Hi everyone! Im looking to get into freelance 3d work and I was wondering how people go about getting these jobs, like finding companies to work with and such.
I am currently just looking at companies local to me that do custom homes and maybe could use 3d renders of their homes before they are built but this may be the wrong path, I’m just giving it a shot.
And for product viz I dont have a clue where to start so any help would be very appreciated.
Thanks
Jason
I don’t think there are any rules or advanced techniques. Just do every single thing you can think of and then think of some more and after that think of even more things and do them all without thinking or hesitation. You are probably looking for architects and interior designers and learning how to make them like you. Be likable. Offer them what makes sense. It helps to get employed by interior design or architecture studio for a few years and learn what it’s all about first, so you know how everything works. Other then that, don’t ignore regular common sense things. You are looking for something - post some ads, list your services on every single platform you can think of. Also talk to every single person you know related to architecture, interior design, construction, product design. Being friends with your clients is a good idea - it’s even better if you start that way. Not pretend kind of friends like a shop assistant, I mean really. Actually. 
One interesting thing - don’t write emails. Call or meet in person. That helps. Forget about AI - it’s about personal relationships, be yourself. Also there is this thing about response time. It makes no sense. The sooner you respond to any new potential client trying to contact you, the higher the chances of getting the job. And the thing that makes the least sense is that I am not talking about half a day here. Best time to respond is instantly or in 2 minutes, then like in 5 minutes your chances statistically drop a few times(!), in an hour even more, in a few hours even more, the next day there is really probably not much chance left. It’s weird. But that’s just statistics and it works. Google it. It’s ridiculous. Look at this first random search result I googled:
After 5 minutes, the odds of contacting a lead drop by 10x
Sounds about right. It’s even more important than the quality of your services apparently.
Thanks for your help I will try everything I can think of then and I will look into interior designers and architects!
Got to say it all sounds much harder hope i can do it!
Like Martin says, It’s really about making phone calls and pounding pavement.
People are, understandably, going to have an internal dialog like “Who’s THIS clown?!” They won’t say it but they’ll definitely be thinking it. Somehow, you’re going to have to punch through that.
Have some examples of your work ready. Print them out on good paper. Have your name and contact info on the page. It’s essentially your resume, in graphic form. Treat it as such.
Notice, I didn’t use the term “portfoloio” or “gallery.” Go more with the concept, “This is what I can do FOR YOU.”
Okay, so your graphic resume got you in the door. Now, what? Talk! Answer questions. Tell them about what you can do FOR THEM! You’re still going to get that “I don’t know…” kind of look from them. You’ll need an ice breaker.
Ask the guy for a “blind lead.” A two-sentence description of a product or concept without details of the customer or an actual product. Ask them to give you a week and you’ll give them a treatment. A one or two page summary of your idea and descriptions of key details. Add in a sample image that you made for the treatment.
Come right out and say, “Give me a blind lead. I’ll come back in a week with a treatment and a sample image. If you like it, you can put me on your freelance roster. If you don’t like it, I’ll be on my way.”
Ain’t nobody with half a brain who won’t, at least, play along with a proposition like that. Even if they are just playing along and humoring you, if you come back with a good treatment that blows them away, they’d be stupid if they didn’t put you on their roster!
I’ve worked in movie theaters and legitimate theaters for twenty years. Most of my gigs have started out like that. The entertainment biz is a fairly “closed” industry. You’re either in or you’re out. It’s all about getting your foot in the door and showing people what you’ve got. If you do well, you could be set for live. If you don’t do well, you’ll be pounding pavement.
You’re going to get a lot of “Go away, kid! Don’t bother me!” You’re going to get a lot of replies like “Don’t call us. We’ll call you.” You’re going to need to have a thick skin to get along in that business!
The bottom line is: Make some phone calls. Knock on some doors. Burn some shoe leather. Have a good spiel. Be honest. Don’t give up!
I always imagine them thinking “Who is this awesome guy? Why didn’t we find him sooner?”, but OK…
No idea what you are talking about
Thanks for your insight and I will need to look more into writing a good treatment this is new terminology for me.
