If there’s questions that pertain to the business of 3D graphics, where do those go?
Things like coordinating freelancers on projects, creating a pipeline when everyone works from home, fair payment strategies/philosophies (especially for startup/no-budget projects where you need to hire help, but you’re just doing it for fun), asset formatting for general sale, and other topics.
Hmm, i dont know how many are qualified to give advice in this field, seems like a risky thing to ask on a public forum. It’d likely be best to join a more chat originated community and find people who actually have experience in the field, and ask them for help.
I advice using Discord for this, join a couple active communities and start building a network, before you know it you’ll bump into someone who has the expertise you’re looking for.
I recommend joining the official servers to which ever fields you’re most interested in. Sidefx has a server for VFX and simulation/procedural generating, with industry leaders actively engaging with the community.
Likewise, im sure you’ll find a lot of expertise for game development on the Unreal discord server.
There is also an official Blender server, if you need anything specifically related to Blender.
Thanks, I will check out Discord.
For clarity, I’m interested in creating an indie 3d animated film/series and have a bunch of different questions. I’ve realized that I need more people on board, but I’m not sure what types of people are critical. A big studio has multiple people each doing specific jobs, but I don’t need a whole “lighting department”. So the first question would be what job responsibility breakdowns do small companies use? And how much outsourcing vs in house? And from there, we get into funding strategies…
Any further suggestions on where to find those types of people/answers is appreciated.
I know some of the first steps, as they’re very well documented. First off you need a budget, perhaps find a small number of people to invest with you, preferably people with some experience.
Then see how far you can get all on your own, or with this small group of people. If you can put together something that draws eyes, then you’re on the right track. If not, then it might be best to take a step back and work on your personal skills before attempting a project of this size.
If you do manage to pull something that an audience likes, then the path starts to get far more complicated, but at this point you should have a pretty decent vision for where you’re heading. What you need to hire will be a lot more obvious to you at that stage.
As a side note, i warn you not to aim too high, i’ve been doing 3D on and off for 7 years, 2 of them i even went to 3D and animation school.
I still dont have the expertise to pull a full indie 3D film/series together, at best i’d be able to create a proof of concept.
Be careful, is what im saying. Burning out on large projects is the worst, as you’ll have nothing to look back on. By doing far smaller projects, at least you’re building a portfolio along the way.
It’s better to get an idea of how these projects are made by participating in a few of them before attempting to be the coordinator of one.
For jobs types, small companies relies on generalists that knows different areas : like modeling , rigging , shading . Animation is generally done by people who do animation only. And there are also people specialized in visual storytelling that can do storyboards or directing, they have a good knowledge on how to convey the story from shots to shots.
You may need also someone specialized in editing and a sound designer.
There are also pipeline TDs, that help bring all the tools together , solve technical issues , or can advice on what is complicated to do .
About generalist there are no rules, someone can be really good at rigging and FX, another good at modeling and really good at lighting / rendering. It will depends on people you will find. Once you get a core team you can search for specialist to compensate a skill that is lacking in your team.
Outsourcing some stuff is possible but add a layer of complexity by coordinating people , the more you can avoid the best it is IMO.
What you need first is a good portfolio that shows what the project could be. It will be your main weapon to get artists on board and financial support .
For funding strategies you can rely on crowdfunding or find a producer that can help find money to develop your project. It’s quite uncommon that producers put their money on the table to make a project. Generally they try to sell it to TV channels before it’s done, there are also some financial support from institutions like this one : https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/media_en
Anyway you’ll need a really strong portfolio to show people that your project is worth investing compared to all the projects available. It’s really an art in itself and that portfolio should answer as quick as possible what is the story / genre, the target (pre-school, adult), in what kind of financial scale does the project fit ( is it a 100 million blockbuster movie or a 5Million low-budget movie).
All that need to be answered visually as quick as possible because people generally don’t have time…
You can look at his video on producting short films, it can be a good example of indie short film with professional output : https://www.youtube.com/user/LucasMartell/playlists (production series) .