Freelancers Bible!

[Dr. Gore]

I have worked on 5 freelance project and done ok, but I am still wet behind the ears would the true masters of freelance tell me what to look out for from buying software to making invoices and every in between.

Thanks in advance.

[Dr. Gore]

I was hoping to get some input on this from odforce, I know I post this in effects it was my bad, I'm sorry. I guess everybody on this forum has a fulltime job at a badass effects company or uses Houdini as a hobby. I was hoping to talk to some freelancers that have used Houdini on different project and could share their experiences of making art and money with me. If not could some of the BIG dogs who didn't start in programming( because I'm not a programmer) share with me how they came up in the world of Houdini.

[Andz]

I've been a freelancer for almost all my life, but I don't use Houdini as my work tool, does that coun't?

[Dr. Gore]

I had to say something to get somebody to reply Freelancers Bible, look it worked. I wasn't taking a shot at programmers by far or anyone on this forum for that matter, I just know that houdini was mainly a programmers 3D package and that in the last 7 or so years it has become more artist friendly so anyone getting paid to use it mostly knows some code. Furthermore, I would like to personal thank Jason, arctor, and Marc for creating this site and letting me be a part of it. Plus, I like to thank everybody that helped me with my 24 posts ever symek even though he hates my avatar. I don't care what tool you use for freelance if you have made money from it, thats what I care about. Don't get the wrong idea I love art more the money, but I have to eat to.

It looks like your tools are math, autocad and paint brushs. Andz have you ever seen the movie scanners, you would be the stronger scanner with math, see my avatar that my head. I haven't used autocad sense high school (not a dis) that where I got my start and your painting

[Marc]

Firstly, it looks like you waited less than a day for a response before your second post, which isn't much at all. And I moved it to the general chat area since it doesn't deal directly with Houdini and you'll get a much better response to it here.

Secondly, even though I'm having a hard time understanding your last post (please use paragraphs, it makes life easier for us all) I do believe it would be better if you toned your posts down a little. Coming in here and asking for great sweeping answers like "what to look out for from buying software to making invoices and every in between" would get alot more answers if you were a little less snarky about the whole thing.

Personally I can't answer because I've never freelanced and I started out programming, so I've got nothing.

M

[Andz]

So if have anything better to say then I've been a freelancer for almost all my life, but I don't use Houdini as my work tool, does that coun't? I like to hear it.

I do, many things but I first wanted to make sure you'de like to read them since you stated that you were upset thet either we are to busy to reply or just hobbyst (me). All the images that you see on my personal web pages have been done for the fun of it, so Paintbrush, Math, and autocad are not my tools for gathering food. They are my tools for escapism because my brain just wount stop.

My work life must differ and a lot from most people around because we are all in diferent parts of the world, where money has different values, employment has different meanings, etc.

I have done some freelance works in the US for CG companies doing stuff for MTV, comercials, architects, etc. At this time freelance was the name used because I wasn't aloud to be hired (non american). Of course I needed the money but the real value was what I learned. After that I came back to Brazil and was hired in few places but I never enjoied the fact of having to be creative from 8 am to 5 pm, then shut down creative mode and go home sleep.

So I decided to get back to freelance mode and offer my help to who needed. It's the best thing for my style of thinking and living. The down parts is the fact that you dont have your pay check every month whether you had or not something to work on. So for this, you have to be a verry organized person, for delivering the job and for saving your money for emergencies or long periods of times without work to do.

And the tuffest part off all is having to pay for your tools (computer, software, etc.) with your own money. It's not that hard if you are in America, but for me it is since our courrency is much lower than american dollar.

Since I started the "freelance mode" I got to travel a lot here in Brazil and few places in Europe to do some works. Because of the way things are here in Brazil, I had to make a one person company because of the amount of taxes you have to pay, it is less than if you are a freelancer. But this makes it actually easier for me to travel and do some work for other companies outside of Brazil.

I understand that you are form some place else, and that cultures are a lot different all around the world. But I couldn't understand most of what you said on you post. It sounded some times rude, but that must just be me. Still, if you're asking for some advice and guidance, you have to be extra polite, sometimes even on an "international" scale.

