Though I am still new to 3D, I have been thinking about trying to get some paid work, if for no other reason than to upgrade my hardware and software. My inquiry to those who work professionally: How did you get started? Did you pick someone, and offered your services? Did you post some pictures and let offers come to you? I think you get the gest of what I'm trying to ask. Any advice would be welcome. Also, did anyone come up with a solution to that piston animation problem I posted a week or so back?

Hi Chris, Sorry that I haven't gotten back on the piston thing. Haven't had the time to play with that yet. I do more stills then IK animation so I'll have to spend a little time. I'm sure that you'll find no two paths are the same to professional 3D and illustration. I started 15 years ago as an airbrush artist. Because of a couple of specific clients I force fed myself techincal illustration skills. About that time computers were becoming viable illustration tools so I migrated to them. 3D tools are a natural for techincial work so I jumped in with RayDream 3. Most early business came from referrals and relentless networking. Then when the bucks started slowly coming in I started advertising in national illustration directories like American Showcase, Workbook and Black Book. I found that I could sell more illustration if I also controlled the design of the jobs that they went into. Consequently, I started doing more and more design work to feed my illustration habit :) The networking/referral aspect is still a large part of marketing though. Basically, I think that if you want to succeed in a illustrator/animator field, you have to have some kind of dysfunctional need to produce imagery. That way you'll put up with all the garbage it takes to produce 3 seconds of glory. Good luck, Mark

"Dysfunctional need to produce imagery." I guess that's as good a way to put it as any. I have been in love with the moving image since I was 12 years old. It was the only medium I could find that would allow me to tell stories, do photography (cinematography or videography, actually), write music, build models, all that. Technology has come a long way since the early '70's, and the advent of affordable 3D software and reliable computers to run that software on made me finally jump into the arena. My day job is video production for a couple different state agencies. Every possible chance I get, I work 3D into the mix. I don't get any extra pay for building a 3D logo or a 3D set for an instructional video, but I do get the experience. Now that I have a bit of a reel, I'm able to send it out to non-public-entity production houses in Arizona. I've pulled in a fair number of paying gigs; logos, sfx for short films, that sort of thing. As Mark said, it's a lot of networking, referral and active marketing. I've always felt strange about blowing my own horn, but it's something I have to do if I'm going to get any work away from the day job. It's really great, though, when someone calls me and says, "hey, I saw that title-sequence you did for so-and-so's movie, and I was wondering what it would take to get you to do something like that for mine...." It doesn't happen over night, but if you plug away at it, you can certainly start to bring in some jobs. Build up a good demo reel or portfolio (or both, if you're interested in both animation and print work). Do some pro-bono work for a non-profit agency. Do some no-budget or low-budget work for somebody's direct-to-internet movie. Make some killer images for your buddy's next rave. Do whatever it takes to get your images published, broadcast or projected. Having some "real" work under your belt will go a long way toward getting you more "real" work. And those three seconds of glory are worth all the work. Good luck! - Chip

Hi Chris, I agree with Mark that no two stories will be the same.. I'll be glad to share mine with you as well. Im currently 37 and have been in the computer industry for 20 years. I started programming professionaly as a senior in high school. I've been a musician since the age of 12. I have a need for high tech as well as creativity in my life. I decided that digital art was a wonderful way to bring these 2 together for me. I started doing digital art about 7 years ago. My first gig was for a friend. He is a programmer and needed a "Splash Screen" for his program. I did a still image to his specs and he freaked out. That gave me a lot of confidence. I started my own company, Hawkin-Z GraF-X, and will do pretty much anything I can as far as art and music. I pimp myself out as much as I can. I havent found a way to make this my main income, yet! Im currently a Senior NT Systems Admin but would love to get out of the 9-5 grind world and work for myself. You can make a CDROM with still images, some animations and maybe some HTML pages to guide the potential client through some of your work on the CD-ROM. Get a decent web page up on the net advertising your services. Sit down and figure out how much you need or want to charge for specific types of work. Draft up a list of what type of work you might be interested in doing... Still images, Web icons/logos, animations, modeling, banners, print items..etc... Another thing that you can do is sell your still images in small art galleries. ;) Do some cool images, print them (high quality of course), frame/mat them then give them to a small art gallery on consignment. Works pretty well. I know I kinda rambled along, sorry about that. Also - Go to some other commercial/professioanl artists sites and see if they have any prices posted. That will give you some idea on price setting. Just a few ideas. If you have more questions...Please post away! Good luck and keep us updated. Regards, Clint

Thanks for answering. I am really into still art more than animation, with most of my time now working on how to learn how to model somewhat accurately. I haven't even begun to try to work on texturing or scene composition. The piston thing was just something I thought would be cool to know later on. I don't work very fast, and that is a concern, but I am intrigued by the possibility that I might be able to earn money doing something I enjoy, plus the fact that I have a low paying job that I'm not crazy about:). I have a couple of finished items and I may post them for comment.