Jarrad Gittos (@jegmedia) is a 3D artist operating out of Perth. He was kind enough to give Brains? an introduction to both himself and 3D in Perth. He offers some great advice on training up and finding work. Thanks again mate.

My name is Jarrad Gittos, a 23 year old Australian Multimedia Designer based in Perth, WA. Having graduated high school in 2003, I went on to study 1 year of Communication and Information Technology at ECU. After that year, I transferred to Multimedia Design at Curtin University.

Graduating the BA(Multimedia Design) in 2007, I was lucky enough to land a contract through a client project in my final semester of uni, and subsequently commenced directly after graduating. I am still currently working this contract for the health department developing interactive 3d animations and media for education on wound care.

Working in the medical field opened up more opportunities, where in early 2008 I worked on a project for the 3D visualisation of a potential cancer cure, shown nationally on most news channels. From that time, I have worked on a variety of projects, ranging from promotional videos where I did work on filming, editing, script writing, post production, directing and marketing; to more detailed 3D animations such as the complete anatomy of a human foot. You may call me a generalist as I tackle video editing, interactive design as well as 3D animation using the whole Adobe suite and Maya/Mental Ray.

I have also started tutoring Multimedia Design at Curtin University adding to all the other work I am doing.

Showreel of Jarrad Gittos – Perth 3D Animator from Jarrad Gittos on Vimeo.

It’s not really that easy to find work in 3D field in Perth. In my opinion, the number of graduates from 3D courses far outweighs the jobs available, especially in this tough economic time. If your looking for an extremely interesting, engaging and exciting career in 3D animation and viz, my suggestion would actually be to move interstate. Sounds bad but you would probably be better off in the long run…

In saying that, there are quite a few new creative houses popping up around Perth. Below is a small list of ones I know of.

doubleg – http://doubleg.com.au/
Website doesn’t have anything, but these are the guys behind chicken treat chicken – they have been around for a long time and have done a fair bit of work.

Lastpixel – http://www.lastpixel.com.au/
These guys are the 3D viz gurus of perth. They have been around for a long time, have landed some major contracts overseas (dubai) and from what I hear they are starting to branch into creative vfx and advertising (or at least trying). They have an incredible level of quality.

John Cheese – http://www.johncheese.com.au/
I don’t know much about John Cheese, although I hear they are an upcomming player in the advertising/vfx scene in perth.

Boogie Monster – http://boogiemonster.com.au/
Relatively new vfx studio in Perth that are growing at a fast pace – They have a talented crew and from what I hear through the grapevine, they are hiring!

Mango Blue – http://mangoblue.com.au/
Does freelance compositing and animation for vfx and commercials. They have done quite a fair bit of work for TVC’s in perth, and have a high standard.

Siamese – http://www.siamese.com.au/
Post production company for film and tvc’s. Don’t know much about these guys either, so can’t comment too much about it.

My tips on finding work in Perth is to focus on your own work, specialize if you have to (3d animation, 3d rendering, vfx, compositing) and make sure your standard of work is up to scratch and you are proud of what you can do. I know a lot of graduates finish uni with the mindset “i finally finished now I can relax”, while they only had the goal of graduating and passing assignments and not focusing on the long term of having a high standard of work to get a job later. That would be my number one tip, and that will be what I will stress while tutoring at Curtin…

There are a few places where 3D artists are trained. These are the places:

Curtin University – http://www.curtin.edu.au/ – Multimedia Design course.
This is what I graduated from. Its an decent course, but also covers a lot more than 3D animation such as interactive design, 2d animation, theory of design and some graphic design. Its a very general course but if the student is dedicated, you can get a fair bit from it.

SAE – http://perth.sae.edu/en-gb/home/
SAE is a college that covers audio, film, and some animation.

Tafe
Tafe as you would know has a lot of courses, and can be very generalist along the lines of the Curtin course. They are on par with the Curtin course in my opinion as they have more time dedicated to working on projects.

ECU – http://www.ecu.edu.au/
They are probably the least dedicated animation education in Perth, and are more generalist design, but have passionate people behind the design course.

You’ll find that most of the talented 3d artists in perth are actually self trained. There are so many resources online, both free and paid that will deliver an education if not better than these educational institutions. Examples can be gnomon workshop, creative cow, digital tutors, animation mentor, vfx phd and the list goes on. If you are dedicated enough and passionate enough about the 3D industry, you won’t really need to attend an education facility.

Cracking the 3D industry in Perth is hard. Make sure you are producing the best work you can, and keep working on your skills until you get that job you want. What it boils down to is who has the best work, and the only way you can get to this stage is to continuously work on developing your portfolio. Also, don’t be afraid to network! You’ll find most of the work you will get (freelance) will be from word of mouth. Get out there, listen to whats going on, attend drinks nights, ask questions. The more people you know the better you will be.

Another thing is, don’t be afraid to dive into the deep end and try and do things for yourself. You may want to take a small business course at tafe or something. Get to know how to set yourself up for freelance. If the jobs aren’t available, try and make them come to you. Remember, in these tough economic times, people needing this work want to save some money, they can’t always pay these big studios tens of thousands of dollars to do the work, and will seek out capable cheaper solutions. This blog is quite good for solo business ideas (http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/)

If you are passionate enough and want to work in the 3d industry so badly, you will get there with perseverance…