Charles Gaushell

[quote=akzit]

Charles I dont think satelite viz departments of bigger architectural firms are going for the architectural viz market. I would imagine that being such big companies they have more than there share of arch work. I think they are going for a bigger and broader market, sort of lie you are doing going to museum, law and even the "hot" medical bioinformation (seems that it is getting a hot market).
QUOTE]

I hear you. And that is probably true. I guess what I'm really driving at, is this:

1. What type of work do you want to do?
2. How successful are those types of companies in growing and staying busy?

We work for several large architecture firms including HOK and LRK and though they have 3d folks in house, they almost always limit what they do to preliminary studies. So if you are cool with that, then no doubt there are a lot of positions available. I know that others are different - so I'm not saying all, but from what I have been able to gather first hand, many.

If you are looking for more "full service" animations and higher end illustrations I think you will find there are less in-house/tangental firms doing that - again some for sure, but a smaller percentage.

But like Akzit says, it is pretty cool working on your own designs too - like I used to do when practicing architecture. That is how I got started doing this in the late 80s (I guess I'm old)

On the other hand, we end up doing a lot of design work and many times providing design support services as most of our projects start duing early schematics. We rarely have interior information and get to have a lot of fun "winging it".

Hey, as long as you love what you are doing - that is the key. Personally, as much as I miss some aspects of designing a building, there are other things that I get to do now that are much more fun and fulfilling.

Good luck!

CRD

I work for a large architectural firm, RTKL, in Dallas as the only full time 3d person. I do everything from early massing models, to design studies, to a few finished illustrations. Our current philosophy is that I will continue to do 3d work and then train other 3d interested designers how to do their own 3d design studies. So I do most of the projects in the Healtch Sector, some designers do renderings of their own work, or we have one dedicated hand renderer in the office also. Anything above that we farm out to independent firms/freelancers.

RTKL tried to start up their own 3d "sector" based in the LA office about 5 years ago, but it somehow fell apart. So I think now the plan is to keep the 3d part lean and not try to have it get too bloated by attempting too many services to other clients.

My experience at a big firm has been great. There are always interesting projects to work on and they are generally dedicated to keeping on the cutting edge of presentation technology. I've got a new dual whatever computer every 18-24 months and all my software is up to date too. It's true that I don't get to pick which projects I work on, like a freelancer would, but the benefits are great and you don't have to worry about where your next project is coming from.

Colin

werre

I work for Meacham & Apel Architects in Columbus, Ohio. I was hired about six years ago to start a modelling/graphics department within the company (which isn't national but a decent local size of 50+). Myself and another guy do nothing but architectural visualization. I haven't worked on a set of CD's for quite a while.

We don't take work from other firms at this time. Some roadblocks have been removed in order to let that happen in the very near future. Apparently the work is there, or so I've been told.

Anyway, we've been kept busy in those six years. It's not very often where we find ouselves with nothing to do (and end up posting to forums, lol).

Maxer

I work for a large firm in Houston and I'm the only dedicated 3D person in my firm. We have about 120 people working right now and I'm always busy, this week I'm doing 5 different renderings. The only problem with working at a big firm is that you don't get to pick the jobs you work on and unfortunately most of the time your not given the time you need to really do nice renderings. Most of my renderings are done in 3 days or less and on occasion I'll get to do a really nice rendering or animation, but for the most part it's pretty fast work. It's not all bad though I do have the best equipment, and the newest software, along with a pretty large render farm, so there are some perks.

scubasteve02

I am Junior from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. I am started to sway towards strictly 3dviz and animations as a passion of mine. I have to work a co-op this year and I would love to work a 3d modeling job, but it seems that Detroit isn't in favor of have people do viz models for them. I am willing to relocate for the summer if I have to. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Maxer

If I were you I would send out my resume to every architecture firm in the area, your bound to find someplace that could use an intern to help out with Viz projects.

scubasteve02

No, your lucky if you find any job at all in Detroit. I have tried for a month and a half. There was only 4 out of 72 who recieved any summer co-ops so far. I don't think Viz is a question in Detroit.

crazy homeless guy

so freelance for all of these firms who can't afford viz people. ..the certainly want the bling bling renderings. they just don't feel comfortable emplying someone to do so.

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travis schmiesing