Freelancing...

[eclark1894]

You now, some of the work I've seen in the galleries are extremely great artwork. And while I, myself, am not good enough to ever appear in one of those galleries or where ever, I've often wondered how people who actually make money off of their renders from Poser, Blender, and Studio get started making that money. The field's not really that important, whether adwork, book illustrations, or whatever, I'm curious to know how you got started. And it might actually be inspiring to anyone who might be wondering the same thing.

 

[Ken1171]

I got started with render commissions by accident. I have been running a gallery at DeviantArt for 10 years, and that's a place where people see my renders and ask me to create custom art in commission jobs. Sometimes they commission me to create custom 3D contents, sometimes just renders, and sometimes a combination of both. Personally, I tend to find it a "waste" when people commission me to create 3D contents that will be only used in a single render, but it happens.

 

[WillowRaven]

I started out as a traditional artist specializing in book cover art and children's book illustration. I began playing with Daz a little over five years ago, mainly to help save composition time and art supplies, drawing and/or painting the scenes after the character and composition was planned out. Then I fell in love with the medium. It took me about three years of practice before I felt anything was worthy of publication. Now almost all of my work starts with Daz and ends in Photoshop.

If you are curious, here's my website: Enter the Realm of WillowRaven

 

[eclark1894]

I started out as a traditional artist specializing in book cover art and children's book illustration. I began playing with Daz a little over five years ago, mainly to help save composition time and art supplies, drawing and/or painting the scenes after the character and composition was planned out. Then I fell in love with the medium. It took me about three years of practice before I felt anything was worthy of publication. Now almost all of my work starts with Daz and ends in Photoshop.

If you are curious, here's my website: Enter the Realm of WillowRaven

Just out of curiosity, when you do your cover art, do you do the lettering too, or suggest what kind of lettering to do?

 

[WillowRaven]

I do the design/lettering, myself, too.

 

[eclark1894]

I've thought about book cover art. Here's one for a book I'm writing. Yeah, I know I could do better.

 

[Ken1171]

Just out of curiosity, when you do your cover art, do you do the lettering too, or suggest what kind of lettering to do?

Typography is part of the art courses, and there are good books covering the basics on how to choose fonts, and which goes well with others. I don't have any background in art, but I saw these books, and they make sense. Just google for "typography books".

 

[WillowRaven]

Actually, it depends on the art school one attends and whether their major is graphic design or fine art. I knew I wanted to be a cover artist, so I majored in fine art and minored in design. Typography is part of a design course, but not an art course. Traditionally, an artist creates the art and a designer does the text placement/design. I'm a weirdo, so I do both. With the current cutbacks, a lot of publishers and indie authors use stock photography, skipping the cover artists altogether.

 

[eclark1894]

Actually, it depends on the art school one attends and whether their major is graphic design or fine art. I knew I wanted to be a cover artist, so I majored in fine art and minored in design. Typography is part of a design course, but not an art course. Traditionally, an artist creates the art and a designer does the text placement/design. I'm a weirdo, so I do both. With the current cutbacks, a lot of publishers and indie authors use stock photography, skipping the cover artists altogether.

Well, in this particular instance, I would be artist, designer, author and probably publisher as well, so.... not an issue.

 

[Deleted member 325]

Actually, it depends on the art school one attends and whether their major is graphic design or fine art. I knew I wanted to be a cover artist, so I majored in fine art and minored in design. Typography is part of a design course, but not an art course. Traditionally, an artist creates the art and a designer does the text placement/design. I'm a weirdo, so I do both. With the current cutbacks, a lot of publishers and indie authors use stock photography, skipping the cover artists altogether.

Way back, when I was studying, Typography, page layout, and Page Design were involved in the Printing and publishing course - generally separate from Graphic Design and Commercial Arts. Of course, this was before Computers were what they are today, back when much of it was still done by hand (when scanning at 72 DPI was an expensive luxury...). Back when a typesetter literally had to set those metal typefaces from the font trays into the printing press. Of course it also very much depends on the school too.
I never finished college, kept breaking off and taking courses deemed not relevant to my major, and finally just went off and studied freelance without a college because the fields I wanted to learn were "too new" and not part of any majors or course (those no-credit classes that colleges offer when they don't know where to stick a course but it's too complex to be an elective).

My life path has seen me go from wanting to be a Comic Book Artist/Animator, through Graphic and Commercial arts, printing, through the various fields of Visual Effects and Cinematography, Videography and television production and broadcasting, through Desktop video and multimedia, non-linear editing, Digital Visual Effects and Motion Graphics, and 3D Animation (and somewhere in there I picked up HTML, a smattering of Javascript, repairing PCs, and a few other things...).

 

[Miss B]

Now that's what I call a well-rounded education KageRyu.

 

[Deleted member 325]

yeah, just too bad it's mostly self taught or from Developper conferences with no credentials to back it up.

 

[eclark1894]

Now that's what I call a well-rounded education KageRyu.

