Any tips for obtaining paid work with Terragen and Cgi?

[Djb3000]

Hi,
I am an art teacher by profession, and an amateur cgi artist using Terragen, Blender and Photoshop.  I feel as though I am gaining in skills and would like to take my Cgi hobby more seriously. Can anybody give me any tips on how my work should be promoted and to whom? I would like to get paid work or commissions using it. Do many people on this site work with Terragen professionally? If so any advice on the direction I should take would be very welcome.

Thank you

[archonforest]

One must for sure is an Internet site with your work and contact info

[Oshyan]

I don't think there are any routes guaranteed to get you work, but if you're just starting out in it, I think being willing to take small stuff, even volunteer at times, can be helpful. Look around the forums here and you'll find a few opportunities for that kind of thing from time to time. The key to making that worthwhile is to *spread the word* as much as you can. In other words if you work on someone's indie film project, tweet about it, post on Facebook, put it on LinkedIn, etc. Speaking of which, if you don't have accounts on the major social media sites like that, get some, and try to start making them active with your experiments, finished works, etc. Also, as Archonforest said, having a website with your portfolio, contact info, etc. is important. But this can even be something on for example CGSociety, which has a whole portfolio system (and jobs board and more). Or it could be your own, simple Wordpress-based site. Or a Flickr or SmugMug or Zenfolio account with pictures and a basic bio.

Basically I think it's just a good idea to put yourself out there as much as you can and to do the work you want to end up in as much as you can, i.e. take jobs, even if they're small, at least at first. Over time you should develop a good sense of what your time and quality of work is worth, and you want to be sure you charge appropriately when you're at a professional level, but for getting started it's reasonable to take lower-paying or even volunteer stuff IMO.

Good luck!

- Oshyan

[TheBadger]

Do you guys think that media sites really work for finding jobs? Not saying they don't, just feel doubtful about it. When I am looking for a job in my field I always send a resume directly to every company in my travel distance. I usually get a few call backs and at least one offer (good or bad).

For freelance work where you can work from home, obviously the location of the client does not matter too much, so facebook/monster/all the other ones makes more sense to me then. But I am curious how many people out there get work from a client finding them VS the artist finding a client.

It seems to me (perhaps wrongly) that there are more art/media workers then jobs. So how often do they need to head-hunt VS. just sit there and wait for job seekers to contact them?

I don't know. Please tell me what you know. I have been very reluctant to do anything with "social media", I doubt its value based on how its most often used by the majority of people I see using it. Youtube has value if you produce content people like, and drawing an audience and earnings will draw out clients. But What about facebook and some of the others mentioned?

Of those of you who freelance in any area of media arts, what percentage of your client base walked in off the super highway, and what presetage did you have to hunt down? I suppose with something as specific as Terragen, then clients may do the head hunting. But even with something like TG I would think most of the work is done by the artist rather than the client where seeking work is concerned.

?

[Oshyan]

Social media can be valuable in at least 2 major ways, one of which I think you may not be accounting for (judging by what you wrote). That is is that once you do apply to a job, the person hiring has to have ways to compare you to other applicants, and depending on what they're looking for (and how thorough they are), they will probably Google you. The more they find there, the better your reputation appears to be, the more widely distributed your work is, then the better you'll look. Got your image selected as "Image of the Day" on a 3D community site? Great! Interview at 3D Art Direct? You're becoming an authority in the field. Etc.

The other major benefit that comes to mind is simply networking, connecting with like-minded people in the same field, or related ones, people who may not be looking for someone now (or who may even be amateurs themselves at the moment), but who later might need your talents, or know someone who does. I don't think anyone should spend crazy amounts of time dedicated to social media in itself, it's more about sharing and talking about what most artists are already doing.

- Oshyan

[TheBadger]

Some good points.

[Djb3000]

Thanks for the advice

[AC5LT43R]

Technically I use TG professionally despite having no prior knowledge of it 4 months ago. How did I get to where I am now? Built a good portfolio and made a good CV then sent it to almost every (good) VFX/CGI studio in every major city in the world.