Freelance Work in CG

# 1 17-11-2010 , 09:37 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: UK

Posts: 595

Hi guys,

it's that time of year for another rant, where do I start,

I had the displeasure of working for a bunch of shysters, I got the job via Gradauate advantage which is a UK organisation, that helps university graduates into paid work,

which sounds good right? wrong, I was contacted by an employee at grad adv who told me about a conpany thay were holding a competition called the "Geek factor Competition" where thet get talented artists and pit them against each other, to make a social network game,

the winning team would as a result get a paid 3 month contract,
it all sounded good to me so I filled out the application form and to my joy found out that I met the requirments to compete,

i'm gonna skip ahead now, my team won the comp, and we all were given a 3 month contract,

now this is where it all goes down the crapper, first off the original agreement was we get paid £250 weekly, however the CEO Jude, (who is female by the way)

did not, she told us that because they were a small company that paying us monthly would be easier for her as she did not have any admin people,

as my collegues would find out on our first monthly pay day this was a false statment, we had to wait a further 3.5 weeks which meantwe worked 7.5 weeks without any moeny,

thats even the worst part, the worst part was the CEO and her band of cronies were constantly making excuses and dodging every question we asked regarding pay,

so after the 1st month everyone but me left the company,

so, me being the kind and forgiving peson that I am I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and remain working for them,
payment issue pop up from time to time maybe this was just a one off,

what a mistake, the CEO and her band of misfits were all like" well done you have proven yourself to be a hard worker" blah blah blah,

telling me they would put me on the payroll and everything, it was a lie they were just sweet talking me,

all they were after were, high quality work that they were not capable of doing themselves,

get this, I was the perfect employee, I worked hard got everything done on time not olny that but fixed other peoples currupt files and work, and did it with a smile on my face,

then came that unfaithful day, when I missed a sigle deadline,
now I know what you guys will say deadlines are important, which i'm more then aware of, however the reason I missed it,

I was working on a a trailer for one of their games, and it was an elaborate one at that, it consisted of a set if DJ decks turning into a transfomer robot and dancing, like the the citroen car advert,
they wanted all this in less then a week eek:

all was going fine until the COO drops another project on me even though he knew I was already working on something that had to be in that very week, I even told him this,

but he made me do it, in short it caused me to miss the deadline,

now, this is when the cronies turned into a pack of wolves and tore into me,

saying I cant follow orders, and i'm a slacker, :angery:

i was working my ass of trying to get all this done, I was a single person doing the work of a 5 man team,

I told the COO to name one company that has a single individual who does the modelling, uv mapping, texturing, rigging, lighting, rendering, and all the post production work,

wanna know what his answer was? " then whey dont you go work for on of those other companies",

the nerve, he's lucky i'm not a violent person otherwise, I would have sent him to the hospital,

anyway long story short they messed me about with my second payment which took 5 weeks after the paydate for them to pay me,

and fired me, without any warnings or giving me any notice, beacuse I started asking them about why it was talking so long for my money to come through,

the company is the modern day version of a sweatshop, they take advantage of people, mess people around with money, they constantly lie and dodge questions, they bully people who work for them,

and are unprofessional, check out the link to see what I mean
https://img194.imageshack.us/f/marcoperezemails.jpg/

I cant show you the other stuff but it would turn your stomachs if you guys knew how I was treated,

so, any of you who are looking for work within the UK steer clear of this company they use governmet grants to stay afloat, and use schemes which are there to help graduates and use them to take advatage of artists,

I know they are currently looking for saps to work for them , please dont fall for it

Last edited by jali; 17-11-2010 at 01:30 PM.

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# 2 17-11-2010 , 10:56 AM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

haha, funny.
he said he is a double laureate from a prestigious school. err... never heard of the Virginia Military Institute tho. (He is on linkedin.)
I'm sure he probably knows laureate means something else in this country and it doesn't just mean graduated from a millitary school.

tough break, but i think there are a few of these companies that take advantage. just use the work you did there to move on... or take them to an employment tribunal if you think you have a case.

Last edited by honestdom; 17-11-2010 at 11:25 AM.

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# 3 17-11-2010 , 11:59 AM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

Sorry you have been treated so badly, sounds just like a bully to me. Also sound like he is unhinged to write such a letter. If you can do some thing to help those after you do it if not try to get it out of your mind as quick as possible and move on................dave

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

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# 4 17-11-2010 , 01:19 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: UK

Posts: 595

yeah, these guys were pure evil, and the worst part is me and my collegues were not the first people these idiots have done this to,

I know for a fact that thay did the same to a team before us,

and are trying to get new people in to finish the work the team and I did for them,

they've placed an advert on https://www.gumtree.com/

These people aren't as stupid as they look there is a reason why they only gave 3 month contracts,

after I was fired wrongfully I may add, I went to all kinds of legal places, and all agreed They were in the wrong, but as the work was just under 3 months I could not take this company to an employment tribunal,

heres a vid of the CEO

notice how many times touches her face and or head,
I read somewhere that, thats a sign someone is telling lies,

as for that nasty email the COO wrote, my team and I were shocked, the fact that he's bragging about killing someone is beyound sick,

Last edited by jali; 17-11-2010 at 01:21 PM.

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# 5 17-11-2010 , 01:50 PM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

3 months is a standard contract in post production. usually a probation period.

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# 6 17-11-2010 , 01:53 PM

Lifetime Member
Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

There were slaves in Greece...thats how the bloody joint fell apart...

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 7 17-11-2010 , 02:28 PM

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Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: Prague

Posts: 827

Sorry Jali, it's extemely rare that we edit posts on this forum as people should be entirely free to voice their opinions here. This is however a Maya forum and not a site for freelance workers to warn others about dishonest companies (I know there's plenty of them out there) and as they're not here to voice their side of the story I feel it's wrong to have them hung out by name so I deleted that and the link to the video by their CEO from this forum.

