I need to find a different way to make a living. I spend most of my life driving a truck down the road which brings in money but does not help towards learning useful skills. When I look at Unity, they have certifications to give someone a clear learning path, and to help break through the competition when looking for employment. When I set in to learn something new like CC3, iClone 7, Da Vinci, Maya LT, etc, it is sort of a combination of reading the manual, looking at videos, asking questions in the forum, and a Facebook Group. Basically learning by creating a project and then trying to figure out how to do the project.

I come from an aviation background where the standards are clearly defined. You learn everything needed for a particular certificate or rating and this is how progress is measured. With 3D animation and trying to figure out how to tell a story, I find myself sort of waffling not really knowing the foundational knowledge and skills needed to complete a specific task. Perhaps if I were an artist it would be more intuitive, but I'm not. 

I see that as a freelancer there is some demand for iClone related skills. Does learning iClone lead to employment opportunities, or is it more just to create your own projects? Up until now my intent with iClone is to learn enough to produce for VOD. But my free time is so limited that it will take years to finish one project at this rate. 

I need to train into something new, just trying to figure out what. Thanks.

Dan, did you see the related discussion here: https://forum.reallusion.com/481240/3D-Pros-got-a-serious-question?

I think breaking into a new field later in life will not be easy, especially if you still have a lot of learning to do.

My day job was not as "cool" as doing animation, but I had a lot more security and it also paid better. Occasionally, I checked salaries for such "cool" jobs and they were not encouraging. A lot of supply and little demand. 

Your best option, I think, is to try to do free-lance work, but still keep your day job. If you have dependents then there are further economic realities to consider obviously.

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Things I've found that have worked for me so far -

The RL Marketplace - is actually very fair, supportive and active -  but you have to put the work in because there is much competition, one thing that I'm not particularly crazy about is the rating system - it discourages innovation, experimentation and creativity and encourages you to cookie cutter success -  meaning you have to work around being the latest standard else risk some jackass not liking your experiment for stupid reasons. - and your whole shop gets downrated for it. Unfortunately RL is pushing the issue on this, so it places a lot of pressure to follow the standard. sadly,  i'm anything but standard - I invented watergrass!  and yes,  I'm aware i will probably get a poor star review on some 50 cent product because I just called someone a jackass,  but lets just call it proof of concept, I'll gladly give up a few stars to prove why i dislike the system. hahah!

Tshirt shops -  actually have a decent pulse -  the problem I found there is the more popular and active a site is,  the more you are at risk of major corporations trademark trolling you -  ie -  i made a tshirt saying "Do your Job"  in all text,  the nfl had it taken down because they trademarked the phrase. -  Big shops favor the rich - so if some rich dude that makes big sales on their site says to take your stuff down,  game over....then there's also plagiarism where people steal your popular ideas - literally copying and pasting your art to their t-shirts,  then there's also the TOS - where you can come up with a big selling idea ...but it involves making Pepe Christ - where you put pepe the frog on the cross -  reddit and 4chan love it,  t-shirt site takes it down because it's blasphemous.  contract law holds more power than the constitution in a court of law.  "we can cancel your account for any reason at all.." the lawyer pointed out to the judge. 

Youtube videos -  actually can work too,  but it's a job...you need to be consistent and post 2-3 times weekly with a topic that a large group of people are interested in.    -  you can buy some fame with youtube and get more views,  but buying that fame does not mean you can keep that audiences attention.  - also subject to TOS.

Twitch -  can make money ,  but again consistency,  being able to influence supporters to donate to your cause - harder than it sounds because hecklers and how you handle them are part of that path.  - subject to TOS.

Making movies -  Animagic / Job proved that's possible by making all the amazing achievements he has and getting into film festivals.

Content Production -  is a very good market,  and I've had some good success with it,  but it also depends on meeting the right people ....I'd say for every 20 craigslist ad you respond to,   you may get 1 serious trustworthy person. -  in my case,  I was creating green screens and content for a producer I was working with for his gameapp projects and music videos,   that went really well and the producer and I also became good friends -  but you don't meet those guys all the time.  The challenges in this case was not the producer I was working with,  when I made stuff for his personal projects it was a dream job,  we were both on the same page and it was simply a pleasure to meet the challenges he gave me,  the bad part was that he also did work for clients,  and his clients were not as fun for neither the producer or me -  but the producer and I both had an equal work ethic and we finished the job -  it was painful! lol.- moral of that story,  you can find a great contact ...yet still be at the mercy and wrath of their clients lol. Sadly,  life happened to him and he was forced to stop making art for a while,  so there's that part of developing a good list of clients,  life can change for anyone just like that. I still have a good friend tho.

