Ray

I know a lot of you are freelancers or work for visualization firms, but for those of you who do viz work in-house for architecture firms, please help:

My architectural firm is finally looking into the idea of having a full time visualization specialist or two. However, I need to be able to show them some websites of other firms of comparable size (50 people +/-) that have full time modelers/renderers.

If your work for one such firm, could you please post a link to your company website and also let me know the ratio of total people in the firm to the number that do viz full or part time. The actual software that you use is not an issue. Also, any persuasive arguments that have been used successfully would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Maxer

Well my firm has about 110 people, and I am the only full time Viz person. There are also 4 or 5 people here who know how to use Viz and can pick up the slack when I get to busy. To be honest it would really be nice to have one or two other full time people here which would allow us to really do some nice animation projects. We don't outsource any of our work and I do between 50 to 80 renderings a year plus 20 or more animations. Unfortunately our web site is under construction right now so I can't help you there. Just make sure if your company is going to move to a full time Viz person that they are willing to supply that person with the hardware and software they need, if they don't then I can tell you it isn't worth it.

mbr

While I was at Gensler (Los Angeles) there was one dedicated 3D guy with three fast machines and one server. Many of us did 3D, though, but he was the guru (and got paid for it, too, est. at about 80k 4 years ago). There were about 200 people in that office.

Make sure you get them to invest in the computers and software. It's very frustrating to be expected to do something well and not have the resources.

graphix

I also work as a full time renderer at an office with 50+/- people. However my firm only sees fit to put finished projects on the website. No "on the boards" section.

I do about 15-30 animations , 20-30 ever changing interactive models, and hundreds of renderings. All from simple study ones to full blown 4'x8' construction site renderings.

graphix