Currently is it hard to find a 3D related job?

With the increasing popularity of VR and 3d technology, is there a rise in jobs for 3d artist. I am constantly hearing about fierce competition, but does that mean its hard to get a job in the industry (referring to any kind of work using software like blender, not like autocad)?

I am still young and learning, with obviously no CG job experience, but the “there’s a lot of competition” and “studios collapse all the time” is nerve wracking. It makes you feel as if its rarely you’d get a stable job.

It’s not necessarily hard (of course, it ain’t easy, either), but I would urge you to look beyond the entertainment industries. 3D and computer graphics are used all over the place in a lot of different industries.

Harder to find than graphic design jobs,
easier to find than say… I don’t know game design?

Definitely not looking at entertainment only. I am still learning and the forum talks got me a bit scared. And how do 3d printers add themselves in the picture? I would assume models are getting more in demand.

Architects, Engineers, Product designers, TV studio - marketing, Product desings, Research/Education, Movie maker, Artist.
Keep in mind that its better have a goal that goes beyond Blender.

If for example you become a civil Engineer there is a lot more to study, and in the end you probably endup with diffrent 3D design tools.
However knowing Blender wouldnt be bad either (to you it will be one of the many tools then), each 3D application has its own ussage. If your using inventor, for example you might get a good working technical animation, and ready to go CAD - CAM output (and you might work in concrete or steal, instead of the light weight popular 3d printers). … or eventually you might endup leading people on how to build stuff without ever touching a 3d App… , but you be just one the creative forces that puts our cultures forward.

The goal beyond Blender, in other words animator, character design, product and so on, is kinda the problem. I like working with blender but it being such a large software and the ability to do so many different with it makes it very difficult to figure out what will suite a person the best.
I am a person who likes creating stuff and initially when i tried sculpting, it was a lot of fun, but knowing that you have to be PRETTY DAMN GOOD to get inside is very discourging. For now I am trying to learn as much as i can from everything and understand the why and how/ the technical stuff, but somehow i am thinking that might not be the best thing to do.

A slightly philosophical answer is to not focus on the market, but focus on your interests first. And your skills second. If you build your skills based on your strongest interest, the rest will take care of itself. If you try to build your skills based on what you think will be marketable, you may find the market can change or you may find you are doing something you wind up not enjoying.

Basically don’t focus on the things you can not control. Focus on things you can. And the most important thing is to have an amazing portfolio of things that you do real well. If you focus on that, you will wind up being “in the right place at the right time” and things will work out.

There is no one you can predict - for you - what the market will be or how hard or easy it will be for you to get a job in the future. It really comes down to the individual.

So put your head down - so to speak - and work real hard now when you are young to build your skills. Your future will depend on the work you do now. It is really that simple.

Well you have to consider maybe, that there are a lot of people like you; we all here love blender.
Incase your not damn good, i think there is not a big chance to think of Blender as a single ticket to your future job.
In my case and my colegue, we are a programmer and a designer working in industrial development.
If Blender would not exist, we still had our job, but we would use something else. (we also use other 3d software )
For us its just a handy simulation / presentation tool, (and yes its fun), else we would use powerpoint and photo’s or so.

Also nothing that i dont consider my self an Artist in blender, as for 1 i have doubts considering CG as Art (i’m painting artist).
But also even with my real Art that i sell sometimes, its not possible to live from.
Get yourself a good education, you can stick around jobs that create stuff, ranging from marketing to technical stuff.
But there are only a few people who can realy live from Art. And even less who can live soly from Blender.

Also if you think to live from Blender, you should look around about CG stuff that has been made without use of Blender.
Because , thats the playing field, you need to compete against other CG studios. (or if you get experienced work for them).

A good strategy for finding work “with computers in general,” is to “look anywhere else” from where the madding crowds are looking.

For example, computer-programming is stuffed to the gills with “LAMP stackers,” who know how to design a custom made-from-scratch web site in PHP. They’re finding that the world doesn’t need one more. Likewise, in CG, e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y wants to work at Pixar (specifically), and they want to “design Adorable Fuzzy Creatures With Egg-Sized Eyes.”

Think outside the easy and the obvious. Very much, think about what you truly like to do and think that you are truly good at. And, don’t expect that the decision you make “today” will rule the rest of your life. It won’t. The one absolute constant in the computer business (in any and every one of its many manifestations …) is: Change.

My standard advice when anyone asks this question or anything like it. (Especially, should I go to school for CG questions).