And thank you for your comment on Iemanja's image, I was thinking of starting it over from scratch because that turned out to be an dead end.

[Jason]

I was hoping to talk to some freelancers that have used Houdini on different project and could share their experiences of making art and money with me. If not could some of the BIG dogs who didn't start in programming( because I'm not a programmer) share with me how they came up in the world of Houdini.

You've probably excluded a lot of the Houdini-using community right here - but that said, are you talking about project-hire people? Or people working from home?

I'd imagine project hire artists using Houdini are very much in the same boat as any other project-hires using most other software in this industry. I get the impression that the only difference for freelancers from staff employees is that they just work in more places. And get to renegotiate their rates more often It's not like they get anything different in the workplace; we all end up getting the same shots, the same hardware; the same bosses. Some minor-ish differences work-wise are that it's more likely that a staff person will be assigned R&D work and project-hires are called in later to complete shots after R&D.

But here is an "IMHO" paragraph: (The "you"'s refer to "any digital artist".)

Personally I'd keep away from calling commerical art "art". Art and money don't mix. The sooner you take a professional attitude to this industry (read: emotionally detached but proud to deliver the finest images you can in the most dilgent and prepared manner as possible) the better for you. You kinda have to suck it up and act like your father where and when it counts That said, I have a huge deal of fun doing this job. Deadlines, crashes, bugs, artifacts, client disasters, omitted shots are all part of this obscene challenge and let us pray we all are just a touch masochistic or no-one would be here, voluntarily - on a Saturday.

But since I started in programming (Sinclair Spectrum, baby!) and not a freelancer, feel free to ignore this completely.

[Dr. Gore]

Wow Andz that what I'm talking about. That was some the best incite I could have ever got, thank you. I sorry for being a dick about the freelance question. I hope the whole houdini community will forgive me for not having a professional attitude towards this industry, I am still young so there is hope, hopefully.

I sorry I even brought up the whole programmer thing. Didn't know people were goto get emotionally involved. I'm just not good with code. I was trying to get incite from someone who isn't a math wizard, but I guess saying that has a finned a lot great people so I sorry I will keep mouth dumb mouth shut at least after this post. I not trying to be a smart ass, but isn't commercial art a contradiction itself in that money and art don't mix.

Thank you odforce for tolerating me.

Dr. Gore

P.S. I hope I'm not outcast from this community because of my emotions.

[3dbeing]

The cave paintings were a commercial for the success of the tribe(or warning of the faliures), the ancient statues (Venus of Willendorf among others) were commercials for everything from sex to religion, as well as the skill of the craftsman, the greeks sculptures and architecture were a commercial for their advanced mathmatics as well as the wisdom of their society, the romans were a comercial for thier return to the wisdom of the greeks, the mona lisa was a comercial for, well, mona lisa, as well as Leonardo, a comercial artist by trade an inventor/scientist for fun....

I could go on but art by nature is a commercial.

If one makes a work of art, and no one buys it... is it a work of art? or by contrast if one buys a work of art, does that make it a work of art? Which is of more value, art that is bought, or art that is given?

But really what it seems to me that you are saying is that art and math do not mix, thus your exclusion of coders as though we don't know/understand the plight of an "artist". My friend math is music, math is nature, and math is art, so if you don't think of mathmaticians or coders as artists, then you have missed the boat.... try poser, there's not much math needed in that genre, nor is there a need to be much of a professional.

Edited January 24, 2007 by 3dbeing

[Marc]

I think he meant something more along the lines of, "You're creating images of somebody elses vision and beaten to death by all the intermediaries" and hence isn't exactly 'art' per se.

Comparing Da Vinci to what we do is a little over the top I think. Certainly he was commisioned by rich people to make pretty pictures, but essentially they were still his creations.

My 2 cents

M

P.S. I don't think poser and art should ever be mentioned in the same breath again

[lynbo]

P.S. I don't think poser and art should ever be mentioned in the same breath again

!!Amen to that!!

