Wow. Thanks for Chicago's business pedigree Matt! That was more
information than I needed but still good for my culture! :)
Lowball bids...pfff. it just cost less to live here that's probably one
of the main reason why we don't charge as much! ;) And yeah, Toronto
even steals from Montreal. Bleh! ;)
MAC
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf
Of Matt Lind
Sent: July 19, 2006 6:29 PM
To: xsi(at)Softimage.COM
Subject: RE: 3d studios in Chicago?
We used to have a lot more work, but you Canadians keep stealing it from
us
with your lowball bids - especially in Toronto.
Cinematics and FX was never really a big market in Chicago - or at least
not
in animated form. Chicago is biased more towards editorial. When Jon
Hughes was making films (Ferris Bueller, Home Alone, Uncle Buck,
Breakfast
Club, etc..), there was a lot of Chicago film work, but today it's
mostly
editing, games, post production, print ads and web design/e-commerce.
There's also a fair share of independent film making and side projects
for
place such as Navy Pier, but those are usually one-off's and/or low
budget.
Within the post production moniker I would have to include corporate
video
such as court room animation, corporate training, education,
documentaries,
.. basically brick n' mortar stuff. That market is very stable and
interesting if you like to learn as you have to tackle and solve
production
problems you don't normally encounter in games or film work. However,
it's
not terribly abundant or well paying for full time job seekers. You can
do
moderately well as a freelancer if you have the connections. Chicago is
within driving distance of several markets such as Milwaukee,
Minneapolis,
Detroit, St. Louis, Indianapolis, .... So thers's multiple wells to
draw
from if you don't mind knocking on some doors. It'll take a lot work
though.
I should correct my previous post by stating Dreamation is a film
studio,
not a games studio. It's mysterious though as they don't give any hints
as
to who they are. They claim to be run by director Jon Waters and are
located in Lake Forest, Illinois, which is a very well-to-do area
(around
the corner from Halas Hall - Chicago Bears headquarters), but outside of
that....nobody has any clue what they do because even their classified
ads
are vague. They had a few anime characters as part of the ad artwork,
but
who knows what it means. I heard rumors that Paramount backs them in
some
form, but I wouldn't put too much stock in that as Viacom and it's
subsidiaries tend to be very visible when starting projects and
advertising.
Dreamation isn't.
Chicago is the unofficial small business capital of the United States.
About 85% of it's business is classified as small business. The other
15%
is of course giants like Boeing, McDonalds, United Airlines, Sears,
Motorola, State Farm Insurance, etc.. So just about any industry you
jump
into in the Chicago area (outside of the immediate downtown or larger
suburbs such as OakBrook and Schaumburg) will be small to midsize
companies
surrounded by a few giants. The 3d market in Chicago is structured the
same
way.
Matt
---------------------
Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
Matt(at)Mantom.net
Mantom, Chicago
Date : Wed, 19 Jul 2006
To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
From: marc-andre.carbonneau(at)ubisoft.com
Subject: RE: 3d studios in Chicago?
Hmmm that's kind of not attractive for 3D artists then.
So unless you want to make 3d for games you're pretty much stuck
freelancing? No movie effects, cinematics or such?
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