Just learn on the side in your free time, get as good at both the computer/tech side and also the art side as you can. And apply for jobs. Different countries have different opportunities and different standards of living/salaries. Have a really good Plan A (aka not CG). Like if you are going to spend money to go to school, your plan A would be better if it were for a Mathematics degree. You can practice CG/Game design on the side and pick up computer programming pretty easily, combine that with the Maths degree and all of a sudden you can program your own custom CG Art tools. Etc…

If you are good enough now, just apply for jobs, see what you can get. If you aren’t good enough right now, don’t stop, keep on with your practice, but spend some of your time focusing on a stable Plan A even if that means getting a bar tender’s license or a CDL or whatever, something stable and something that will likely last as a fallback career for at least the next 10 years and something that you can live off of, have free time and money to buy equipment and training books/videos.

Look around for the game making IRC’s, Slack chats and skype chats. Go loiter in there and be a good person. Don’t be a troll. Don’t be a douche. Be a friend that a friend would like to have. And for fucks sake don’t fanboy about blender.

Now once you do your bit of networking, Just hang out, Check in from time to time and see what happens. Don’t take any troll bait and meh from time to time poop out an asset for someone, even if its some indie who is working in his moms basement. Don’t kill yourself making an asset for peoples games. But occasionally hook your brothers and sisters up.

Above all don’t be a douche. Be the person someone would want to work with in the office.

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Also look into the medical fields start here and you are on your own.

Also, as with any job: “don’t overlook the profound importance of people skills.”

  • Dependability, punctuality, trustworthiness.

  • Discipline and faithfulness with regard to the work that is assigned to you.
    [LIST]

  • If you are the manager or team leader, appropriateness of the tasks that you assign to the people who report to you, and the fact that they work well with you.

  • Correctly carrying out what you are given to do, and being the first one to ask (for help) if you have any doubts whatsoever.

  • Keeping your managers and co-workers continually informed as to what you are doing, will do, and have done … and giving them no reason ever to even think(!) of doubting you.

  • “Accumulate people who will speak well of you.” References, whether CG or not, are probably the most important thing to cultivate of all.
    [/LIST]

The companies in these businesses make big ($$!) promises, on deadlines where time is directly linked to money, in an extremely competitive market where there’s always somebody else ready to eat their lunch. They rely upon every one of their employees (and contractors) to enable them to fulfill those promises as a team.

Technical skills can be taught. If you’re a reasonably quick study, “anyone can be taught.” But “lack of technical knowledge or ability” is not what costs a company hundreds of thousands of dollars … which is the penalties that a customer can and will impose for failing to meet a deadline with an acceptable work product as-agreed.

If you show yourself to be faithful and professional, your reputation will precede you, and doors will be opened for you, that you did not know even existed.

I’ve had a few doctors and techs in the imaging fields ask about the above link I posted. Ya never know, it could be a chance to use your blender powers for good.

I just watched a video sort of related to this, but from a VFX perspective. In VFX, there’s modelers, texture guys, lighting guys, animation guys and compositors. If you want to work at a big, name brand effects house, you need to specialize in one of those areas. If you enjoy all aspects, then you’re a generalist and should look for work at smaller houses and boutiques.

You think? My LinkedIn is FILLED with game studios.

Yes. And almost every big studio listing I’ve seen want some education. Some might make lip-service to experience-only, but it’s pretty clear that, at least from my experience, having a degree is a pretty big help. It needn’t be in art, animation or vfx specifically, a lot of times they are looking for computer science, engineering and mathematics backgrounds as well.

I’d also say take a look at what software they’re using. If there is something kind of unique that most people aren’t already familiar with, it might be a good idea to at least familiarize yourself. From what I understand specific software skills aren’t as important as a demonstrable ability to work in a wide range of pipelines, but if your choice studio is using Fabric Engine, Guerrilla or Clarisse, it’s probably a good idea to at least know what that software is.

Keep in mind when it comes to degree’s and employment. You will have people who will tell you both that they do and they do not help. But a degree means two huge things.

1- said person has been introduced to a field of topics and knew enough to get by
2- said person is dedicated and motivated enough to get said degree, with out getting kicked out of school or falling into some life trap or another.

If you are going to skip out on getting a degree, And I’m not saying you should or should not do it. But if you are going to, Make sure you can in some way express that you have been introduced to the tools at hand ( portfolio ) And if you can, Finish some group projects. It don’t matter so much what it is, But do something so your prospective employer knows that you can work well with others, You can work hard when need be, And that you are a safe hire. And of course don’t neglect your portfolio.

