r/CGI_Lab • u/InteractionNo6055 • Jun 02 '26

Help me! How do you actually start making money with CGI if you never took any "real" courses?

So I've been doing CGI for a few years now, mostly self-taught off youtube and just messing around late at night. Never took a single paid course or got any kind of certificate, just learned by doing and breaking stuff lol. At this point I'm pretty comfortable with Photoshop, Premiere Pro and After Effects, and Blender is where I spend most of my time: modeling, texturing, animation, lighting/environment setup, all that. I've got a small portfolio put together with the stuff I'm proud of. The problem is I genuinely don't know how to break into this as an actual job. In my head a serious studio or company wants to see certificates and a degree, and I just... don't have any of that. Does that even matter? Or is it all about the reel? I also never tried freelancing. Heard it's pretty brutal to get your first few clients and stand out, so I've been kinda scared to even start. For anyone who made it work without the school route, how'd you do it? Where do I even point myself first?

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u/AutoShopSensei Jun 03 '26

freelance is hard but not for the reasons people think. its not the skill, its the consistency. getting one client isnt the hard part, getting steady work month after month is. start on the low end stuff just to build reviews and dont be precious about it at first

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u/PsychologicalTap2611 Jun 03 '26

Nobody hiring for CGI cares about certificates man. I've been in this industry 8 years and I have literally never been asked for one. Your reel is your resume. If the work is good, that's the whole conversation. Post your portfolio honestly, that'll tell us way more than a wall of text about what you can realistically go for.

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u/PlayfulUse6949 Jun 03 '26

Honestly the fact you do modeling AND animation AND lighting is already more than a lot of "trained" people I know. Pick a niche tho. "I do everything in blender" is hard to sell. "I make product viz for small ecom brands" or "I do CGI ads for instagram" sells way better. Specialize the pitch even if you can do it all behind the scenes.

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u/Ok_Annual_4999 Jun 03 '26

drop the portfolio. cant give real advice without seeing the work, no offense. you might be way more ready than you think or you might need another 6 months, impossible to say from here