Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I plan to leave tech to pursue art

liamhz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 154 posts

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#141

Post by goldenchrome »

mushbino wrote: post #36
eludwig wrote: post #4

The grass is always greener! :-D I smile because I left commercial art back in the 80's to become a software developer! More power to Laim and I hope it works out well for him, but I have my doubts. Working as a full-time (especially on-staff) artist answerable to an Art Director sucks!! Artists are not respected, paid terribly and just generally considered disposable. At least that's how it was in my day. Again, Lia…

He could just move to Product Design for half the pay of a swe and the same treatment as a production artist. Worst of both worlds.

High tech pays designers the same as engineers and in my opinion it’s a much better gig. No one’s looking over your shoulder to see how many lines of code you commit.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#143

Post by AHOHA »

I am an "artsy" person myself, both digital (3D, photography, vfx, animation, manipulation, digital drawing, infographics, etc.) and traditional (drawing, craft, sculpting, etc.), However, it's just as a hobby as others mentioned here, it will be a struggle when it comes to financial support even if you are top of the line. What I did instead is going into engineering (electrical one, yeah sounds far even with software devs), but you would be surprised how your artsy skills play a big factor in your work, because at the end of the day, your data/info/ideas/etc. needs to be presented and communicated, either internally or with clients, and it actually most of the time put me ahead of my colleagues/competitors.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#144

Post by shishy »

LiamHz wrote: post #29

Hi! I'm the author of this post -- it was an unlisted draft that I shared with a few friends, was planning to rewrite most of this before publishing. Please forgive the rough edges Main changes I'd make to this article - Agreed with others that I might be naive, but I'm 20 y/o and now's the right time to shoot for my dreams rather than settle - I'm applying to animation school soon (Sheridan). I started coding when I…

You only have one life, too precious to waste on things you don't enjoy. Best of luck!

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#145

Post by t0bia_s »

LiamHz wrote: post #29

Hi! I'm the author of this post -- it was an unlisted draft that I shared with a few friends, was planning to rewrite most of this before publishing. Please forgive the rough edges Main changes I'd make to this article - Agreed with others that I might be naive, but I'm 20 y/o and now's the right time to shoot for my dreams rather than settle - I'm applying to animation school soon (Sheridan). I started coding when I…

I have degree from film animation, one year in indie game development and for now I'm an visual artist freelancer over 7 years.

To be honest, I cannot say that make living by what is your hobby is good decision. It could easily became just work that needs to be done. Which is fine if you'll do it with passion. But especially in art it is huge difference between creativity for contract and creativity for expressing yourself. Those in second category are extremely lucky if able to make living.

Also you would probably not spend your free time by doing art.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#146

Post by tjr225 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #116
tjr225 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve read too much into what I’ve said and taken too much offense. Text is hard so I don’t blame you. “retiring and doing art” is an absurdly simplistic path to point someone towards and it’s not helpful to anyone who wants to actually create anything at all. And it probably doesn’t work in most cases. “It’s what I’ve done!”

You seem to be aggressively pushing the idea that "doing art" means a very specific thing - i.e. influencing millions. Someone painting for their own pleasure is also art. And even if they never exhibited it, they are still creating things. Your definitions seem far too narrow.

You’ve got me all wrong- surely you would agree there is a difference between arts and crafts… right?

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#147

Post by willjp »

boppo1 wrote: post #138
willjp wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoy your studies! Sheridan is a good place. As a third option, you'll find many opportunities in the industry as a hybrid artist/coder "TD" jobs if that area holds any appeal. Larger salaries are possible if you are dedicated and are willing/able to travel to where the high profile work is being done. My only advice would be to research the available jobs, and if you can, visit a studio or two so that you are going…

Can you expand on TD roles and where how to break in? I sort of fit the bill.

Sure! It’s an acronym for “technical director”. I don’t think it is standardized across the industry at all, besides it employing people that can code that are also familiar with art production in some capacity. Don’t let the “director” in the title scare you, it is primarily writing tools to serve production.

You might be working on tools to help set scenes, versioning assets, managing asset pipelines, tracking, CI/CD, rigging, managing levels of detail so that scenes are performant for animators, tools to help with animation etc.

I think you’ll mostly find this role in larger, more established animation and vfx companies. I think that applying for one of these positions would be the easiest way in. Apparently it is a difficult position to fill. My way was slower, I taught myself to code and started writing tools on my own time to help solve issues I encountered as a generalist at a smaller company with tight deadlines. I don’t recommend this way, besides as a stepping stone to something more formal.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#148

Post by 6stringmerc »

kinleyd wrote: post #125
6stringmerc wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also I have been able to pawn or sell extra guitars acquired when works was better. Art tools can retain some value.

I hear you. In my case I was finally able to get to music late (past 50). I'm so grateful I was around long enough to do that. It does not pay any bills, but it gives me much happiness, even though the guitar playing is subpar.

Don’t worry guitar is an awful instrument in design and worse than learning German. Enjoy the ride, the quirks, and all the fun songs along the way. Nothing like Tom Petty to make a whole room feel great!

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#149

Post by dumpsterdiver »

Fricken wrote: post #132
dumpsterdiver wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I find frightening about AI image generation is the speed of iteration. Some of the images generated by Midjourney within seconds would take a human artist quite a long time to create. You can take a complete work from a paid human artist and run it through some prompts to get closer to the result you were looking for while retaining most of the original work. Even if AI don't completely displace concept ar…

As Artists gain the ability to do more with less standards and expectations will change. The arrival of the printing press, the photograph, and the rise of digital effects were all ineffectual at putting artists out of work.

While I agree that human artists will always find their way to fashion, you also have to consider that ten years ago there were a lot of people looking for good-enough concept art. Good enough just won't make it anymore.

Re: I plan to leave tech to pursue art

#150

Post by robertlagrant »

tjr225 wrote: post #146
robertlagrant wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be aggressively pushing the idea that "doing art" means a very specific thing - i.e. influencing millions. Someone painting for their own pleasure is also art. And even if they never exhibited it, they are still creating things. Your definitions seem far too narrow.

You’ve got me all wrong- surely you would agree there is a difference between arts and crafts… right?

Sure. For example, painting a picture is art; painting a wall is craft.
Post reply on HN