Hi, im 15 and i would like to get some money doing 3d stuff, how can i earn money being 15?
Here are some of my projects.
I use blender and substance (paid)
I use blender and substance (paid)
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I think this is the wrong board to ask on. But the main thing will be to have a paypal or a bank account. So I think you should ask your parents if they can set that up for you. After that just look for freelance sites like Upwork, or even this board.
Hope that helped, and good luck
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Agree with Ramon about this being the wrong place to ask this question, but I feel inclined to give you feedback…
Sadly, people under 18 in most countries (if not all) have to depend on parents or trusted “adults” to receive money/payments from potential clients… Now, here’s the sad part I share with you. I’m 35 and since I live in Venezuela, I can’t use PayPal or have a bank account with free access to USD… But there’s an option for us, people without global banking access who need other ways of bring food to their families…
Here in Venezuela, cryptocurrencies have been gaining a lot of popularity for their features and the economic freedom from banks and governments (we live in a weird dictatorship here) I’ve been asking some clients to consider making payments with cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, Dogecoin…)
Sadly, cryptocurrencies have a bad reputation in countries were is not really needed. People think is “drug money”, when in struggling countries or for young people (who understand the technology) is the perfect way of having economic freedom.
So, yes, you should totally be able to make money doing 3D stuff. It’s a great way of having an income, to use your knowledge in a positive and productive way, learning “in the field” and if you cannot have access to a bank account/PayPal, you could find a client who’s willing to pay you in a way you can use. Again, maybe cryptocurrencies will earn its deserved place in the world’s economy.
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Maybe not super related to the topic, but what’s the best way to get in touch with artist who want to be paid in crypto? Are there forums or marketplaces where you guys hang out? How does it work compared to Paypal etc?
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Hello, ambi… (Sorry, Silenttoaster7 for hijacking your post, I’ll leave it after this response)…
Sadly, there’s next to none real “marketplaces” for 3D artists who want to be paid in crypto. As I said, so far I haven’t met a client or potential client who uses crypto or is willing to even try. I think is mainly because in most places in the world there’s no real “need” for cryptocurrencies. They’re mainly used by alt geeks who love the complexities of the technology and are more or less anarchists (in a good way)… But that in any case, that just contributes to the bad reputation of cryptocurrencies for the mainstream/average people.
I’d LOVE to influence people (clients) to get familiar with cryptocurrencies. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would benefit from it… The fact that you’re asking about it, gives me a hint that there’s more people interested.
I think later today I’ll create a proper post (probably in the off-topic section) to start a broader conversation about cryptocurrencies. Maybe good things can come out of it.
I’ll leave this thread now. Cheers.
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Hey, I guess you can start by selling models in turbosquid or blender market, sketchfab, and use someone else bank account.
But you may start thinking about what you want to do when you’ll get older. Do you want to work more on the VFX industry, animation, games ? It may be simpler to find a side job (not related to CG) just to earn some money and improve your skills until you’re older and able to get a fulltime job related to what you like.
Judging from your work it’s really great given your age, but you need to keep improving , now you’re quite good and you should try to reach the “amazing” level.
At this point you won’t need to find a job not related to CG anymore , so it maybe good and more efficient to experience that first now.
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Creative Market is another good place to sell stuff.
You will probably make more if you do things based on a theme like a full set of kitchen utensils or some isometric building blocks that can be clicked together to make various mini towns like these ones.
Try to think of mass appeal also - you could use blender to make the artwork for things like greetings cards & posters. That way you can make money out of the renders rather then relying on selling the assets to other artists.
You could even make a game, if its really simple. It wouldn’t take you very long to figure out how make something like Hidden Folks or Bit Blaster with Blender and Unity. That would also go a long way to getting a career later in 3d. Infact you can make a 2d platformer in Unity without even writing any code.
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I think the least of your worries, at your age, are from a financial aspect. If you bought substance, you figured out how to buy stuff online. And you can use the same account to get payment, even if through a parent.
I think your question is more pointed to the legal working age in your country. And you have not said where you are from.
In the USA you can work as a teen legally. But there are some restrictions. You can also have bank accounts with a legal guardian to sign. So it is really not an issue here in the USA. But it sounds like you figured that out already.
The best thing to do is to research it in your area. And if you are working online, you are likely working by the job and not by the hour. So it is going to be hard for hour restrictions in regulations to be strictly applied to you - or the person hiring you.
But all of that aside, the larger problem is lacking practical experience and getting sucked into bad online jobs. But the best way to do that is to simply get started, get burned a few times and learn from it.
To help protect yourself, I would not go around saying how old you are. And keep your private life very private working online. A client does not need to know anything about you privately. And at your age this is probably best. Some might try and take advantage of that.
