Where is the money?

August 13, 2009 2:49 PM

Like a lot of people at the moment I am unemployed and finding the job hunt to be a bit more difficult than usual. I'm a 3d animator, I was thinking about what my options are and hoping metafilter could offer some advice. People often talk of taking a career change to do something more fullfilling, I think I am the opposite, I want to become more employable.

Ive been doing 3d animation for about 8 years, never really had a problem finding a job until these last few months, Ive worked mainly in TV and advertising but Ive also worked on a few big hollywood films. I did a general design degree at university many years ago. I recently moved back to my home town which I think is the main reason for my unemployment. The majority of work for visual effects tends to come from a few hubs in major cities - London, Los Angeles.. Im thinking of settling down and getting married and I dont want to live in these big cities doing contracts month to month any more. Im 27 years old.

My impression from the film and television industries in general is that people are willing to work long hours for low pay because they love it. Ive just been thinking that if that is what peoples attitudes are, maybe these arent the best industries to be in purely from a supply and demand point of view. I've read that the game industry seems to have the same issues.

Here is what I think Im good at-
- I can make things look pretty
- Im fairly creative
- I am good thinking Spatially/geometrically
- I can do a little bit of programming

Ive been thinking about taking some time to build a new portfolio or go back to study, these are the sort of things I have been thinking about. I would love other suggestions.
-Some sort of web-based design. There seems to be more demand for this kind of stuff. Maybe flash?
-architecture - Ive done some architectural vizualization in the past and enjoyed it, there seems to be more opportunities for it locally. I could even go back to Uni and go for the fully fledged architect, but from what I am reading there is not as much money in that as there used to be, is that right?
-CAD type work? There seem to be a lot of jobs for this kind of thing except it seems very specialized, Im not really keen on engineering.
-Should I do something related to business? Perhaps learning how to manage people? I suspect I am probably poor at this which may have held me back before, I feel I can learn anything though, Should I be studying in that area?
-Should I be aiming to be some kind of art director? How do I get there?
-Fuck it and go and study law?

The criteria in which Im trying to judge these options is employability and earning potential, does metafilter have any suggestions if this is what Im chasing?

posted by anonymous to education (5 comments total)

If you change your mind about location, my fiance works at Lucasfilm in San Francisco and can forward your resume internally. He might be willing to chat with you on a peer level about small gig opportunities in the industry if you're a nice person.

animation position at Lucasfilm

MeFiMail if interested.
posted by cior at 3:48 PM on August 13

Can you do character animation? By this I mean, can you animate a character (which could be as simple as a dot) well enough so that when viewed only in silhouette a viewer can discern the emotional state of the character?
posted by bz at 4:32 PM on August 13

What about Vancouver or Toronto? - both have a lot of vfx companies, and aren't as big cities as the ones you mentioned. Vancouver is pretty laid back (I'm a Torontonian, and I found it a bit too sleepy, but I know a lot of people that love it) rumour has it that the pay is better in vancouver too.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 10:36 PM on August 13

i worked at a company that built flash microsites and ads for the entertainment industry, and we had a couple of 3D guys who really expanded our range of possibilities. you might try one of those. there are many in LA.
posted by klanawa at 10:50 PM on August 13

I have a friend who worked in 3d animation, but then moved over to pixel art after he was laid off, and he says that he found the job market there to be much better because there are that many fewer pixel artists relative to the demand. I don't know if this would interest you at all, but it's let him do what he originally got into 3d animation to do: work in visual arts and design games. Now, he did switch before the crash, but it may be something to investigate as there still is a growing demand for cell-phone games, etc. He works in Toronto.
posted by jb at 12:13 PM on August 14