3D Rendering Business for Architecture

[KaroBastardKiter]

Hello

Being frustrated and unhappy of my current job (I work in a bank) but with the passion for CG graphics and 3D modelling I was considering a career switch and go on my own offering rendering services for architecture and interior design.

Could anyone give me any tips/advices on the current situation/health of such a kind of business / the business model / if it pays a living / the level of competition in the sector, how to start and promote myself etc. etc?

Thank you very much in advance!

[jp_vas]

Hi Karo, I think a rendering service is a good job and you can do a living with it. i dont have big experience with it, but i have earn good money doing this.
i am also considering making a little rendering service enterprice.
even where i live, that is not a big city, there is alwyas peolple needing their projects to be rendered.
also i have found that a lot of people here in my city need their renderings ASAP and lately i have been doing very fast renderings with not much detail and not so photorealistic... some times they dont want to pay too much for and image...
so it depends much on the type of job and clients.
good luck

[[gk]]

go for it if you like it.

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the good money are with mattepainting, not pure renders.
see Vyonyx or some of the french guys...mir etc
You can only reach a certain level if you only knock out renders, if you can transform basic renders into art with a brush you are good to go on the top of the mountain
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Get a network going thats your source. Start knocking down doors, be there, shake hands. Be personal, have attitude, involve yourself.
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You can make 1000 euros pr day easily, you can also make 2000. But dont expect working days to be each monday to friday with weekends off, architects are SHIT at managing, they learn the exact oposit at school.
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You can start light and get a hook to outsource modeling companies and earn a bit less but only have to focus on finalizing, this way you can run many projects in parallel. I started doing that 5 years ago and it rocks.
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And the most important thing................................
We create the demand for the clients, so they submit to us, we do not submit to them.
You will only get problems if you run around like a whiped dog around their wallet, trust me you will have pain if you go down that route.

[telemmaite]

In my country i will be happy if i get 1000 euro per month... not to mention per day. The advices in this thread are very helpful a lot of things to go around and think!

[kubo]

But dont expect working days to be each monday to friday with weekends off, architects are SHIT at managing, they learn the exact oposit at school.

I can assure you that at schools they make the most of it, they carefully teach you how to be a total fuckup at managing time schedules and that everything needs to change till the last minute...having your work on time is so "uncool".... so go figure... I agree if you ever work for architects giving them a clear and unmovable schedule is a must, if you accept their constant changes your quality and your personal life will resent, and at the end they will be dissatisfied with your work (another thing they teach us is always being dissatisfied ) and another must is always, always ask for a color pattern or photo referenced of the materials they want, otherwise they'll tell you they want "light weed green" and I assure you it would have nothing to do with the color you've choosen. Also many have no idea of the influence of light on real materials or color, they aim for the "idea" but have no grasp on reality, so if they want something red, have fun figuring out how red they want it to be.... we are a screwed up bunch, so thread carefully, you never know when we might explode and kill our neighbors, muhahahhaa.

[KaroBastardKiter]

Thank you all very much for the replies, this is very precious advice for who's in the business already!

I'll keep on thinking about it and perhaps make the 'big step' sooner or later!

[patryn]

as an engineer , i worked and hired Architect .
At the end my conclusion is the following :
- never trust an architect about planinng and cost .

And it's a shame in my opinion . i don't get how they manage priority . i had sort of "saved" a project when i decided to do the planning myself and forced the architect to report each days of what he is doing and what construction team is doing . i forced him to give a tasklist for each construction team in all field ( concrete, mechanical, steel, etc )each begining week and to make a debrief at the endweek who must be consistent whith the each day report . And at each mark of his report, if there is a gain of time specify why and when a retard occurs i forced him to define all the impact for all the task of the next tasklist for the next week . when he asked me : " i'm architect not a reporter", i reply to him " so do your job " .

the building had 9 month of retard , he was delivered with 1 month of retart at the end .

just because the architect don't want to spend time on field .

[mbetke]

It will be a long way until you get 1000 € a day or even 2000. This is a totally wrong impression that everyone doing 3d rendering can be reach in a short time.
Take a look atthe linkedin groups and you see people are suffering from archiviz from china or general recession.

