From 3D Game to Industrial Design? Is there a way to transition and skip schooling?

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

I’ve been working since 2000 in videogames. I want to change industries. Do I simply show employers blueprints (that I made) with the proper measurement system displayed? Who do I approach and what to I show them?

I’ve enrolled for a one year degree, but I have this fear I will already know more than I will be taught, that I might only need to present my work the right way to get work right now.

Any idea where I could ask this question and get a good reply? Or can I see a sample of what a portfolio for autocad work and architectural offices should look like?

Thanks,

2

I think you should make yourself familiar with the goals and working techniques of your potential employer. I do not know what you are aiming for but I’m sure there is a specific set of assets necessary.

And yes have a well prepared presentation ready of your existing skills.

3

You have to read through the Giesecke, Mitchell, Spencer, Technical Drawing book, and go to a school to be accredited. So I’m in school, so far, it’s pretty easy, just a bunch of presentation standards to memorize.

4

If I were, say, an industrial designer who was considering “buying this” (i.e. “your services”), it would not yet be clear in my mind exactly what those services were. Do you know how to design industrial objects and processes … or are you skilled at visualizing them? Without formal accreditation or at least schooling of some sort, I would doubt the first, and I probably don’t run a school myself. But I might well need the second, if you can make the sale.

Get to know your clientle / employers. Is someone out there advertising for a visualizer? If not, what are they advertising for, and how closely do your actual provable skills match it? Here’s where you need to do what’s called a “match / gap analysis.” Some of your skills will “match,” and elsewhere there will be “gaps.” This is Sales-101. You need to know where those gaps are and what they are, and how to counter these sales objections. These will also point toward self-training and education opportunities … which BTW are not necessarily expensive (and often worthless) “credentials.”