Ok i can make calls and bang on doors thats better then sending emails and getting nothing in response but will need to practice it!
Appreciate your long form answer!
Btw I never said thanks for your long form answer so thanks lol!
Yeah! The big trick is figuring out how to change it from “Who’s THIS clown?!” to “Why didn’t we call him sooner!?”
Let me tell you how I did, just that, one time. I said that I worked in movie theaters.
I was talking to a guy, looking for a “moonlight” job. He’d been grilling me for a about five minutes: Where have you worked? What kinds of machines do you know? That kind of junk.
I turned and glanced at the projector, that was in the middle of a show. I looked out the projection port and saw that the focus had drifted. Those old projectors are made of cast iron. As they get heated up, during a movie, the metal actually expands and causes the focus to drift. It is part of the operator’s job to check the screens, every fifteen minutes, to be sure that the focus hasn’t drifted and adjust it if it does. It’s a standard part of the operator’s job description.
Anyhow, I said, “Just a sec…” then went over, adjusted the focus and came back.
Got the job! 
Nice! Great story, I similarly got a job in sales that way
A treatment is a one-page or two-page “summary” of a movie, TV show or ad concept.
It can be as simple as “A bottle of Coca-Cola sitting on a block of ice” or it can be a whole script summary.
Let’s take the “Blind Lead”: A famous soft drink company wants a new ad concept for the rash of hot weather we’ve been having." They might add a few adjectives or concepts to focus on, like “Cool” or “Refreshing.”
One possible treatment for that lead might be:
[SCENE] Hot summer day. Bright. Hot. Sunny. Outdoors at a picnic.
[SHOT] Wide shot of a cooler full of ice with soft drink bottles floating inside.
[ZOOM-IN] Close-up shot of bottle of (BRAND HERE) soft drink, floating in ice cooler.
[VISUALS] Hot day, contrast with ice cold beverage. Show detail of product package with droplets of ice and water, dripping.
[ACTION] Hand of unseen person reaches into cooler and grabs bottle of (BRAND HERE) and carries it away, out of frame. Camera stays still on cooler, showing many bottles of (BRAND HERE) bobbing in ice water.
[SOUND] No dialogue. No voice over. Only SFX: “Sloshing Ice” - “Sound of Bottle Cracking Open” - “Sound of Drinking” - “Sound of Person going ‘Aah!’”
[CUT TO BLACK] (BRAND HERE) logo fades in.
[PAUSE] [FADE to BLACK]
[END]
Cool thanks for the detailed example I will figure out how to apply it to my situation!
Get a decent website set up showing your portfolio and contact details, then email the link to local architects with a follow up phone call a few days later, and build an online presence on business related social media like Linkedin. Make contacts in the industry you want to create work for. Update your website regularly to list your clients and show the work you’ve done for them (getting some well known clients will boost your reputation). Make sure your work is exceptional, and ask clients to give you reviews to post on your website/linkedin.
Thanks for this answer! I really need to work on a website but mine always look terrible 
and I forgot about linked in! Haven’t been on there in years… I have much to do…
But seriously thanks 
Hello !
I think the first thing before getting jobs is a good portfolio, what I see in yours is a good start, but there is only one project that is really related to archivz, and it’s quite good but not transcending either. I would expect more complex exterior projects alongside interiors, that showcase a good sense of lighting and composition.
As for product viz, there is basically nothing so I would have to take your word that you can manage my precious project you’re asking me to give you…
From there the best would be to start in a company or working with architects to learn the ropes and it’s frankly the most beneficial, but it comes with difficulties, like maybe they don’t work with blender, they may not need someone to work for them… They may ask more quality in your work.
Anyway, say you work 5 years there at the end you’ll have worked on complex projects, learned from experienced artists, you’ll have a relevant portfolio with actual jobs, you know what to expect / how to deal with clients, how much money to asks and how to make a proper invoice.
You also might already have some connections to get started…
If not, you’ll have to improvise all that on your own, or with what you’ll find online which is hard to compare with pro experience.
