Work full time and learn 3D, Anyone managed to pull this off and change careers?

[raz111]

Have few questions:D


I work 40 hours a week now( IT Technician), I got a job few weeks back as I need the cash :/ . Now obviously this is isn't want as my career but gonna have to do for now as I'm no where near good enough as a 3D Artist yet and I know it will take time, but I don't have the luxury of taking few years out and learning 3D all day hence my current job as I need the cash:/ .. But I know now with the my current time table, I may be able to pull off 3-4 hours a night self training 3D. I'd like to be able to change my career to a 3D Artist one day,

Any of you guys work full time doing summit else then learn 3D by evening and have successfully changed careers as a 3D Artist later on?
How many hours a night do you guys spend learning?

Hope all this made sense, please excuse the English:o

[fyborg_1138]

Working full time and studying for a career change is very difficult, akin to working two full-time jobs. I worked two full time jobs for four years straight before the stress and lack of personal down time forced me to quit one of them *twitch* *twitch* (electrical design engineering). I also spent two years (so far) working full time and taking two classes per semester toward a BA in Graphic Design. Once again, it has been the equivalent of two full time jobs and rarely getting more than four hours of sleep per night. There were a number of students in my art classes who also worked full time jobs to earn a living while going to school. They were young, enthusiastic, energetic, idealistic, and could get by on four hours of sleep per night (or less). As I am at the half-century mark, I'm getting too old for that. They also became mediocre students, skipping class, handing in partially completed assignments and generally slipping by with Cs and Ds because they also wanted social lives in addition to their full-time jobs and full course loads.

If you do decide to work full-time and pursue self-education or formal education as a 3D artist, kiss any thought of personal down time or social activities goodbye. A 40hr/week job is rarely only 40hr/week and if you want to be really good at 3D and quickly become an 'expert/professional,' the 3-4 hours per day learning 3D on your own or through formal education will (and should) turn into 6-8 hours per day, 7 days per week if you don't want to drag the process out several years.

If you are really serious about the career change, want to be really good at 3D art, and want to learn it in short order, I would suggest putting in at least 6 hours per night, seven days a week as an immersive experience. Disappear into the subject every night with great intensity and purpose and forget about having any significant social life or free-time for the duration. Otherwise, the learning process will eventually turn into just a hobby as other aspects of your life demand more attention.

I have yet to change careers into professional 3D art. As a realist, I don't think I ever will at my age (until I can retire and devote full time to Lightwave 21). *sigh*

[3D Kiwi]

Well i managed to do it with out to much problems. Had my own business as a mechanic, was getting sick of the trade and decided to get into 3d with lightwave.

The way i went about it was i came up with a short 3d film i wanted to make and made that my learning project, I found that it is better to learn 3d with a goal in mind rather than just doing tutorials etc, Makes you work for it a bit harder.

Took me about 1 year before i landed a job doing medical animations with lightwave. I did have to move from New Zealand to Aussie.

My advice to you is, study 3d as hard as you can after work but also give yourself some time off or you could end up hating it.
Try and discover what aspect of 3d really turns you on, eg Arch Vis, Medial, Charactor etc, and then focus on that and get as good as you can.

Once up to a stage you think you can apply for jobs go for it. You may get turned down from a lot of them but all it takes is one guy to give you a chance and you are in.

Also keep in mind you may have to learn another 3d app as well as lightwave to increase your chances to land a job, but lightwave is great to learn 3d with.

Hope this helps some how and good luck.

[Wickster]

I'm currently trying to achieve this. I work full time as a CAD Illustrator (2D), part time as a freelance graphic designer, go to school full time for a BS in media arts and a full time father to a 16month old baby girl.

It's possible i say, I've burnt myself too many times so it is very hard. My full time job pays enough for us to survive but the company tries every bad trick in the book to undercut the employees. I'll be graduating soon (November) so I'll be looking for "the' job we all want. Though I might be leaving my home town though because ther just isn't many jobs here in San Diego for our industry...maybe move to L.A. or Orange County. It's a tough battle, but we'll survive.