Well, I can't talk, while I never got into Comic Book art, my initial reason for getting into buying Poser 2 way back when was I wanted to create a storyboard for a screenplay I had written. Otherwise, I've touched about every base that Kage Ryu has. Probably less knowledge though. I even know a little bit of C++ as I was interested in computer programming for a hot minute.

 

[Ken1171]

It was rather similar with me - I chose to study computer graphics when PCs still didn't support any graphics, so I had to study on my own time and expense. And man, was it expensive! Computer graphics books were rare and at premium prices. I went to work in the industry to gain experience for 4 years before they finally opened a Computer Science course, and then I went back to university. But even then, computer graphics was still in its infancy, and there were no professors specialized on that. So there I went to study on my own time and expense again, but this time there were more books to pick from. University only gives us a foundation to build upon - it's up to us to study and get where we want to be. In the very first semester, over 60% of the students failed the exams and gave up the course. When I got to the 3rd year, it was only me in class, and in the last year I graduated alone. I don't think the course was THAT difficult, but instead that people don't commit themselves to it, and many tend to give up too easily.

Since all my background is in science, I am self-taught in art theory, which was very hard to me because I didn't have any foundation on it. I think it is still hard, but I am starting to get the hang of it with practice. Things like color theory, composition, and typography no longer daunt me as they once did. It's hard, but learning never ends.

 

[Jayne Wilson]

I don't freelance, but I do offer prints of my renderings on my artist website at www.jaynewilsonart.com and also offer various products with my artwork in my Zazzle store - www.zazzle.com/3dDesignsbyJayne. I have been asked to illustrate books on occasion and had to turn down the request at the time due to lack of time. Now I'm more or less retired, it might be something I would consider.

 

[WillowRaven]

Way back, when I was studying, Typography, page layout, and Page Design were involved in the Printing and publishing course - generally separate from Graphic Design and Commercial Arts. ...

We had a print-making class as a graphic design elective, but not as a separate course of focus. Same went for the animation and photography classes I took (electives). Actually, the fact that I wanted to be a book cover artist from the start made me a 'sell-out'. The art department felt I was going to waste my training on something so commercial, and the design department felt I was too artistic and focused. Their primary objective was geared more for advertising and periodicals or business tools like brochures and such. None of the advisors or professors helped me in any way. And heaven forbid I want to be a sff artist ... "We teach real art here." My painting and life drawing professor always complained that my animation training was 'ruining' me. Funny thing is, of all the students in my classes back then are not working as artists today. I was far from the best of them. I do think my determination to learn a variety of disciplines is why I am able to support my family as a freelance artist today, regardless of not following a specific curriculum.

Now that I've been in the biz a while, I am happy to see more schools offering illustration, with classes related to books, as a focus. Not as much stigma as there used to be.

 

[Ken1171]

And we all owe modern typography to Steve Jobs, who came up with the idea that computers should be able to change fonts and styles.

 

[eclark1894]

I never studied Page Design, but I did read up on it. Before the internet went... for lack of a better term... "public", I tried to start my own newspaper and magazine. Sadly, my creative skills were not equaled by my administrative talents, and well, they folded. On the other hand, I did learn how to use the best page design and layout software at the time, Pagemaker and QuarkXpress. If I had known HTML at the time, I might have tried to restart my newspaper and mag online via Compuserve and later AOL.

 

[WillowRaven]

the best page design and layout software at the time, Pagemaker and QuarkXpress.

I remember those ... I used to use Pagemaker to create brochures and product labels. Must have been 20 yrs ago. Since, Adobe InDesign has replaced Pagemaker as the industry standard for page layout of everything from books to magazines to catalogs. I used to use Quark in college when working for the college paper. I think people in certain industries still use it, but none that I've worked with in publishing. I'm sort of out-of-touch with commercial printing outside of books.

 

[Deleted member 325]

And we all owe modern typography to Steve Jobs, who came up with the idea that computers should be able to change fonts and styles.

My one favorite line from the Jobs movie with Ashton Kutcher...
"You've programmed a word processor without any fonts!"

I never studied Page Design, but I did read up on it. Before the internet went... for lack of a better term... "public", I tried to start my own newspaper and magazine. Sadly, my creative skills were not equaled by my administrative talents, and well, they folded. On the other hand, I did learn how to use the best page design and layout software at the time, Pagemaker and QuarkXpress. If I had known HTML at the time, I might have tried to restart my newspaper and mag online via Compuserve and later AOL.

I remember those - only worked with them briefly in school. My greatest adversary was that, at the time in the late 80's/early 90's, I chose what I will still defend hands down as the best computer line for artists and creators - the Commodore Amiga. I was apparently alone in this, as none of the schools, or training seminars used this machine, and while some of the software was available cross platform, others were not (no Photoshop or Pagemaker... but honestly PhotonPaint and ImageFX were, and still would be if they existed, better in every way). This was when I first started into Videography and Visual FX - Early adopter of the Newtek Video-Toaster Flyer (first generation of non-linear, pure digital Editing environments with FX switcher and real time playbakc of 3D animations rendered out of Lightwave...). I still have the thing packed away in a corner, with the massive 3-ring binder manual that came with it (3 of the manuals from 3 versions)...

Sorry... waxing nostalgic...