But on that same note,  there is a demand for green screen content.  

There is also looking for clients and creating opportunities -  this is a grass roots approach where you reach out to people and offer to make youtube commercials, album covers, book covers,  or social media banners for them.  Simply price yourself lower than the cost the potential client can find on the net had they hired an established animation / graphics company -  and present a fair and reasonable product, even better do it for free,  I gladly worked for free at first with the producer friend I mentioned earlier,  when he first reached out to me,  he was pretty much starting out ...I enjoyed his ideas and determination and got a good feeling from him so I just wanted to help him and simply learn more get more pracitce...it wasn't till years later that I got an email saying "remember me ?" and we hooked up again after he started his own production company.  -  the price naturally can go up after trust is established and the client is aware of your cost and time per project. Prepare for tons of rejection, that's not a bad thing though,  it's just part of the process. Not everyone believes and trusts in God, so don't expect to do better than God lol. Trust is by far the most important trait,  earning that trust is the hardest job,  trust is not only a thing they know you wont cheat them,  but trusting you can get the job done to their specifications, so no matter how good you are,  you need to constantly try to be better. Fame comes 2nd,  you can be famous for making bad stuff, yet still make a fortune promoting great stuff to your haters lol. Fame is generally purchased. Da Vinci was among the most famous painters of his time, but we will truly never know who was the best.

creating models to sell -  nah -  too much competition,  and you have to be top of your game to compete. -  but there is lots of work in making models and renders for people selling jewelry, fashion and mechanical stuff -  that need help rendering concept art to show on their websites.

Web developers -  active web developers need art -  many make their own,  some hire cg artists / animators.

3D printing can be a thing,  but like all other things ...you need to know how to reach the audience interested ...and most of the time it's people who are fans of stuff that's trademarked or copyrighted.

There are other ways too,  but I'll stop there for now -  just keep in mind, the internet is all about the visual,  so there is a demand,  you just have to find your place in that demand.

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Thank you for helping me explore some ideas. Although I believe I will focus on movies, it is probably most important to be receptive to new ideas. I don't know what I don't know     Thanks again.

One of my favorite entrepreneur stories on the forum is from Mark who found a cool niche making theater projection projects for plays and musicals and such.  Seems to be putting his ample talent to productive use.  Sometimes its all about finding that niche (book covers, album covers, music videos, ect)

Here is his projection display website https://animatedprojections.com/ but he has a couple of threads on the forum about it as well.

edit: as I followed the link to the other thread I see it was discussed there.  Some good stories in that thread.  Carry on!

This may be informative for you: https://taafi.com/jobfair/2021/home.

It's a virtual job fair organized by taafi. It is Canadian (Toronto), but Canada is big in film and animation and it may give you some insight.

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@Dan   -  it helps to do different gigs in different parts of CG world,  in the end game,  it expands your vision as a director to know how different aspects of the business works ....not to mentiion the additional skills you learn along the way.  for example when making posters to up your level,  you learn color theory, composition and the rule of 3rds and the art of matte painting .....when modeling or making clothing,  you learn the importance of good mesh design, UV - its function and capabilities,  and texturing and how to create realism through texturing,   when working as a photoshopper for a photographer teaches you advanced photoshopping skills - color correction, color grading....

there are really so many aspects and details to making a good movie,  rather than stop and take months / years of film school....you learn on the job working on things that catch the public's attention,  by actually working directly with the people

I found the same to be true in pro music -  by the time I was credited as a producer,  i worked as a dj, editor, keyboard player, midi programmer, sound designer, vocalist, vocal coach, recording, mixing and mastering session supervisor, then as a recording, mixing and mastering engineer.... assistant producer,  associate producer ......by the time i became a full producer -  I knew what I was talking about lol   Mr Miyagi and his wax on wax off approach can hold my beer lmao!!

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Very cool, it is a good story for sure. He found a niche area and it seems to be working out well. Thanks for sharing. There are likely many areas that I haven't thought of yet.

That is interesting and thanks for the link. If anything it could be fun to make connections with people that have similar interests, and possibly with a few studios.