Lookin for work of all things

The Corvette Palace in Texas has closed its doors.
For years one of the places you could get a truly pristine late model Vette, low miles, fully checked out. These folks went the extra mile and more to give a customer the best example of what they wanted in a Vette.

-sigh- .. Sign of the times.
It's very much not just myself that is out lookin for a job these days.

The good news is . . there are a lot of places looking for 3d artists.

You know when I was a hiring authority for 3d artists, I useda tell 'em the software is just a *tool* .. you have to be an ARTIST first.
I waded thru a lot of images created by people who were familiar with the software ..but wouldn't know art if it poked their eye out.
Always hired artists.
I have even worked for more than a few supervisors who had no idea about contrast, composition, ..heck I even had to explain distance hazing to an Art Director .. I mean.
Forget about trying to explain smoothing groups and the use thereof.

What ever happened to the premise of hiring artists to do artwork?
I read thru a dozen or so openings posted for 3d artists every week, some of which would be ideal for myself, but it appears they need someone up on the latest software??
Does it ever occur to these people that ..yes .. not only can I *learn* a tool, I can also use it to create artwork?

Then there's the jobs posted that don't want anyone that isn't local.
OK bean counters .. how effective is it to find a talent, but .. you can't afford to pay relocation
or even a plane ticket for an interview?
Excuse me? .. do you have any idea what that says about your company?
I have to wonder if they work on Pentium-90's or even 486's ..have they even gotten to windows XP yet?

Best job offer: Being hired as Lead Artist for Air Warrior by Kesmai.
It was a dream job and the early years were full of pioneering work on real-time game environments, User Interface design, implementation, ..we maxed our servers out when we went live on AOL because it was easy to get into the game .. however, air combat is *not* easy to excel at :)
The term 'baby seal' definitely applied :)

Fascinating moment: Meeting Paul Steed (Quake Lead Artist) at CGDC, findin out he was es-USAF also, we had been at some of the same places, we were doing the same things in low-poly modeling at different companies.
The difference was, he was being paid a heck of a lot more ..*nice Viper dood* :)
He said I was 'giving it away' .. but I loved the work.

Most fun at work: Dave Flamburis (Art Director at Papyrus) and I generating the fictional Coca-Cola NASCAR track for NASCAR2002 ..no restrictor plates, 250mph into the corners, massive banking, the grand stands are *huge* ..it was very cool to build it to look real, and then at the end, Coca-Cola gave Papyrus a 10k bonus because they liked what we came up with :)
(sure would have been nice to see some of that bonus myself tho, Dave)

My ideal spot would be generating a shape library with textures for a military aviation simulator for the DoD. I still have a Secret Clearance (Inactive) .. I still have the passion to build worlds.
Heck I'm even a disabled Vietnam-Era Veteran, served with the 432nd at Udorn-Thani long ago.
Next best would be any of the online role-playing games companies .. they need worlds built and everything to fill them :)

Ironic thing is .. I got out of 3d art when G2 Interactive failed and nearly bankrupted my wife and I because we hung in to the last hoping Falcon V (the game simulator) would fly.
I went back to school and became a Licensed Practical Nurse ..thinkin that would be a secure career field.
It *was* for a little over 3 years ..now the Doc says I need to get off my feets, seems my left leg isn't workin as well as it used to, so I am workin on gettin back into 3d art.

No Startups.
I am just not as adventurous as I was.
Bein broke is *no* fun.

I need more.

-GE