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 last update: 04.01.2008
 
WORKING WITH BLENDER & EARNING MONEY
This is an article I wanted to write since a long time. There are more and more people today who use blender in their professional activity, and consequently earn money with it. There are also many people who falled in love with blender, and who would like to make a living of it. So I thought maybe the second group can benefit a bit of the experience of the first one...

I work today as a freelance architect, and all the 3D work I do for myself and for others is made with blender. This took time, I worked many years in several architecture offices before now, with other 3D software too. But there are some unique things in blender that make your whole professional approach very different than when using conventional software. I'll try to make a general picture of what I've seen until now. Of course, this all is my own personnal point of view, and probably many of you will have a different one. If you think something I write is very wrong, I would be grateful to know...

And if you have any comment on this, please drop me a line on my guestblog...
1. Disclaimer
Don't worry, this is not a standard legal disclaimer, just a reminder of something that might seem obvious, but that is very important to know before starting: blender doesn't help you to earn money. It doesn't do anything for you, doesn't do anything better than other software, neither will be the culprit if anything doesn't work the way you want. Blender is only a tool for artists. Who makes money is the artist, not the tool. Blender can help you with many things but not with earning money.

So, before starting, you must know if you want to earn money as an artist, or if you want to try. Nobody knows if he/she can work as an artist before trying, so don't worry too much if you are not sure if you can. Just keep in mind that things maybe won't work as you expected. And if you are very, very unsure, why not prepare a plan B, in case things go wrong, and allow you a time to try?

Earning money with blender is not easy. You won't get any job because of blender (at least at the time I'm writing this). But there are many things you can do to try. And there are more and more people who succeeded. And what could be nicer than earning a living with something you like to do? So, enough hesitation, let's try.
2. Choose your team
So, we all know blender, we love it, and we can use it fairly well. What's next?

First you must know what will be your hunting field. Blender is a tool for producing artwork, not anything else (at least at the moment). So what you will be doing with blender is producing artwork, in the form of computer graphics. But we know that there are many categories on the professional computer graphics scene, and they are usually quite well separated. I'll list below a couple of well-known of those categories, that can use blender artwork, and that could pay someone like you for doing it. If you like RPG, think of these as classes, you should pick at least one (multi-classes is allowed too :)
  • Architecture visualization: realistic (or not) rendering of architecture projects, sometimes with animation or even real-time animation. Usually who want such works are architects and constructors, who want nice images of their project to show to the client, to illustrate the project better and convince them to buy it. But sometimes those images are used for other purposes, like advertising the project in the press or in shows, for architecture competitions presentations, etc...
To do architecture visualization requires a bit of knowledge of what architecture is. For that reason, usually many people who do that are architects themselves (It is what I do too). But nothing prevents you from doing it without being architect. You must just know that you'll need to learn quite a bit over the subject, but it is something you can learn while training. You will also need to develop a good sensibility to photography matters, like materials, light or atmosphere.
  • Graphic design and Publicity: publicity is a big consumer of CG artwork. Everyone can also see how today publicity relies heavily on 3D software. 3D artwork is present in posters, commercials, packings, everything that has an image. The chains and hierarchies used in building publicity work today are huge and complex, from the client who orders a commercial to the guy who models the objects to be used in it, there is a big chain of people, all doing a different part of the job, and that chain can change completely from one project to another. Outside publicity, many other graphic design areas use CG artwork in a similar way. For example, business cards design, posters, logos, book covers, illustration, magazine production, etc...
To do graphic design is generally not difficult technically, but there are so many different specialties and techniques that you must almost relearn everything everytime you do something different. I think what you need above all here is being someone flexible and adaptable. You'll need to change the way you do things often, cope with many different people, and respond quickly to problems.
  • Web design: webdesign is probably not something you can live of just by doing work with blender. But it is a field where you can really earn a good money while using blender regularly. A good web design uses specially-created graphics, not stock graphics that are reused in several sites. And blender is more and more used to create such graphics. You must know, though, that in most cases webdesign is made by very small firms or single persons, and that it is hard to make a living only making graphics. You'll need to know much more, like HTML programming, maybe other web languages, in other words, you need to be able to do web design, not just web graphics.
  • Game industry: This seems more like a dream, no? Working in the game industry seems something almost impossible, most of the time. But you would be surprised how many game development firms there are, and maybe closer to you that you think. I have several friends working in the game development industry, and most of them arrived there without even thinking it was possible. But even so, there are far less oportunities in this field than in the previous two.
The big point of working in the game industry is experience. And the good point of it is that there are plenty of ways to train your game design skills. Start building levels for your favorite game, join an open-source game project, or even make your own demos. But the path that leads to the game industry is most of the time slow and gradual, so you must be prepared to climb all the steps.
  • Film and animation: Here is probably the less commercial field of all. but if you really feel you are an artist, maybe here is the class that has the more to offer to you. Here is where you have your chance to become famous! But entering here is really difficult. I guess outside Hollywood, film-making industries are very hard to encounter, and usually have very small structures, that don't offer much opportunity to make a living of it. So here you must be prepared to work hard on your own, and you will need to prove your talent many times before you gain something in return. But if you are very good at it, there are a couple of oportunities around...
  • Teaching: This is a bit different, but even so, it is a valid way to earn money using blender. Many universities, schools, private courses, associations and other groups are beginnig to look seriously at blender. They see the enormous potential of teaching methods and software that don't force students into buying anything. Many blender courses rise everywhere. So, why not have a try? Looking around, you should find people interested in promoting a blender course in any corner of the world. Be prepared that here, almost more important thanknowing blender well, you need good teaching skills. Have you tried to teach something to a group of people already?

3. Your starting level
Okay, this is a very resumed vision of the CG world, there are certainly many more uses to CG artwork than that.,but these are the ones I know a little bit of. If you have things to add to the list, let me know!

In all of those categories, though, one thing you'll need everywhere is talent in doing your artwork. Usually, people get nervous when they think about talent, they think of it as a gift you receive at birth. But talent is something you can learn. Creativity is something that can be trained. It needs hard work, though, which means that if you are not well motivated, there are chances that you will loose courage when you'll see the inevitable enormous amount of bad work that you'll produce. You'll probably think you'll never succeed. And you might desist.

So be prepared to bear that, you will certainly produce very bad work, MUCH very bad work, but you need to pass through that, and if this is really what you want, you will keep going, and one day you'll look at your work and think "damn, this is VERY good". And that day, you'll see that other people have the same opinion, and that day you'll be able to gain money.

Maybe you are there already? How can you know? Well, show your work around, and by the replies you get, you'll know quickly what people think. Of course with artistic matters, the opinion of others is a delicate thing: Your own opinion is always what imports most. What if they are not the same? Well, there is no receipe. Listen to yourself, listen to the others, and you will know when your work is already good enough.

If not, no worries, go back training, and sooner or later it'll be your time.