I make myself a good living out of 3D with regular projects but I don't get 1000€ a day. Maybe I do something wrong but even if I look at charges of other companies here in Germany you will get around 800-1600€ (even have seen startings from 300€) for a complete indoor project. If you only need two days for a scene with two or three renderings you get not to 1000€ a day.

For 1000 you would need to finish one small project every day so its likely you will need collegues which splits up the profit again. Plus you have expenses....

So I dont know where you get 1000€ a day.

[SurfingAlien]

For 1000 you would need to finish one small project every day so its likely you will need collegues which splits up the profit again. Plus you have expenses....

not to mention you should have one client hiring you for a small project you can do in one day (from modeling to post-pro) every single day...

I don't doubt [gk] is speaking from experience and some very good (both talented and proficient) archvizers can earn big money, specially if they're so good some clients want to hire them, no matter how much they charge. I don't think it can be a normal condition for a single freelancer joining the market though, not here and not now at least...

on the other hand, I totally agree with [gk]'s last thing, and I guess it's valid for any freelance job. Archvizers have Architects, Architects have Clients, and so on... (I am an architect doing my own archviz... go figure!)

maybe it would be interesting to see some comparison about visualization service charges in different countries...? (although I understand each project is a one of a kind and it's hard to set a standard job to compare...)

[[gk]]

So I dont know where you get 1000€ a day.

Denmark and you can do this elsewhere as well ofcourse.

I worked in a arch company ( 3rd largest in denmark for some years before I started my own joint )
EVERYONE had over 100 euros on invoice pr hour on pr hour cases...its just a standard/ the norm here, as in nothing out of the ordinary. Architects,engineers, vis,DTP whatever.
It depends on where your clients live,how good you are, how good your team is and how good you are at dealing with prices.
Ive done €2000 jobs in 3 hours. Those jobs doesnt hang on the trees but they exsist.
Do note that Animations often pay better ( way better ) than stills if you look at hours used.

Ive done animations that took from monday to friday to complete including rendering in the €10-12000 range, not very nice or complex, but I was there when they needed it and I droped everything in my hands and that also is an argument for price. again clients have to submit to us, we are not whores who sell our time for lowest bidding.
I dont give a F*** who clients basicly think they are if they are cocky. Im happy if I land a job ofcourse, but Im perfectly capable of saying NO as well.

And yes, by all means, I was posting the numbers as something as a motivator to look forward to, not something you can expect to do from day one. And you cant expect to do day after day after day with invoice material, but when you do, make sure you get whats yours!

On that note!

A company rang this morning and woke me up, They need 2 tv commercials, 1*30 second and 1*60 second. Actors and Camera projection galore. We start filming plates in 14 days.
The dude got my phone number from a former coleague, thats how it can go from the real life.
I know Ive been fortunate, Ive never had to contact any clients ever ( honest to god ) they call me always. And its because I know just about the right people I need to know.


Also, I read on CG society a good long "getting started" guide from a user some time back. I read it for pleasure. He mentioned that a pro always says a job takes 8 hours and delivers it in 6 and a newb says it takes 8 hours and delivers after 12. true, so true

However it has to fuckup a whole lot on that account if you are going to lose a client, so a miss here and there is not fatal.

Real life example:
I made this animation for IKEA in NO time for an arch company last year. fine. So a friend who had a shop in indonesia I used to shop models and base renders at stoped and fired eveyone because it just didnt work out, too many problems beeing that far away from the jobs etc. Anyways, this dude had same company as client, they shoped vis at his. So the arch company wrote and asked for more vis and he said he had stoped but that I could do em. He wrote that he didnt like me personally because I was too independant and had too many ideas overruling theirs ( on the animation project ) So we actually STARTED our vis relation with a little fight. Listen, its politics, politicians yell at eachother but eats lunch each day side by side chatting. The arch company is one of my bigger "base" clients, you know those who just keep comming with jobs either yourself or your proeduction produces. So what Im trying to say, be yourself, dont be a suckup and dont avoid fights just because you are afraid of losing the clients. What this turned out for me was that this archcompany respects me and my points and he knows I cant be fucked around with, but he also knows everything glides perfectly on all projects, we deliver on time and on price, always.