Also experience is then your edge compared to the regular Joe. For now your only possible edge is being cheap compared to experienced people, or that could be that you’re very good if you work hard, but experience still is key.
That says a lot on the kind of clients you may get, and generally the client that don’t pay a lot are difficult because they want fine cuisine quality for the price of fast food, and they don’t always have a clear understanding…
Well I’m not sure I would do that, but yeah sometimes you need to get into commercial mode for sure.
I think if you work with professionals artists (architect, studios) you just need to be yourself, your portfolio is going to do the talking. The last bit is about communication skills and teamwork.
With clients I think it’s a bit the same but you can throw sparks a bit more as they are less in a position to judge and they’ll rely more on you selling your skills.
It’s definitely not a good idea to try to be more clever with professional as they see you coming from very far away. Furthermore I think it’s generally simple. You have potential to interest them, they have a position to fulfill you’ll quickly see that things will go well. If not you can try whatever thing if these two conditions aren’t met it’s not going to work.
You’re right. I wouldn’t just come out and propose such a thing any, old time.
It’s a thing that you can use if the time and circumstance is right. You’ve got to know the guy you’re talking to and gauge the situation.
It’s not something that you “should” do but it is something that you “can” do if you think so.
This isn’t something you can apply to every situation and, I was wrong if I led people to believe otherwise. I often speak in “shorthand” and expect people to understand that, without explaining myself.
My bad!
That may be a problem, but architecture is quite flexible with this. At least that’s what I think. There are a lot of interior designers and architects, who don’t make visualizations themselves at all, so chances are, they don’t work with any software for that at all. I think this is as good as it gets for the choice of software. Some might even be willing to switch if they don’t have any more people working on visualization only.
Also, archviz may be very practical(as opposed to artistic). There are people who are looking for very basic stuff. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to skip waiting and start looking for jobs today. It’s gonna be hard, but… it’s possible. You never know… They don’t always need to be very sophisticated.
To be honest it has happened that I asked a possible client for an example of their expectations and then turned them down, because I have no idea, how to match their expectations, not because it’s too sophisticated, but the other way around - because I just don’t know how to produce such a … how should I put it?.. simple result. I really wouldn’t know how to put so little effort into my work. And it’s a real problem, they expect very basic result, I don’t have workflows for that and seriously couldn’t do it if I tried. It has happened and not only once. Not sure how well those are paid though… Anyway.. My point is: there are different circumstances in this field. And by the way @jem3d, what I see in your portfolio is orders of magnitude better than what I am talking about. I think you can find jobs. I would recommend start looking.
Just to be clear: I 'am not saying that those jobs should be the goal, and other stuff sozap was talking about is very true and also the artistic side of this is absolutely the thing to aim for. And the basic jobs tend to be the most difficult and tiring sometimes also, I am just saying there might be opportunities to choose from.
Yeah well sorry , I must admit that I gave a quick read so I might have missed the nuances…
I agree that some bits of luck and social skills could always help, and yeah it really goes down to how you can judge the situation and see if it just need that extra push or if it’s dead from the beginning…
Ok since you’re the expert in that field here I would take that as a good advice ! While I work in 3D archviz isn’t my thing so hard to tell exactly about the requirements !
oh that sounds like a title too serious for me… I do think my advice cannot do much harm though, only good. Nothing bad can happen if you start looking now. 
You’re definitely right ! I didn’t want to sounds too serious, but yeah I wanted to point out that you have a lot of experience in archviz so it’s worth following your advice !
[quote=“sozap, post:14, topic:1648110”]
As for product viz, there is basically nothing so I would have to take your word that you can manage my precious project you’re asking me to give you…
[/quote]
Yes im just asking for help and advice will be doing product viz work in addition to arch viz once I finish this current project 
But yes you have a lot of good points here and im not really interested in working for a studio and that would require a lot of time to build a professional portfolio just to get hired when it is possible to get freelance with perseverance and bit of good work
Otherwise you’ve given me lots of great advice to thank you!