Iv been reading a few books such as the Ballistic character modelling series (amazing!), they seem to suggest an art backround in character drawing or sculpture is extreamly usefull. My dilemer is should i

a) Do another course/degree in art or sculpture?
b) Should i do a course entirely based on 3d?
c) Or should i get a part time job, and work my arse of trying to create a portfolio?

im 21 and living in leeds if that makes any differance. Any tips would be great, sorry for the long post and thanks for your time.

#2

24 views and not one comment, lol,

#3

There is no career in 3D. You can have a career being an artist applying aspects of 3D. You can be an engineer applying your technology knowledge in 3D, or you can be a skilled animator and apply your knowledge in 3D, or be a sculptor… and so on… In short… 3D is nothing you can earn a living with unless you are possessing a foundation of some sort. Operating a 3D package can be learned by anyone able to start Firefox. Getting great results usually depends on a secondary level of education and… TALENT. And… networking… You have to go out, publish cool stuff, go to meetings, go to manufacturers demo’s, publish great work on forums, crawl all over the place and look for internships. Nobody is interested in you as long as you cannot present yourself in a pretty amazing way. Till then, you have to arrange for yourself. Run into walls, accept humiliation, learn from it and focus on your goal, advance. Btw… what was your goal again? :wink:
Cheers
Rainer

#4

Cheers for your reply. I intend on becoming a 3D modeler, i’m not so keen on becoming an animator, although i do want to learn it. I don’t have problems with it being in either the Motion Picture or the games industry’s. So as you say its about being an artist that can apply their knowledge of 3D to a foundation. Thats making me think the best approach would be to begin an art course and learning the fundamentals of form, color etc and in turn applying them to my knowledge of 3D (Which will be done in my spare time). whilst doing this ever expanding me portfolio, when i have some work of a descent standard begin trying to get it noticed etc.

thanks

#5

Don’t discount advertising… So Games and Movies are not all. A lot of traditional media is discovering 3D as medium. So, also check out Architectural Visualization and WWW supplying Design houses. Not the ones with the Web Page Design #3459847589475, but the ones which have industrial clients. Search and you will find. And push hard, no time to waste, and if you feel you can’t see a single polygon anymore without throwing up, then you are about to make it. If it becomes an everyday pain, do something else… Life’s to short to suffer from anything!
Best of luck, peace and happiness!
Rainer

#6

I tend to think that you should either limit the amount of traditional classes you’re taking, or find a more 3D-oriented curriculum. Learning form and value and all this stuff is certainly an important aspect of working as a 3d artist, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be so bogged down in 2D coursework that I had learned practically nothing about working in 3D and had to spent the time to learn all of that after completing the course. There are many animation courses out there, and they will all have a different amount of time spent working in 3d, but I say if that’s what you want to do, why not find something that has at least a good degree of focus in that direction?