I’m both curious and hatching a scheme. 'fess up.
csven/ykh
I’m surprised. Especially given the opportunities.
I’ve kind of wondered about opportunities in those realms, too. Just in Secondlife alone there seems to be plenty of willing customers looking for virtual products to buy. A designer that has the tools to get products to that marketplace could probably do pretty well.
I’m doing very very well doing virtual world work. Enough so that I’ve pushed off two good ID projects that came my way over the last six weeks.
How is this work arranged usually? Is it a case of doing something and trying to find buyers, or is it usually commissioned?
It’s all really compelling stuff. There’s certainly a stigma attached to it, though. I could see a lot of traditional designers thumbing their nose at designing “fake” products, but it still comes down to recognizing and solving problems and, of course, making a living. “Fake” products for real money will likely change the stigma for up and coming designers.
All of the above.
Project I’m on now, I was approached for both 3D and branding expertise. The companies read my blog and came to me.
The most recent inquiry I’ve had was yesterday. Ad agency guy asked me about doing some vr work for their client. Still waiting to hear more about that one.
There’s certainly a stigma attached to it, though. I could see a lot of traditional designers thumbing their nose at designing “fake” products, but it still comes down to recognizing and solving problems and, of course, making a living. “Fake” products for real money will likely change the stigma for up and coming designers.
Any designer who thumbs their nose is an idiot afaic. People who ignore it remind me of the late 80’s when traditional designers said they’d never use a computer for design. They were special. Now I know some of them who are special working at the checkout counter.
I have been working in a modelmaking moldmaking capacity and always really enjoyed bring objects in to the real world, but recently I’ve been teaching myself Maya polygon modeling and kinematics.
Just curious what you mean by virtual products, to be used for what purpose?
I read the article you linked and that is interesting, I just don’t exactly understand why game developers would need IDesigners as apposed to more talented sculptors.
I like to hear more about this subject and its opportunities
Variety of purposes. UGS is, according to reports, moving into avatar-based virtual interfaces.
One example: If you work as a factory manager, you need to lay out the floor for efficiency. Where do you put the presses? Where do you put the assembly cells? Where do the incoming parts sit? Where do the finished parts go? What is the worker interaction?
If you lay everything out in a virtual world, you can populate it with automated avatars and then test different configurations.
On the other extreme people buy virtual products for their own use. In places like South Korea, kids are getting in trouble with parents now for spending money on custom mods for things like racing games. Sound crazy? So did ringtones. A few pennies here. A few pennies there. It adds up (just ask Google). So right now the money for alot of people is in “skins” - custom textures for their avatars. No different than a new paint job for some kid’s virtual race car that he uses in online games.
Personally, I’m working to fuse the two - real and virtual. I’ve already shown how it can be done, I just need to pick a product and do it.
I read the article you linked and that is interesting, I just don’t exactly understand why game developers would need IDesigners as apposed to more talented sculptors.
Because there’s more to this than shape. Some virtual products use HUDS - not much different than designing an interface for a medical device screen. And there just aren’t enough game devs. And of those out there, not many design, they mostly just model and someone else does the concept art (usually illustrators). But IDers could do all these things.
I like to hear more about this subject and its opportunities
My blog is really all about this stuff. That’s why I’m getting the work now. But I don’t talk about design as making a shape, I talk about design as part of the big picture. That’s why I discuss marketing, advertising, the effects of piracy on ID, rapid-manufacturing, aso. All ties in together.