Career Information about 3d Artists

[cruiser1338]

I absolutely love 3d stuff, I've tried Blender, 3DSMax, Maya and Lightwave, and I'm fascinated by it all. I'm just considering it for a career right now, and I'm looking for a perspective from someone who does this for a living.

I'm looking to know:

1) What your day is like?
2) What's it like with deadlines?
3) What qualifications do you have/recommend?
4) What is your salary (optional, but just round it off or whatever if you'd like to tell)?
5) What programs do you use?

Either message me or post here if you would like and have the time. Thanks in advance!

 

[cruiser1338]

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[remagavon]

There are a LOT of awesome 3d artists without jobs, if you check around forums like (IIRC) cgtalk you'll see project posts by people tha tlook phenominal, and in their sigs they'll have job wanted ads.🙁

 

[EngenZerO]

i took a class at tOSU in there ACAD facility and it was taught by the guy's that made shrek, shrek 2, and madagascar... it was a fun class... i got lucky and was able to get in as a undergrad.

needless to say... its a lot of hard work, i had one buddy who was excellent made his own shorts and character models but kept getting shot down for internships and stuff. it seems to be a pretty demanding gig. i saw alot of the acad grad students were their were there almost 12/7. alot of the equipment the dreamworks guy said they used were maya and custom tools there were also different motion caputre suites they utilized. also i would guess they made ok money, but i couldn't tell by the clothes they were wearing (these were academy award winning peeps). he just said be prepared to put in hours and you have to be very pationate about it.

 

[Specop 007]

You might try shooting an emial to the guy who runs digitalblasphemy. I asked him a few questions once and he seemed nice and helpful enough.

 

[zoiks]

A friend of mine is a 3d artist that works for game companies.
Here is his website.Text

 

[digitalsm]

Im not an animator but I have known several.

It depends which industry you want to work in.Either tv/film or games.

tv/film is hard to get into, but pays better than the game industry.

The game industry you would make $50-60k starting out depending on location. Its easier to get a job in the game industry because there is a high turnover rate.

Both work long hours, although in the game industry they are a tad longer. 12 hours a day isnt uncommon, neither are all nighters.

I highly suggest a B.A. in Fine Arts, most places want people who have a broad range of talents when it comes to the traditional arts.

Most tv/film use XSI or Maya, most game companies use Max or Maya.

 

[bryantp]

Have you looked to your local news/tv agencies?

They will probably have a need for 2d/3d modeling with grpahics and such ... maybe oppurtunity to test waters