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Comment by LiamHz | Hacker News Reader

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 was 12, I expect this career change to take a few years, and am in it for the long haul

- My worst case is I don't enjoy working in art, and go back to tech. I don't believe you can make a successful career change without going all-in

Happy to answer any questions :)

Made a little music video with some of my art if you'd like to take a peek

https://twitter.com/LiamHinzman/status/1589660449271959552

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You are 20 and talking about a career change. You are going to do great!

I learned to program in art classes at USC and UCLA. While you may go analog, it’s likely your tech & art skills will blend somewhere down the line.

Check out UCLA MFA Design Media Arts program [1]. Casey Reas [2] teaches there. He co-created Processing at MIT [3]. Arduino programs are called “sketches” because the Arduino IDE derives from Processing [4]. Art & tech always push each other forward :-)

[1]: https://design.ucla.edu/programs/mfa

[2]: https://arts.ucla.edu/single/casey-reas/#!

[3]: https://medium.com/processing-foundation/a-modern-prometheus...

[4]: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/connecting-arduino-to-p...

Don’t worry about all the people going negative and saying AI will replace you. Those people aren’t artists.

You can’t be blind to AI… it’s coming and you’d be foolish to ignore it. But, AI is like any other tool artists use. Great artists use new tools and methods to push their ideas & work forward. No one expects you to mix paint or make your own clay. Banksy isn’t making paint cans. No one cares about those skills because that’s not the cool part anymore. Stay focused on the cool part :-)

Who the f is this... making a downright suspicious amount of sense.

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 into this with realistic expectations of the industry you are about to enter into. Keep sketching and good luck with your portfolio!

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.

I think it’s a good move if that’s what you’re itching for, especially at an early age. I’ve been for 20+ in the software industry and would myself want to do art instead but I am now 40+, have a family and hard responsibilities. I still do it (I paint) and loving it but as a hobby instead. If I had the chance to make the same money I’d switch in a glimpse. I wish you a great journey, regardless where your destination ends up.

If you commit to eat sleep and breathe art and you are lucky enough to never get tired of it you will succeed. Draw and paint as much as you physically can. Keep an entrepreneur’s mindset and hustle. Be prepared to use technology to stay competitive. Try out 3d, VR, AI, everything at your disposal.

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.

If I may offer some unsolicited advice: you'll generally find the most success as a freelancer, so study up on the aspects of freelancing (i.e. business). Uni generally won't offer much career prep other beyond a course on web site building (which you already got down). Marketing and networking are underrepresented the art school curriculum, but arguably the most important skills after graduation.

Also, the point of art openings is not the art on the walls, but to rub shoulders with other people.

Apologies if any of this was overly pedantic--I wish you the very best in your new endeavors!

@LiamHz: ^ This is really good advice. Already from your video it's obvious you can start doing freelance work right away. That's where the money is short term, and long term, as you grow your rep.

I like the idea of doing what you love. As long as you can live like that, it is the best thing for a person.

The only caveat: at 20 years old is not difficult at all to have a relation with potential to transform into a (happy) marriage. However women are, in general, smart enough not to marry someone that cannot provide a decent living for the potential children, and that tolerance for low income partners is decreasing with age. This is just an information to consider, not to discourage you.

Best wishes! When I've had a strong notion like what you've described, I've tended to act on it, and I've never had any regrets for it. I think that art can be a tough business to be in, but like you say the worst case is if it doesn't work out you go and do something else instead - and I believe the time you devote to art will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

> "I'm just afraid that if I died today, then my life would have amounted to nothing".

> When I imagine the ideal version of myself a decade from now, I'm not a grizzled infra engineer or a founder who has raised millions of dollars.

You are 20. You have a long life ahead of you. Enjoy the exploration and I hope you continue to realize your self.

Good idea to share here as I didn’t have this kind of community at age 20. I think your perspective is solid and will enable a good working career in the US if you aim for it. Half the job is just showing up it seems like, but you do need to be in demand somehow to get a good pay rate. More skills are more and can open doors!

I did art before making the switch to IT, I want to wish you all the luck and success with it! Got my stuff on deviantart.com/aszantu I wasn't skilled enough to make it a product and I resent marketing and social media a lot, so I made the switch eventually. Wish you all the luck!

>I don't believe you can make a successful career change without going all-in

Meh. I've transitioned between several pretty different careers without ever going all-in on anything. But you do you.

Take names friend, good luck with your future endeavors!

I wish you the best man, fucking awesome.

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

Have you heard of generative art? It's a very cool form of art that combines visual artistry and computer programming. With your skillset it could be an interesting avenue to pursue.

The scene is exploding on the blockchain right now. Lots of demand for this work.

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