[Truecoz]

I work 40 hours a week now( IT Technician)

SO! :stop: stop your complaining!:D I am a digital artist/animator, and I recently worked over a 100 hours at a studio in one week! I’m not bragging; I’m saying you’ll do whatever it takes to become what it is you want to be!:jam:

I was a 2D animation compositor, and I wanted to be a 3D animator. I didn’t have a computer at home but had access to a computer at my job. Even though they were a mainly a Max house they had Maya and Lightwave. I opted to learn Lightwave because I wanted to work at Foundation Imaging (famous for their effects on Babylon 5). I stayed after work learning Lightwave, half the time sleeping on a sofa there and I would wake up to do my day job.:oye:

Yes it was a struggle, but all if any of the success I’ve had has also required some kind of sacrifice.:grumpy:

Now, I know Lightwave, Maya, Fusion, lots of other software, and I’m teaching myself Houdini (by the way, I wish my work week was only 40 hours so I could learn more Houdini). I did work at Foundation Imaging and I’m currently a freelance Fusion compositor working at a fun studio in the LA area.:rock:

My advice? Do as much 3D as you possibly can! If you really catch the bug, it’ll be hard for you to even take a break from doing the 3D stuff; believe me!:goodluck:

-Chris:yingyang:

[Martin Adams]

This is a very interesting thread and I shall keep my eye on it. I'm currently in the exact same position. I work full time as a software tester, and do freelance work in my spare time doing web development (which has enough work for a full time job), and I'm trying to get good at LightWave and other software. It does feel like mission impossible, but I'd be happy to die trying than to never have tried at all.

My plan to break into the 3D industry is give up my day job, do more hours in my freelance to cover bills (I'm lucky as my brother's company is a major client who could pay my living costs). But my freelance work wouldn't be full time, giving me the extra time to put into 3D.

The best thing I can recommend is to plan your time wisely. You want the maximum return on your efforts. A short film would be good as it gives you a finished result, and you can learn a lot from it. However, if you want to specialise in certain fields (e.g. modelling, animation, etc), then try joining a community project.

[fyborg_1138]

I agree with 3D Kiwi, its necessary to occasionally take a break from working/learning or you'll burn out. I, for example, blew-off work yesterday and spent the day at the Illinois State Fair. Fall Semester classes start on Monday and I wanted to catch my breath and relax a bit before plunging back into the chaos.

Initial excitement and pleasure in working with 3D as a part time job can turn into real pain and frustration as a full time (or more) job working for clients. Their demands and at times, impossible deadlines can potentially remove every ounce of pleasure in your work as the deadline approaches and you're pulling all-nighters just-to-get-the-job-done on time. It's hard to be creative when you haven't had much sleep.

So, as a part-time hobby turns into a full-time career, you should ask yourself whether working 60 hours per week in 3D will make you happy. I'm not trying to discourage you from following your dreams, however, I am a realist and understand that something a person enjoys doing on the side for 3-4 hours per day can become a J*O*B when it demands long hours and sacrifices as a full-time career endeavor.

Yet there are those of us who are more than willing to disappear into the computer for 60 hours per week to create 3D art (and get paid to do it) and could not think of doing anything else. It all depends on how passionate you are about your 3D work.

[IMPERIAL]

You cant count hours while learning...especially 3d.
Just learn as much as you can, sometimes you will learn more in 10 min. then in 2 days...this depands on the approach.. I totaly agree that best way to learn is to start working on project..any idea you have.. knowing the tools and using the tools is totaly different.

I hate working for sallary...so i work for my self...its not secure but its more enjoyable.

[raz111]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I'm very passionate about this, Before my job I was studying at college and also putting in around 12-14 hours a day learning learning 3D. I can sit onfront of the computer all day long, have done full 24 hours now n again.. I have made several short films now, Nothing spectacular. but it helps with my learning process and I can clearly see its getting better each time.

