I have had hardly any 3d work in the past couple of years. I’ve done mostly freelance work remotely for the US market, and this abruptly stopped with the credit crunch. It’s hard to compete in the local market because of people who are already well established, and because of piracy.
I’ve tried using elance, but i wasn’t able to land anything.
So if anyone needs help on a project by project basis, i’m here.
Advice on finding work would be nice too. For quite a while i’ve been thinking about investing in a website, but i dont know if i should hunt for clients (and how) or advertise myself to other 3d artists and companies.
Getting a functional website up and running with Portfolio work and experience in my opinion in your first step. (I use a Wordpress blog with a free gallery plugin, which makes it easy to update and add images, etc).
Once your website is up with contact info and a company name (and LLC) then you can start aggressively going after clients who can see the work you’ve done to start landing projects.
Np, a bump cant hurt.
My friend talked me into setting up a flickr account that could have been linked to something like wordpress (i dont quite understand how it works) but i never went further than registering a domain. I was split between going for a personal portfolio website, or standing behind a registered company. I’ve done a logo for the company, registered a few domains as well but atm, i think its best for me to work on the personal piece first.
I setup a simple WP (Gallery plugin is NextGEN Gallery, btw) blog with a gallery plugin. It’s easy to upload images and content to, I’d suggest starting there.
Its like an invite only version of indexhibit, and with a back end that makes it easy to add pages and change the design. I suggested it to a friend of mine and he is very happy with it Dave Morris Photography
To apply you just follow the link on their website and write them a nice email telling them about what you do and what you would use it for.
Got in touch with a friend whos a web designer. But atm i can’t afford even a simple design. I was confused by his offer though. He says that putting something up with WP is actually more of a hassle than doing a flash site. And i’m just too intimidated by web design, since it incorporates so many different things. You were able to put up these websites mentioned here, entirely by yourselves?
Personally I wouldn’t go for a flash web site. The problem is that users of I-phones and I-pads won’t be able so see any flash content so in the end you will need a html version of your site anyway or else loose a lot of potential visitors.
Other disadvantage is that you won’t be able to add and update content easily with a flash website. I think a lot of web designers prefer flash websites because it gives them a lot more work…
Simple Content Management Systems like Wordpress or Indexhibit should be fairly easy to set up (and you could get someone else to do it if you don’t want to spend time looking into it). Once your site is up and running though, it will be very easy for you to add and change content without needing much extra knowledge.
I agree, stay away from flash.
However, IMO it’s good enough to use a Flickr account for your portfolio.
Client wont care, they don’t hire you for your website, but it’s often important to be able to browse images at a meeting, or doing a slideshow.
You can get your own .com domain for like 15$/year and just redirect it to the url of your portfolio.
I had another idea for you Dusan, there are lots of landing page sites that gather flickr, twitter, etc together and make a nice looking website. One of the best seems to be flavors.me , if you are willing to spend 20 bucks a year on it.
I use squarespace, I find it hassle free, super easy to use, browser editing, good code, auto galleries, vimeo, flickr, twitter integration, themes, iphone compatible etc. I just have to swap my vimeo embedding code to the new iphone compatible code…
A little expensive but a whole lot cheaper than a web designer.
Well, i plan to knock on some doors here in the SF bay area. I figure it’s better to appear in person than email or call. I also figure that ill get a lot of doors slammed in my face, but i hope at least someone will welcome me. Any tips?
Call first, make sure it’s ok. from what i’ve heard turning up unannounced in the middle of the day expecting to see someone doesnt go down well at all.
edit: reorder your images too, youve got 8 images of a wall which in all honesty dont look too hot, then this - Kitchen in Church Hall, Charlotte NC | Dusan Bosnjak | Flickr
Which is actually really good. Put that first, get rid of the wall shots. Theres a lot of very good work there but it needs reordering a bit.
Well, i left the area. I’ve learned a lot in the past few days.
I was apologizing a lot for just appearing unannounced and almost everyone told me “well, it’s what you have to do”. I called only if I couldn’t figure out where a certain office is, or how to operate the intercom. In worse case scenario, I was just told that no one can spare time to hear me out i wasn’t removed from the premises by some security guard or something. I my very best time was slightly over 3 minutes, from signing in, going to the 8th floor, and coming back. I still think that what i’ve done is more benign than sending 1000s of emails, or even phone calls. I just wish i had started earlier in the day and visited more firms.
