Non game-related contract work?

Malekyth

Hey y'all!

I've been interested for awhile in doing some contract work to ease the crushing burden of living in a city where bums and hobos are defined as any person making less than $30,000 a year. Unfortunately, for contractual reasons that many pros will be familiar with, I can't pick up game-related work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for non game-related contract work that involves game-like art? I'm about the least practiced texture artist on these boards, but do modeling and animation every day and would like to put it to use in my off-hours as well. I've been thinking I might be able to whore myself out with work for television commercials and such, but don't have a clue where to look! Are there contract houses or agents that arrange this sorta thing? I'm not coming up with any other ideas, besides.

My apartment is cold and my lifestyle less extravagant than I'm used to. Please suggest.

--Malekyth.

Gmanx

What about Architects or Engineering companies? That kind of outfit might be able to use a good modeller/animator for fly-bys, technical diagrams and such. Texturing wouldn't be such a drawback either - models in that context tend to use photo-sourcing or basic material shaders.

pogonip

Why don't you find a game job that pays better in a cheaper city ? If they are not paying you what your used to making ?

ElysiumGX

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bums and hobos are defined as any person making less than $30,000 a year.

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holy crap!!! I could live like a king with that.

Look for animation studios in your area, not sure if they do contracts tho.

hawken

what fucking country are you in

Scott Ruggels

Sounds like he's living on the West Coast of the United States. It's not San Francisco, because Bums are anyone earning less that $50,000 a year. I earn more than that, and even I feel the pinch.

Scott


Scott

hawken

I work in "new media", occasionally I get to do some fancy things with 3d or with animation. But mostly I'm a slave to flash and html. Marketing has a lot of room for your skills.

All my work comes through agents, so I'd suggest having a look around the internet for some agents. Mostly they want you to come and see them or actually work in thier premises. I guess a lot of TV work is out there, but mostly given to those that can do the whole deal (editing / production) on one PC. A friend of mine gets a lot of mobile phone TV work, which he does in After Effects. Often splicing 3d work he's done or neat photoshop animations and so on.

Only recently have I been given enough lee-way to work remotely, but I guess thats a case of building trust. It may be a different kettle of fish in the States. I've heard that you need to make very tight contracts before working on anything at all, otherwise you'll get fucked over royally. Personally, I've never seen a contract.

Also it's worth noting that your "realtime3d" skills would never really come into use, and people in this industry often make or break on "bells and whistles" that have been slapped together, and often come unstuck if messed about with too much.

If you were in the UK I could suggest a few like: Major Players, Gabrielleskelton and Creative Recruitment. You're besically after the US version of these London agents.

Malekyth

Same, Scott, San Francisco. I've been here four months, have watched my savings dwindle and am still not quite breaking even from month to month. After a fair amount of late night obsessing (usually while staring at my online bank statement), I've decided I definitely want to suck it up and finish the project, but even with this minor psychological victory, it hurts like a toothache.

Funny you should say that, Elysium. I was in Raleigh (about two doors away from the ever-encroaching Cary border) for my last job, and was living large, even while socking away money every month. The Raleigh/Cary area is such a comfortable place in so many ways.

So, agents, sounds good hawken. I guess I need to do some searches and pimp myself to someone who can do the next stage of legwork for me. I'm glad to hear that someone around here makes a living doing the kind of things I'm looking for. It gives me hope!

Thanks for the responses, y'all.

--Malekyth.

Eric Chadwick

Maybe check into game graphics houses like New Pencil (Sausalito last I heard, back in 2001), Mondo Media (where I used to work until 2001, they're near Potrero Hill), there are a few others around. They use outside contractors, though they also may want you to work in-house.

Agent sounds like a smart bet though.

TomDunne

I do exactly what Hawken does, except I've carved out a bigger niche for myself in the 3D department relative to my interactive work. I'm 100% self-employed, and have had gigs with everyone from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital to Victoria's Secret. You gotta make a demo reel, same as with a game studio, and start knocking on doors. In particular, look into some of the following:

*local universities. They'll often want animated scoreboard graphics for football and basketball games. My biz partner and I did work for the Cincinnati Bearcats basketball lineup a year ago - didn't pay great, but awesome visibility and a good reference to get other jobs. That can be a good stepping stone to work with pro sports as well.

*Engineering companies. While it's often more high-end 3D, lots of places need marketing work done for trade show displays, brochures and things of that sort. One company I work for locally is good for as much as $20,000 a year to me over four or five projects, just doing realistic renders and occasional animations of industrial equipment they develop.

*E-learning companies. This one can be a perfect fit for your skillset if you get a bit lucky. E-learning is sort of instructional multimedia, and can include interactive real-time 3D. A good example would be instructional media to show a company's employees how to operate new machinery. Rather than have to devote seat time to inexperienced and perhaps dangerously unaware noobs, a company might have an IRT3D program to let employees 'virtually' run through the system beforehand. There's a surprisingly large market for this, and low-poly graphics for use in Director Shockwave3D, Virtools and similar apps.

*Small businesses with marketable services. Specifically, any entrepreneur that can't justify in-house development nor even afford a cup off coffee with the guys from IDEO. Again, I've worked with hospitals, local retailers, even a flight school to develop instructional content.

In the end, it's a numbers game (like nearly everything in life, it seems), as the more people you contact, the more will offer you work. Instead of just searching for companies who might already want you, turn it around and also start looking for comapnies you feel you could do something for. Lots of freelance gigs come from good salesmanship with clients who didn't even know they could get 3D animation on their website, symposium presentations or whatever else. Burn a hojillion CDs and start dropping them in the mail, with follow-up calls and emails. It's not always an easy life, but it never gets boring. I like to think I'm just one great gig away from being Richard Rosenman, and in this industry... who knows?

killingpeople

EricChadwick, new pencil closed down a while ago.

Eric Chadwick

Hey, great points vermillion. Great to hear so much from a freelancer about how they make it work.

Thanks kp! Boy am I out of the loop.