But if you are looking to get work in a studio or company, many places have apprenticeship programs. And you could work likely for free at first and build up some more practical experience. That would be invaluable.
Best of luck!
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Please do create that thread. I own a studio and at times considering paying in crypto. Also to OP this would include u as potential freelancer. nice work! Would be interested to know timeframes on it. And what’s ur turnaround like?
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Thank you you everyone! I didnt say where i am from. Im from spain.
And sorry, i didnt know i couldnt ask this here.
Don’t worry about it. They will move it. This is primarily for posting and responding to jobs. But rather than wait for moderation, we may as well continue discussion.
Regarding Spain. Yeah it is 16. But also remember that is related to working as an employee. You can check, but I am pretty sure it does not preclude you from working online from home for an overseas client.
However, if your intent is to work at a local company, then in the grand scheme of things a year is not long. Even though at your age it might seem like an eternity…lol
One strategy could be to spend the rest of the year working on a killer portfolio and making lists of places to contact for work. When you turn 16 you are ready to hit the ground running and get your parents to sign permission for you to work.
Working online for overseas clients, I just don’t know how they can police that. But the best practice is to get as much information from your government websites as possible.
Your portfolio is real promising. Keep up the good work. You’ll be fine. 
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My birthday is 29 of april, i will try to start working after summer. I know what i want, photorealism or videogames. I actually made a “game” in ue4 but im not a programmer. But i dont know if i want to work online to begin or go to a company
Moved thread to Tutorials, Tips and Tricks? Not quite sure where this belongs.
Also sorry for late response, we blame Christmas
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Also tips, dont worry too much about making money. Focus more on developing your skills, and when you reach 18 you might get a permanent job in the industry right away.
Focusing on the money might hinder your growth. You dont learn as much from client projects.
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Well first, you don’t need to be 18 to work. 14 in the USA, with restrictions, and in his country 16.
“You don’t learn as much from clients” is entirely your subjective experience I am to guess?
It is not a hard fast rule.
But you should always be learning. And that has nothing to do with work. Unless you are lucky and an employer - such as me for example - pays you while you train.
But telling someone to study and not to focus on money, might be true in a way. But your focus should never be money. Mine never is. And I do this full time for a living as well as manage a team of artists at my studio. The focus is never money.
But I got where I got, by not focusing on money as the goal. When you do that, you limit your scope.
The focus should always be on doing the best work.
But this has nothing to do with “should a kid start working at 16?”.
Nothing in my opinion could be a better way to gain experience. I started working part time at as early as 12 when you count mowing lawns for cash…lol. Many people do. But if you can start working in the industry you love… all the better. And the sooner the better.
You will learn things you can never learn, just studying. And some people, honestly, don’t have the luxury to study and wait; they have families to take care of and so on. Life is not always simple and easy.
Anyway… study. Always. Learn. Always. And balance that with practical work experience which will always challenge you beyond what you have studied for. It is always this way. No matter how hard you train. Work will always ask just that much more of you. And it never ends or becomes easy - at least not consistently or for very long.
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Very late reply, but there are some notes i want to hit on.
The reason i said wait until 18 is not because he cant work until hes 18. Rather, i think its better for him to focus on school, and not give himself any additional work. No matter how good of an artist you are, you should always have a decent education to fall back on if things dont turn out as expected.
So keeping 3D as a hobby and not a profession is ideal in my opinion.
And to hit on the “you dont learn as much from clients”, what i mean by this is, clients can some times give you very difficult tasks that you want to attempt, but because of the clients expectations you might be afraid to go for it, and this is with good reason.
On the other side, clients may also often give you tasks that are time consuming, but in no way difficult. I’ve worked a lot with clients, and i more often than not learn nothing from them, as i tend to pick workflows that i already know in order to not disappoint my clients.
However, if you pick your own projects, you can tailor the project in such a way that its not too difficult to complete all the way through, while at the same time giving yourself as many challenges as you feel comfortable with, and on top of this, if you fail, you wont be left with the responsibility of disappointing a client. You can also extend the deadline if things happen in life, or if things turn out to be more challenging than expected. Which is not always so easy with clients who might have deadlines of their own.
So in conclusion, i think its better to focus on school, and not worry about earning money from 3D until you become an adult. When you’re 18 you’re in that phase where you most likely still live at home, and also have to find a job. So you have a couple years to really go for it, and try to earn money from 3D, and if it fails, you still have your education to fall back on.