One of the most scary things for anyone to do is hire a kid right out of highschool and even an extent college. There is allot of unknowns and very often it is not the ability or willingness to learn that is in question, You can take any half way bright and willing 18 year old and make them proficient in nearly anything in a few months to a couple years, but what is in question is that poor kids self-control and discipline. When crunch time happens they need to know that kid will be there 110%,

Big studios usually post job advertisements (because they have to) and then just end up hiring a friend of someone already working at the company who was told to apply for the job by their friend. If you can get a job right now, based on your current skills / portfolio, then just go do it. Making legitimate connections would greatly help (but that is not easy and it’s even harder to do online if you don’t meet in person first), but if your portfolio is quite good, it shouldn’t be impossible to get in somewhere (and a lot will depend on what country you live in). The bigger issue is going to be the salary vs. working hours and long term job stability.

If you feel you are ready now, or very close to it (like a month of hard portfolio work away) just go do it, apply to everything. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get many, or any, follow ups even if your work is fantastic, that is just the way it is. Keep trying, go to events like Siggraph, be personable, make and keep friends who work in the industry, obviously you’ll need your reel to show on a tablet quickly, and it should be very very good, then even folks who work in the industry won’t feel awkward talking to you, they will know you are good, and if you are cool too, you will probably have it made, they might even be curious when you tell them you are actually a Blender artist if they really thought your work was superb.

Honestly, other than having a friend already working at the company (who might likely also have friends working at other companies who might be hiring), the number one thing studios look for is prior work experience. If you don’t have either of those, the only thing left that matters at all is your portfolio/demonstrable skill level. Honestly, I think you are going to need to have 2 of these 3 things going for you or at least have 1 of them in spades and get a little lucky.

My issue with this industry has always been that you are fighting hard, and spending literally years learning, to win a job with a mediocre salary by comparison and unfortunately bad hours. The bigger payoff is always in starting your own company/project, but that is a huge undertaking and most fail. If you work in this industry, you will not have time for anything else, not even more CG at home and you won’t have much free time or much of a social life. Most of the medium sized CG studios start off after a small but very talented group that works well together got laid off and teamed up to start their own company, not before that.

@cancer

Those issues are quite common in most industries. Ask any federal employee of nearly any government world wide about nepotism.

Before I retired I use to occasionally have to track down QA issues and I found that I could look at a stack of papers a foot tall and sift though numbers to see who did what do some foot work and track down stamps, Or I could just ask around to find out what boss’s kid/inlaw had gotten a job in the section recently.
They both tended to give the same result.

But like it or hate it, networking can do as much to help your career as any degree program can.

With the increasing popularity of VR and 3d technology, is there a rise in jobs for 3d artist. I am constantly hearing about fierce competition, but does that mean its hard to get a job in the industry (referring to any kind of work using software like blender, not like autocad)?

I doubt there’s a significant increase in jobs for 3D artists (VR is just a speculative market right now), but there is a significant increase in educational offerings for them. That doesn’t mean 3D artists are in demand, it means there are a lot of people who would like to be 3D artists and pay for such (sometimes questionable) education. In turn, competition for you is going to be even tougher.

Besides industry contacts, whether you can get a job as an artist depends on how apt you are vs. how apt your competitors are. You don’t know how good you’ll eventually be. If you don’t truly have the passion for it, I’d suggest you look somewhere else.

I am still young and learning, with obviously no CG job experience, but the “there’s a lot of competition” and “studios collapse all the time” is nerve wracking. It makes you feel as if its rarely you’d get a stable job.

Studio jobs aren’t necessarily stable even if the studio doesn’t collapse, quite often the employment is limited to the lifetime of a particular project.

This is terrible advice, especially considering the premise of the original post. You absolutely should research the market when considering what skills to build. Of course, you may find that the market changes, that’s always the case no matter what. However, if you purely focus on something that you find enjoyable, you may find the market doesn’t need your skill at all, or that there’s extreme competition because a lot of people happen to also find that thing enjoyable. The idea that “the rest will take care of itself” if only you follow your interest is utter nonsense.

There’s an obvious economic trade-off between jobs that pay well (or at all) and jobs that are enjoyable. Lots of people want to be “creatives”, yet there isn’t a huge demand for that kind of work (compared to its huge supply). Ironically, if you find yourself struggling just to stay afloat as a creative doing the work that you (supposedly) enjoy, your overall quality of life will likely be lower than if you just did a more lucrative job that you’re just “okay” with doing.

Therefore, I second the advice to research skills that are related to (but not necessarily identical) to your interests, for which the supply vs. demand is in your favor.