This is just a curiosity. How much is requested a Blender Freelancer?
Looking around the entire world seems dominated by Max/maya job requests, in every fields, except Motion Graphic, the two ADSK software are mentioned everywhere. On Freelance.com, if you propose yourself like 3d artist, is requested a test on 3dsm or/and Maya.
On http://www.blendernetwork.org/jobs there is only few (too few) requests for paid jobs.
Seems very hard find a job for a blender user, and this a big for everyone want learn blender for find a job… or not?
If you work for a studio, the prerequisites are usually Maya or Max.
But if you are doing freelance work, the clients usually want animations, product renderings, vizualizations, Unity assets…
I get by doing only freelance work in Blender, I have yet to come across a client who would want me
to use a specific software or even ask which software I use. If you are not a part of a production pipeline, it really doesn’t matter.
I might be wrong here, but there is this notion that the clients are requesting a Blender freelancer, 3dsmax freelancer, Maya freelancer.
No, the clients want to get the job done, they don’t care which software, they care about the final product. Make sure you have a good portfolio (which I think it is the most important factor in getting a job, rather than the specifics of which software you use), the competition is tight… Good luck!
Not sure I’ve met anyone seeking a Blender freelancer yet, but I have seen one or two freelancers that can export to a format that works with other software (like Max, Maya, Unity, etc).
It really depends on what you’re after from the person being hired - if you want a rendered image or animation, you generally couldn’t care less what it was made in so long as the price is right & the quality acceptable. If you want just a straight up modelled & textured mesh, it’s again generally not a problem and I’ve seen people using Blender in a pipeline with other software (such as 3DS Max) without any issues.
When it comes to a rigged and/or animated mesh, that’s where things get sticky. I had to stop working with a good mate of mine who works in the Maya world cos he can’t grok Blender but let’s not derail the thread talking about why. Anyway, rigs are almost always incompatible between software applications and Blender isn’t really good at importing/exporting skeletally bound meshes with animations. Despite his being a whiz at animation, he can’t work on my projects because we cannot get the import/export pipeline to work reliably between us.
tl;dr: Depends on the work. When it is part of a pipeline, Blender tends to be frowned upon due to import/export issues (real & perceived). When it is an end-product, people tend not to care where the work comes from so long as it is good.
I would also like to ask about working with blender “in secret” for example using blender for modeling , texturing and then importing the work to Maya/Max , how well it works in practice.
I think that I read somewhere that Studion were ok with it mostly. But its good to read further confirmation and personal experience.
Very much this. As a freelancer, I know the client has absolutely no interest in how you do what they’re paying you to do. They are paying you for results.
I have no experience in freelancing, but since 2000 I live by Blender - 13 years!!! (At game developer companies. Most of times we using Blender as 3d tool and level editor.)
As a freelancer, I use Blender also collaborating with (animation) studios that have a Maya based pipeline; that is, I can do modeling and shape keys then exported as Obj and texturing in Blender, all stuff that they can use without problems in Maya.
How does your team cope with maintaining the game across three different platforms, and so many unknown hardware specs? Are you using Unity? How easy is it to release a game under Steam?
Sorry for asking, but its something I would like to do and wonder if its a better option than developing for say, Android or iOS.
The engine we use, Darkplaces, natively runs on Windows/Linux and Mac. I have dual boot for Windows/Linux64 and old PC with Linux 32bit. So I compile updates myself. A third party devs used to build for Mac, but it was such a mess that I stopped making updates for Mac. For my upcoming title I chose not to support OSX until I get my own Mac to avoid relying on someone else.
PC hardware is all the same really. Engine works through OpenGL API, so any GPU with OpenGL 2.2 support would run the game. That’s the only thing you need to worry about on PC - GPU and video drivers. And there are only 3 of the vendors - Nvidia, AMD, Intel. So you don’t really need to worry about hardware.
Nope, using Darkplaces engine (under GPL v2 license). Releasing on Steam is easy, if you get accepted. I started in 2008, when there was no market saturation, no indie bubble, no Greenlight.
Depends. I am PC gamer, I never owned a console or mobile gaming platform, including mobile phone that can play games. So the choice was clear for me. Market on PC is not as saturated as on mobile platforms, but it’s gotten worse since all these bundles and whatnot began popping up.
If you can make small fun casual games, like Flappy Bird, then mobile market is for you. I’d recommend using Unity for mobile games. Note that Android users have horrible hardware segmentation and expect for free stuff (free games). Quite hard to make money on Android platform making premium games.
Keep in mind that if you try to freelance for game art with Blender by itself you may run into some pitfalls, at least when it comes to environment art. While you will generally probably make props and stuff, if you had to make modular set pieces such as tilable geometry for walls, making terrain as seperate loadable chunks, or foliage using common game art workflows you will hit some snags that require editing normals. You may be able to get away with it and someone at the studio could adjust it for you or you could use another piece of software to finish it off, but without a piece of software that can edit normals some clients might not be so happy about the output.