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I really can’t agree with any of this. For one, I don’t know about you. But when I was a teenager, if I did not have something, I had to work for it. I had to find a way to earn money and buy it. And that I think was as far back as when I was 12 or younger. Yet I made it through school, just like most people I know who started working part time jobs very young. So I really don’t know where you are getting the full on work, and forget school. I really am not sure where that comes in. But besides that it is just plain bad advice to recommend that a person focus on school, only. And in reality, few if any people ever do that. People have interests outside of school. And I would say that most people have to work starting at a young age in one way or another as well. So the majority of people are working, going to school and finding time for hobbies. Even rich kids and probably especially rich kids. Maybe not work, but they rarely focus on only school. As for me, I started playing the drums when I was 14. So it was school, some work, practice and still time to have some fun. And to get a better set of drums I worked weekends for about a year when I was 17 to pay off some drums a friend and given me to use until I could pay it off.
I don’t think the OP said anything about dropping out of school. But even then, what is the alternative?
A high school education? Are you seriously calling that something to fall back on? What country do you live in?
Apples to apples he’d be better spending his time learning 3D, if he is any good at it. He’d be making more money than most of his friends who spent the next 6 years getting a degree.
I am not advocating someone quit school. All I said, he can work if he wants. And there is nothing wrong with that at all.
Regarding the clients angle. I have to respect you have your experience. Mine is not at all the same. If anything, for me, it is a balance. Because I have never known the process to be perfect. And every gig I have gotten that was paying well, I had to work extra hard to learn new things. If for no other reason than to keep getting the work and staying current with changes - even with the same client, not to mention the technical changes in the industry. Simply put, I have never had a job that was easy and allowed me to sit back and go the safe route. Not one. Seriously I can not think of one job where all I had to do was repeat what I knew and go some kind of safe route. I have however learned certain ways to get things done. Best practices. And I have had a client where it was repetitious in the sense that once I learned how to do it and perfected the process, it was more or less a cakewalk. And I consider you are lucky when you get those, but even there, I have always found challenges and also pushed myself to up my game and work extra hard to improve the product for the client. I am always doing that. All the time.
Regarding this “wait to live, focus on school” concept. I can’t disagree more. The best way to prepare to live is to simply start living. And the sooner you do that the better off you will be. At best school can give you a fake, utopian fantasy of real life. The worse sentence you could give someone is hold them back from living until they are 18 and then just send them out and watch them crash and burn.
Thankfully for most people, due to economic realities, that rarely happens. Only in the upper percentile really.
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You can do business for yourself, but must pay taxes and be compliant with laws just as any adult. Bascially, you just do the same thing adults do.
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School is work… If you see this as a time to “relax” then you’re doing it wrong… If you need to pick up a part time job to pay off your hobbies, or prepare for college, then go for it, but spending months, or years, to maybe make a low amount of money from 3D when you’re 15 is imo a bad idea.
Almost everyone i know had that “burgerflipper” job at one point or another, most before the age of 18. Including myself who started working in retail at 17. But this is safe money, and requires no more time than the time you spend earning money. Which in my case was no more than 2 days per month, pluss holidays - The time i had off school, which allowed me to save up 12 grand by the time i finished school, and was able to move out to continue study.
In this persons case, he has to spend all the time he can afford to get better at 3D before even attempting to make money off of 3D, which is not safe at all, and may lower his performance at school.
I never suggested him not to focus on 3D, by all means do so, but dont expect to make money. Have it as a hobby, do it in your spare time.
Focus on school while you can, it’ll pay off in the end.
And another reason is that just in case 3D fails in the end, you will have a decent education to pick up from.
If you get a temporary burgerflipper job, great… Take it, nothing feels better than economical freedom. But again, dont work more than you can afford in terms of time.
I never mentioned dropping out of school… In fact im encouraging the opposite.
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I don’t think there’s anything wrong with working for clients at such a young age so long as the skill level can match the client’s damand (Don’t bite off more than you can chew.)
I was 14 when I started making websites for cash (In the US). It started with my high school computer class. My teacher mentored me and had me redesign the school’s website. That gave me the confidence to start seeking out friends and family to create personal sites/blogs for the odd $20 (This was before the social media bubble). I worked my way up to a couple of local restaurants, and even managed a real estate listing site for a local realty company. It was all small peanuts, but to a high school student, it was an empire.
I learned A LOT working for those clients. I learned about the freelance trade. I learned negotiation skills and how to sell myself. I learned communication skills. And those skills even came in handy when I got my first “real” (as in w-2) job at 16 working at a local grocery store. I wasn’t the stock boy for very long.
So go forth, young man, and grab the bull by the horns (That may be a western American idiam, but I’m hoping it translates. 
) Start small, gain your confidence, and see where it takes you.
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