Question for you talented artists
Hi. Im a student learning 3d animation and modeling. Im sort of looking for any experiences you guys have had and if the job is truly worth it in your opinion. I love 3d and i would love even more to have it as my career, but i also want to be able to support a family and or live a comfortable life. Has life for 3d artist got any better in the year 2015?
Replies
There has been worrying talk about competition getting worse. Like for every junior position there is about 20-30 people applying. People sending work to Chinese who will work 16 hours a day and not charge that much because their standard of living is low. More and more university churning out 3d artist.
But, if you think about it, would you be able to work 8 hours a day and go home to wife and kids and make a decent living. How would that be possible if the guy next to you will work 11 hours a day, then his work will be better than yours, so then you would have to work 15 hours a day just to better than him. So its an arms race.
How good your work is, is not directly related to how much time you spend on it. In a working day it's far more important how skilled you are, how smart you work and as you get more experienced, you become faster anyway. As an artist, working long hours diminishes your ability to create optimal work.
Different artists work at different speeds as well. Studio management usually understands this.
Yes you can work hard for 8 hours a day and go home to your family. You just need to find a studio that treats it's employees decently. Doing art all day is an awesome job. Better you're happy with what you do all day, go home to your family and be a happy father/mother/husband/wife, than to have a more "lucrative" job and be miserable around your family because of it.
Entry into the jobs market is generally tough everywhere at the moment though, not just the games industry.
Thanks for the response guys. I really love 3d art. And i hope to pursue it. But if it means sacrificing my Social life. I cant let it taking me over. Nothing in life is certain and i know a ton of successful artist. So i think ill go for it. Im not in it for the money by any means. I just want to make a living and possibly own a Home
You can live comfortably on a 3d artist wage. I wouldn't try to get into the industry if you already have a family to support though, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really passionate about creating game art. Considering all the skills you need to master you might be better off looking for a job in some niche industry. I'm sure there's plenty of 3d artists needed outside of the game industry.
The competition for junior art jobs is quite high. I don't know what it's like for senior artists? There's a massive influx of aspiring game artists every year because of all the university courses popping up but the overall quality of graduates is very sub-par, which I think is a big problem. All these people go to uni expecting to get an industry job as soon as they graduate, but how many of them ever actually find a job?
Unless you're lucky enough to be enrolled at one of the better universities you'll either have to have great aptitude or you have to be dedicated and do a lot of work in your own time.
And yeah there is a worrying trend of outsourcing assets to eastern Europe and Asia. But I think (hope) most studios will still prefer in-house artists for important assets.
You can get an impression at glassdoor.com, although you should treat the information with caution.
Usually, you can live quite well with the salary of a 3D Artist. It's particularly excellent, but it's good enough to live decent. Don't get into this career for the money!
Pressure, Crunching and Overtime can be a big aspect, again depending on the studio.
Overall, I would say that if it's your passion, go for it.
I'm definitley not doing it for money. Thank you all for helping me, i dont really give enough credit for amazing this community is.