[cresshead]

i was a fork lift truck driver for the ministry of defence for 11 years and was made redundant in 1999 about a year before i bought inspire 3d [lightwave lite] as well as bryce3d and poser...i had a computer to record my songs on and make covers for the tapes mainly but moved more and more into the image creation side rather than music...once i was redundant i bought 3dsmax 2.5 and character studio with some of the cash and set about learning it from book and some tutorial cdroms [a 5 pack of cdroms]...

i got new job as a forklift driver but within 6 months i had moved up from the warehouse into the office as a multimedia designer for the groupp of companies...
i was made redundant from that firm after3 yrs and went freelance for a few months as a 3d artist....then got a job teaching 3d at nottingham college for 2 years before being made redundant yet again!...

i'm now employed as a multimedia designer at a local company creating 3d illustrations for their books as well as some small flash banner work and editing their video dvd's together...was using 3dsmax but now using lw9

all self taught at a time when there was not that much selft learning stuff around other than books really....we have it much simpler nowdays with broadband internet and the HUGE lib of teaching tools to buy from...

so yeah..you can!

[nthused]

Any of you guys work full time doing summit else then learn 3D by evening and have successfully changed careers as a 3D Artist later on?
How many hours a night do you guys spend learning?

Hope all this made sense, please excuse the English:o

I have done just this. Started LW in 1996 with V5.0, slowly learning and doing odd jobs for clients. I worked 50-80 hours per week as a land planner and still took time to work with LW as the work suited me as one with an artist's heart and one who loves things technical.

The thing that really got me going and kept me going was that I picked up those small jobs while learning the software - it paid for all of my software and hardware upgrades - and it forced me to get better with every job.

The number of hours worked varied from 1 hour per night to well over 8 - and then the weekends - less than most people spend with softball or soccer - and far more productive for me.

Don't quit - love the journey - love the work - strive for better and higher achievements.

[prospector]

I saw a tape called 'Freedom'....that was my inspiration, my plan of action, my lifes ambition, my downfall to freetime for personnel things.....

I started when I was a cross country truck driver.
I bought a 600 watt inverter, connected it to my batteries and had 110 volt power, hooked up the Amiga 4000 Video/Toaster and learned while waiting to load and unload. Tho not quite full 3D, I did mount camera on dash and learned how to make cuts, did 3D titling, and made fake videos of commercials, and anything I could think of using the video I had like compositing spaceships into traffic, rotoscoping in Toaster Paint, movie scrolls, anything.
After 3 months I decided to quit driving one day and a week later I was doing weddings,tradeshow videos, new hire company safty videos.
3 years ago I had saved enough to totally quit the video side and go full time 3D, haven't looked for a job since and am working on my own stuff.
So I am home now working about 16 hrs a day on compy, 7 days a week, (every once in a while I take a few days off to go gold mining), working on a movie I am doing.



And as the old saying goes "you'll never get rich working for someone else"
I always feel it's better to get your own buisness going, than to wait for someone to hire you, they also have the power to fire you.
I mean what are the chances you'll work for someone like Disney or ILM ?
You'd have a better chance of hitting the lottery I think.
And tho you only make as much as you put into it and a weekly paycheck is few and far between, and all other stuff is covered by no-one but you, (medical,insurance,taxes, and such), life is much more inriching when you do it yourself.

I would never fire myself :D tho sometimes I would like to :D

I wouldn't go back and change anything.

[cresshead]

sounds good!..i see how searching for gold led to your forum name!:thumbsup:

there's 3d in them there hills!:D

[prospector]

It just warms the cockles of my heart everytime LW goes 'Gold'

:lightwave

[prince]

I'm currently trying to achieve this. I work full time as a CAD Illustrator (2D), part time as a freelance graphic designer, go to school full time for a BS in media arts and a full time father to a 16month old baby girl.


How the heck do you manage all this:eek: So you work during the day, school in the evening i'm guessing? and part time graphic designer and a dad..
wow!

Prince