Freelancing isn't not just about the hardware for a single workstation. If your bank acount is lacking zeroes, it's probably not the best idea to start freelancing (in terms of represents an independent company by yourself). It's okay to do just,... well, *freelance work at companies*, but thats not very different from permanent position in terms of hardware you own personally. You really don't need to bring your own workstation since the company will provide it anyway.
When it comes to act as an independent contractor/company and you're going to do it in a proffesionall way, you will need a fileserver, backupserver, renderfarm, rendermanagement software, tape-backups/archiving sort of thing, ftp-accounts for costumers etc. Not to mention the software itself. I don't know how this apply in the US but I think its not that different from any other country. In germany, there are two kind of freelancers: Most of them are working in companies like a regular staff members, but jumping between companies and they're not very different from regular staff (except from the fact that there are freelancers). There are a handful of freelancers that managed to work absolutly independent and acting as companies. But thats very hard and they're only a few of them. I think it's different from the US, just because in the US you can buy a house/building for cheap, have the basement occupied with a decent renderfarm and all tech and make the first floor entierly for business. Have costumers visit your company, not realising that it's also a private residence? Maybe not. If you are going to do jobs by yourself and to not work for other 3D or VFX companies you either have to compete with them or concentrate on another market or niche (like low budget CAD-viz or whatever). It's very hard to establish yourself even you have all the tech and the skills (this includes not only your "3D skills" but also project managing, accounting and acquiring costumers. I might have lost the point here, I apologize..:) sven From: <mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [ <mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Johan Forsgren Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 9:02 PM To: <mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: OT: How low can you go (Hardware) Hey all, I'm currently hold a permanent position i small studio, but I'm starting to wonder if freelancing isn't the way to go for me, This brings me to the question of hardware, and I'm wondering if any of you freelancers can't give your input on what the minimum spec for a workstation should be. I cant afford anything beyond basic, really the no 1 reason that I'm thinking about freelancing is the complete lack of zero's on my bank statement. But it also limits my options equipment-wise quite a bit. I'm thinking something-ish like this: intel i5-3350P 8 gig ram geforce 640 gtm no ssd :( So I guess my question here is if there's possible to do simpler 3d work on a personal workstation like this? I understand that its POSSIBLE but how badly will I want to chew my arm of after say 6 months of freelancing doing product viz and motion graphics? -- JOHAN FORSGREN CG ARTIST Phone + 46 31 752 20 00 <mailto:johan.forsg...@edithouse.se> johan.forsg...@edithouse.se Direct + 46 31 752 20 07 Follow Edithouse at at <http://www.twitter.com/edithouse> twitter.com/edithouse <http://www.edithouse.se/> example's logo Edit house Film Works <http://www.edithouse.se/> www.edithouse.se Lilla Bommen 4a, S-411 04 Göteborg, Sweden <http://www.twitter.com/edithouse> www.twitter.com/edithouse
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