[lynbo]

as to DrGore's original post

Houdini has a reputation for being a "Programmers" Pkg

but I believe it is better described as an "operating system for 3D" just

as Winows, Linux and OSX are op systems for your computer.

(Oh wow, was I waxing poetic just then?) I think I was. Sorry.

That said, I think Houdini is a TD's tool more so than a programmers tool.

If you can get your head around a few expressions you can have a great time with it.

You will come to appreciate what is possible in Houdini.

One of the great things for me was after working in some other app (Maya XSI) and then working in Houdini is that after being in Houdini I had a much better understanding of operations that I took for granted.

You tend to work on a more atomic level in Houdini. In another app

you might get a slider and a checkbox, after clicking the box and twidlling

the slider your done, no more control. In Houdini you have so much more control and interoperability.

I'm waxing again....someone stop me....

[3dbeing]

Well leonardo did get his start in a studio of artists, which all things being equal, would not have been that much different from an ILM, or DD :euro: , but becuase of his exceptional skill was able to move to a more "freelance" type position, and although the creations were uniquely his by then, I would hazzard to say that whatever was being communicated through the piece was not (but like many artists out there Im sure he snuck in his "2 cents" in here and there :thumbsup: .

[Andz]

The cave paintings were a commercial for the success of the tribe(or warning of the faliures), the ancient statues (Venus of Willendorf among others) were commercials for everything from sex to religion, as well as the skill of the craftsman, the greeks sculptures and architecture were a commercial for their advanced mathmatics as well as the wisdom of their society, the romans were a comercial for thier return to the wisdom of the greeks, the mona lisa was a comercial for, well, mona lisa, as well as Leonardo, a comercial artist by trade an inventor/scientist for fun....

I could go on but art by nature is a commercial.

Hi 3dbeing, I agree with what you say about the comercialism of art. But I would like to know if you see a diference in living by making art as you mention, and the people who paint, play an instrument or write a poem on their free time.

I ask this because I've been in the position of making art for a living but got to the point that I had to move away from it because of the side effects of working with something that deals too much with your emotions.

As I quote Jason:

The sooner you take a professional attitude to this industry (read: emotionally detached but proud to deliver the finest images you can in the most dilgent and prepared manner as possible) the better for you. You kinda have to suck it up and act like your father where and when it counts That said, I have a huge deal of fun doing this job. Deadlines, crashes, bugs, artifacts, client disasters, omitted shots are all part of this obscene challenge and let us pray we all are just a touch masochistic or no-one would be here, voluntarily - on a Saturday.

Today I get to do engeneering/CAD work for a living, where it's all 0s and 1s, works or doesn't work. It is way easyer for me or to my ego, and I still got some free time to do my art without having to deal with how artsy a boss or client think's I am.

[3dbeing]

I know what you mean by sidefx of art (HA! just a lil joke) as a living, I used to like to play guitar or piano, or sculpt, write poetry alot of different things in my free time, but those things use the same part of the brain i'm using 10-12 hours a day so I don't do them much if at all anymore. I would like to learn a new language, no not C++ or Python(well yes python, but not for fun, well kinda fun), but Italian or French, alas my brain is an antiquated 4gig model and has little room left over for any of these as a pastime.

But as to the diffence between the proffessional artist and the casual artist, the main difference is the casual artist only needs to please themselves with their work, as long as they never base their talent on the price they can fetch for a piece, ultimately I think they have the potential for alot more fullfilment in their work.

However, here there is a large sect of those who feel being paid to make art makes one less of an artist, like money is the antithisis of art, yet they have no problem working at a crap job which somehow makes them more in tune with the "muse of fire", they think that if one works on a computer it is not art, it's the computer that does the work, as if the brush is what painted the last supper and not leonardo. My point is this, being creatures of nature, and being that nature is living art, everything we do is art, whether it be a social art, an art of organization, or in some cases the art of war, everyone is an artist, the real question is, how much does one love the art that they do.

Sorry to sound like an art student, old habbits die hard.