Is anyone else having a LOT of technical issues/problems freelancing as a 3D Artist compared to 2D?

HardHennesy

Hey Guys.

Before anything- I am not complaining or ranting.  I want to open up my personal experiences in working with 3D Freelance work and I want to ask how people have dealt/gone through it.

This has been a general observation with 3D contract work I get to do and I want to know how people have manged to solve it.

Most of the time, when I am under a contract for 3D work, the odds of feeling like things are a bit messy/unorganized can be a bit stressful and difficult to manage. Specifically, when you are working on a team-based environment and there are multiple 3D Freelance artists working on the same job. I am speaking specifically in Game 3D Freelance Jobs.

1. Different softwares, and sometimes, even with the same software, different versions. This has always been a struggle. zBrush files as ZTLs aren't backwards compatible. This happened on 1 project. The fix was to have the guy with the highest version of zBrush save as lower version ZTLs. And sure. transferring .obj files are not a problem- but when an object is rigged and has to be transferred between different artists who use different softwares, if the bone files aren't compatible with one program to another, that will definitely cost problems. (Or maybe I just never had a technical director to tell me otherwise.) An example situation would be a set of .fbx models animated in 3ds max using a biped rig but passed to an animator that mainly uses Maya. 
2. Object Scales being different in every project. Again- not a big deal- but there has been a moment or two where one artist would pass a model and it would become over-scaled or severely underscaled in 3Ds Max.
3. Having inconsistent pipelines. In my experience, when we render out textures (normals, etc), sometimes, people use different softwares and stuff. It can be messy.
4. Another thing that I also found a bit weird was different teams had very different dynamics. Sometimes, you have 1 guy who does all the textures. While sometimes, you have 1 guy who does an entire model. It feels like a shock every time I get into a new project.

I understand that if we were an in-house studio with a team in the same building- or have worked for an amount of time, then these can be solved by nearly coming up to someone and letting them know how it goes- but doing it in freelance work, where they occasionally need art contractors to work on the project for a month-2 months or 6 months feels a bit hectic and confusing.

It's also a bit difficult when your contractor doesn't have a 3D Art Background himself- and sometimes, the 3D team doesn't really have a designated technical director who sets out rigid standards (which I think is important so things are consistent.)

Anyways- to the more experienced freelancers who have gotten 3D Art,

How have you guys dealt with this? Do you guys turn down projects that feel like they're unorganized/messy?

I want to know because I personally really want to get into more 3D work for my freelance- but bumping into tedious technical issues in every new team/situation has been discouraging. 2D is pretty straightforward- and most of the time, we're submitting very straightforward files.

ned_poreyra

I have nothing but technical issues in this job. That's what this job is.

HardHennesy said:

Anyways- to the more experienced freelancers who have gotten 3D Art,

Not just freelance, it's the whole 3D industry. New company = new pipeline, new programs, new requirements. If you want to "feel safe", you have to basically know all the software and how do they export/import to each other: Maya, Max, Blender, Substance Painter, Designer, Marvelous Designer, Zbrush, sometimes Quixel, Mari, Houdini, Fusion 360, Moi3D, World Machine, not to mention some very job-specific plugins like Forest Pack or Krakatoa... So, yes, compared to 2D, this industry is simply insane. The best you can really do is get really, really specialized, like - do only fur characters, or only foliage, or only medieval environments etc. This way you're limiting the software you have to be proficient in (but you're also limiting your market - it's a trade-off).

Really the only 3D job devoid of the problems you described is selling models/textures/materials/tutorials/whatever on Unity/Unreal store, Turbosquid, Artstation, Gumroad and such. But that has its own fair share of challenges.

2D is 80% soft skills, 20% software skills - 3D has this proportions reversed. I'd throw an empty vodka bottle at every idiot who says that "it's not about software, it's about your skills". Software is your skills here.

HardHennesy

ned_poreyra said:

I have nothing but technical issues in this job. That's what this job is.

HardHennesy said:

Anyways- to the more experienced freelancers who have gotten 3D Art,

Not just freelance, it's the whole 3D industry. New company = new pipeline, new programs, new requirements. If you want to "feel safe", you have to basically know all the software and how do they export/import to each other: Maya, Max, Blender, Substance Painter, Designer, Marvelous Designer, Zbrush, sometimes Quixel, Mari, Houdini, Fusion 360, Moi3D, World Machine, not to mention some very job-specific plugins like Forest Pack or Krakatoa... So, yes, compared to 2D, this industry is simply insane. The best you can really do is get really, really specialized, like - do only fur characters, or only foliage, or only medieval environments etc. This way you're limiting the software you have to be proficient in (but you're also limiting your market - it's a trade-off).

Really the only 3D job devoid of the problems you described is selling models/textures/materials/tutorials/whatever on Unity/Unreal store, Turbosquid, Artstation, Gumroad and such. But that has its own fair share of challenges.

2D is 80% soft skills, 20% software skills - 3D has this proportions reversed. I'd throw an empty vodka bottle at every idiot who says that "it's not about software, it's about your skills". Software is your skills here.

THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING.

I felt like I was either really just bad luck or was simply getting the wrong jobs.
I appreciate it a lot. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yea, I'd agree the 3D pipeline issues are to be expected, especially relative to 2D work.  It's tedious, but shouldn't be a surprise hopefully/eventually.  Times I've freelanced, I would either have to go out of my way tov erify how they want the deliverables and have that in writing, or get instructions already as how to organize and name things.