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I spent a year or so seeking similar work, in non-gaming applications. This was up until about 10 months ago. My experience in the area was limited and my portf

by gt_ 9y ago

I spent a year or so seeking similar work, in non-gaming applications. This was up until about 10 months ago. My experience in the area was limited and my portfolio is mostly film work and a few small personal 3D projects. I could do CGI work in 3ds Max and light dev/coding in Unity and had worked out the basic VR pipeline because I was lucky enough to get an early Vive dev kit. I didn't have a problem finding people who needed help and had money to pay me, but these people had ideas which I had a hard time believing in. The projects had obvious flaws but I joined one anyhow. I left shortly after because it felt like a scam. Next, I developed an art installation for a high end art gallery. I loved working on this job but they could not afford to pay me well enough. I have been offered some work doing game-related things since but I just have very little interest in gaming. I don't game myself and don't quite grasp the value in it. My interest in these things has to do with my intrigue with media concepts and engineering possibilities. There are others like me and it seems the best place for us is in enterprise applications. Sorry I can't help more.

ptrott2017 9y ago
Having built VR/AR applications for a long time, I have seen a lot of folks struggle to get into the industry and it does take time and a lot of perseverance. The most successful common route I have done and seen others do, are based on strength of portfolio examples: For media agencies you will usually need two examples of a product configurator e.g car you can change colors, materials etc and a basic game example is a bonus. For training organisations you will need a basic part task trainer e.g. dissassemble/assembly a complex part or piece of equipment and step through each part task For engineering design viz - start with a complex piece of CAD data, optimize it and show in both desktop and VR - and had a good demo quirk - such as interactive annotations or highlighting sequences etc and be prepared to be able to talk through the how you made it steps at each point (especially the optimization from CAD stage) For architectural viz - a real time walk through showing off lighting and shader capabilities and interactive walk through where you click on things to get more info. For data visualization - obviously a data visualization example doing this well is harder than it first appears but see http://bit.ly/2yb5ZvC http://bit.ly/2yb5ZvC for inspiration. Build which ever example of the above is closest to the type of work you want to do, then create a portfolio website showing off your examples so you can send prospects a link to see a video of your work. Then use linkedin and google to find your target companies in the area you want to work. For example look for - Marketing - Media director / producer in a media agency, also do a search for '3D, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality solutions for businesses' that will find a lot of the specialized contractors Training Organisation - Head of training in a defense contractors/equipment manufacturers / industrial training organisations Engineering Design - Design Visualization Manager in product manufacturer of your choice e.g. Automotive, Aerospace, industrial equipment etc. Arch Viz - specialist architectural Viz firms or very big architecture firms (who have arch viz in house) Data Viz - do a linkedin and google search for Interactive data visualization exhibits - it will find a good cross section of those working in this area Then its like any sales - cold contact and its a numbers game till you get interest. Last but not least a number of agencies use places like UpWork and remoteok to find contractors. A couple of such projects done at a lower cost can help you get experience when you start out and can help make a resume and portfolio standout as you go for bigger gigs. Good luck!
- gt_ 9y ago
  These are some excellent suggestions! I just went back to doing freelance CGI but reading this post got me thinking. Thank you!
- ccdev 9y ago
  Great post. This is a good breakdown of different niches that I can at least follow as templates for finding related work. I occasionally run into developers at meetup events who are involved in graphics or data viz and discuss our work. This is how I more commonly get attention from my 3D work, moreso than cold-applying to jobs online. One of them I met first from seeing his demo work on YouTube and he was equally impressed with mine. He worked in medical imaging technology in his last job and referred me to it, but the company had a change of hiring plans last minute. For now I say I'm more interested in media agency work. I was brought in for an interview at a small agency that does a mix of animation, VR, motion graphics and web development. They liked my portfolio. But budget issues arose and the hiring was put on hold indefinitely. So it's just a streak of bad luck I guess. Clearly some people are interested in my work and I just need to find my good luck streak.

by gt_ 9y ago

ptrott2017 9y ago

Having built VR/AR applications for a long time, I have seen a lot of folks struggle to get into the industry and it does take time and a lot of perseverance. The most successful common route I have done and seen others do, are based on strength of portfolio examples: For media agencies you will usually need two examples of a product configurator e.g car you can change colors, materials etc and a basic game example is a bonus. For training organisations you will need a basic part task trainer e.g. dissassemble/assembly a complex part or piece of equipment and step through each part task For engineering design viz - start with a complex piece of CAD data, optimize it and show in both desktop and VR - and had a good demo quirk - such as interactive annotations or highlighting sequences etc and be prepared to be able to talk through the how you made it steps at each point (especially the optimization from CAD stage) For architectural viz - a real time walk through showing off lighting and shader capabilities and interactive walk through where you click on things to get more info. For data visualization - obviously a data visualization example doing this well is harder than it first appears but see http://bit.ly/2yb5ZvC http://bit.ly/2yb5ZvC for inspiration. Build which ever example of the above is closest to the type of work you want to do, then create a portfolio website showing off your examples so you can send prospects a link to see a video of your work. Then use linkedin and google to find your target companies in the area you want to work. For example look for - Marketing - Media director / producer in a media agency, also do a search for '3D, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality solutions for businesses' that will find a lot of the specialized contractors Training Organisation - Head of training in a defense contractors/equipment manufacturers / industrial training organisations Engineering Design - Design Visualization Manager in product manufacturer of your choice e.g. Automotive, Aerospace, industrial equipment etc. Arch Viz - specialist architectural Viz firms or very big architecture firms (who have arch viz in house) Data Viz - do a linkedin and google search for Interactive data visualization exhibits - it will find a good cross section of those working in this area Then its like any sales - cold contact and its a numbers game till you get interest. Last but not least a number of agencies use places like UpWork and remoteok to find contractors. A couple of such projects done at a lower cost can help you get experience when you start out and can help make a resume and portfolio standout as you go for bigger gigs. Good luck!

gt_ 9y ago
These are some excellent suggestions! I just went back to doing freelance CGI but reading this post got me thinking. Thank you!
ccdev 9y ago
Great post. This is a good breakdown of different niches that I can at least follow as templates for finding related work. I occasionally run into developers at meetup events who are involved in graphics or data viz and discuss our work. This is how I more commonly get attention from my 3D work, moreso than cold-applying to jobs online. One of them I met first from seeing his demo work on YouTube and he was equally impressed with mine. He worked in medical imaging technology in his last job and referred me to it, but the company had a change of hiring plans last minute. For now I say I'm more interested in media agency work. I was brought in for an interview at a small agency that does a mix of animation, VR, motion graphics and web development. They liked my portfolio. But budget issues arose and the hiring was put on hold indefinitely. So it's just a streak of bad luck I guess. Clearly some people are interested in my work and I just need to find my good luck streak.