jccloutier

i'm sitting here watching this show "hidden potential" on HGTV and the ashton kucher type host/designer kid is showing the makeover couple a texture baked vray VRML of what their makeover will look like. every room. and they're VERY good.

If some low budget cable show that has new episodes every week has this in place this profession has just jumped the shark.

is there any profession that is safe from oversaturation?

Fran

Quitting the profession would not be my first reaction to seeing VRML on TV.

Consider yourself cream, and you will rise to the top.

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- Fran
If you must reinvent the wheel, remember that it works best if it is, like, roundish.

mahorela

not really sure what to make of this thread......this industry has been growing steadily for many years now and on Aussie TV there have been backyard and home makeover shows utilising cg to show the end result for years now....some of their work I have very much admired. I don't see this as a negative though I quite like the idea of doing that kind of work one day and I think it just provides another income stream for the industry albeit a very specialised one.

Of course these days alot of people want a piece of the pie but if you love the work and your work reflects that I think there is nothing but opportunity in this industry.

Ernest Burden

Rodeo clown


You know, I have a damned story for everything, if not a story of mine, then a Ray Bradbury story. But this one is mine.

Growing up I was happy being the kid who could draw, it made me special. When it came time to go to high school, I took the tests for New York City's special art schools. You had to prepare a portfolio, have an interview and do art 'live'. I got in. But then I found myself in a school with 4000 other kids who also could draw, and most of them better than me. What a shock! I wasn't special anymore. I wasn't the best and there was no way i was going to be best. So I had to learn to be the best I could be and try to not worry about the competition. Anyway, 'the best' cannot take every commission, there's usually something for the rest to do to make a living in art.

And so it was with digital rendering. I've been 'digital' for 19 years. But it wasn't until a few years ago that I decided to make my work officially digital. It took that long for me to find a way to do digital that was my own. I cannot be the best at digital rendering, but I have managed to be a little unique. So I'm happy with that.

I assume you are kidding about your post.

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Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

jccloutier

don't get me wrong, i'm not knocking the shows' worth or value. i watch every one of those programs and i just notice the exponential increase in CG integration and quality - almost overnight. until two months ago they all used a tablet and scribbled like john madden on the existing image, then i saw one program use sketchup and now they have king kong quality cg on a cable show that has a 500 per show budget.

call me old fashioned but i guess i'm defensively reacting the same way our parents did when "robots and computers" were taking their factory jobs away. there is so little work available out there not many of us will survive oversaturation.

jccloutier

no, not at all.

you hit the nail on the head with your anecdote. i grew up the same way and openly admit it's 100% narcissism. i think it's a common trait with all designers.

Sawyer

Holy Crap over saturation and robot overlords!
No offense but if a "setback" like seeing a professional software bieng used for a professional purpose makes you want to throw in the towel and walk off to a newer trendier venture then... well do it.

Sure chances are our jobs will look really different in 5 or 10 years. Software changes markets change and we will change. I bet none of us could survive in a future job market if we were magically transported into the future. We couldn't compete with the skills we have. But most of us wont take the time machine into the future we will walk there slowly one day a time and we will change with the environment. Most (most not all) of us are pretty sharp some of the people here are even smart. I have met them some of them and believe or not I bet they can adapt. Some of the people here are really witty and write really funny things in forums - that might be the most important skill in the future I don't know.

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And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?

Andrew Schroeder

Well, I look at it this way: With oversaturation comes a natural culling effect. If you leave the profession, you've been culled by it. It can literally only hold so many, and with technology that number isn't increasing like it was in it's heyday. So, take a walk if you want, that's one less person who will have to give it up themselves. If you stay and fight, the saturation will hit it's limit and the rest (and the lower people on the tiers) will likely head off to greener pastures (soon replaced by others, mind you); leaving it none-too-lucrative, but at least livable as a professional in the industry.

That's my 2cents anyways.

Ky Lane

Allow me to sound pseudo intellectual if just for a moment...

Its all a case of Marxist theory of dialectic materialism (go google it!). Fads always come and go.

I got into 'the web' as a profession straight out of highschool in the early 90's when every dodgey mc****er was out there raping the market for every single last buck they could score - then came the web crash - Ive stuck with it and now Im doing well. As the industry has matured, its become easier for the market to know who's good and who's not.

Just stick it out.

manta

The Catholic Priesthood seems to be emptying out a bit...

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DESIGN FORWARD
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