I'm sorry to hear this has happened to you, it sounds like a very unpleasant experience and hopefully you will take away something useful from it in the end. Maybe it would be possible to contact your university about this as it's how they recruit cg artists, I'm sure they would love to hear your story of how badly you've been treated, and also warn other students so their first work experience won't be similar to this.

As they are also unprofessional enough to use company e-mail to send vicious attacks like this to individuals it is quite easy to find out who they are for those of you who would be looking for cg work at the moment. I personally do not understand why you would spend as much time as these people obviously have to formulate all that nasty nonsense when it's so much easier to just be nice. English universities have a fairly good reputation in the world and I had no idea they could be classed as white trash user added image

Good luck in the future, I hope you come across nicer people than these guys.

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# 8 17-11-2010 , 02:36 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: UK

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sorry about adding the names, of the idiots who cheat honest hard working people, the only reason they paid me is due to me taking things to the head people of graduate advantage, otherwise i'm sure they would have tried to worm their way out of paying me,

now I can understand that the admin people here taking down the names and links, as the other party cant defend themslves, however when 5 graduates leave a company, something clearly is wrong,

I wanted things to work out, whats sad is I was willing to put up with the bullying and and the other crap becasue I really needed the money, but these guys cant seem to do something as simple as make payments on time, and the second you ask them about it they bite your head off user added image

the one email is just a fraction of what they did, if you saw what kind of eveidence I have against them you would be horrified,

these people have no heart at all, the uk economy is in a real state and finding any kind of job is hard, but the fact that they are using this to their advantage is just wrong,

i'm going to write a letter to watchdog and see if they can look into this shadey company,

Last edited by jali; 17-11-2010 at 02:46 PM.

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# 9 18-11-2010 , 12:00 AM

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Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: South FL

Posts: 3,522

That email reeks of an inadequate person trying to feel powerful. Even if he did do that, it's a shitty thing to brag about it. And feeling perfecting safe plopping that down in a work email? Nobody wants to work for the CG mafia.

Don't let them taint ya' keep truckin'!

- Genny
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::|| My CG Blog ||::
::|| My Maya FAQ ||::

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# 10 18-11-2010 , 12:56 AM

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Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

Ok jali I didnt get a real chance to respond to this.

First up I would assume (and hope) your e-mails to this person have been professional, clear, without malice or intent and have basically been constructive criticism etc.

The fact you went so long without getting paid is a shame..but also a reality sometimes. As a Subcontract Surveyor..I have been made to wait up to 80 days for work I have done...with the same smoke and mirrors you were given. Fortunatley I am a little more robust than people think when I get the shits on...people usualyy back up and take stock..though not always.

I would pursue this in the courts or any other way you can to resolve this kind of behaviour in the industry...it really doesnt need to be tarnished by companies that may do this.

I would look at your contractual obligations...if there were any...this may give you leverage...it may not.

The fact this chap has gone off at you personally etc etc shows that he AND his company (assumptions on para 1) are certainly unprofessional. As an Employer myself...IF ANY of my teams responded to an employee/client in the manner shown here...whether throught the company e-mail or even a personal one...would be dismissed without delay. If he is an owner or partner...then he should know better and does not know how to deal with situations.

His personal attacks and verbal abuse and his supposed manliness about being in the military and killing people...thats just bullshit. His threat to meet with you and 'discuss' (through fisticuffs Im sure) is also bullshit. This is a vain attempt to threaten you to cease and desist any action you may take legally through the courts. His responses will be also used against him. Therefore I HOPE that you have not responded with any similar verbal attacks...keep it clean, concise, completely professional at all times..NO MATTER WHAT HE SAYS! This will ensure you have a leverage against the company if it goes to a court.

As a person who has a history in many arenas of war through family...NONE...I repeat NONE of them talk trash about killing people like this. REAL soldiers (men and women) know their duty and certainly dont brag about it...which is why I think he is full of crap..just threats mate.

I would learn from this...take it on board...DONT go more than 30 days without some pay..or insist on some form of written contract (they do help but dont always guarentee).

Remember this...a persons intelligence is gauged by their response to an accusation or crit...those that release a verbal tirade..either are emotional, arent as intelligent as they proclaim...or have no truthful and honest response...therefore the verbal abuse.

Good luck with it mate

Cheers bullet

P.S ANY individual who has attended ANY Uni..T.A.F.E etc etc would NOT garbage ANY other place of learning...to do so just isnt cricket.

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

Last edited by bullet1968; 18-11-2010 at 12:59 AM.

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# 11 18-11-2010 , 06:28 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: UK

Posts: 595

thanks for the advice bullete,

the email wasn't aimed at me, the COO was stupid enough to send the email to everyone, lol that speaks volumes about this guy,

the guy he's abusing was some temp guy, who was asked to give his opinion on a new game the company were working,

and just becasue he gave some critiques that they didn't like the Coo fliped out and went crazy,

and to be honest what the temp guy was not harsh or anything, it didn't warrent this kind of backlash,

the COO is the companies attack dog, the rest of the core team and even the CEO are spinless, they resort to not responding to emails or phone calls,

I most have emailed the CEO everyday for over a week asking her if I could get paid,

further more I did this in a polite manner, anyone who knows me would tell you i'm not the kind of person who will resort to violence or swearing at someone,

alas, though I final got the £1250 that I was owed yesterday, 5 weeks after the paydate,

like I said the company is a complete shamble, I did an internship with a company that was about the same size a few years back and they were awsome,

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# 12 18-11-2010 , 07:22 AM

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Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

Well at least you got some money, in my game its not unheard of for a 90 day wait...which is ridiculous...but thems the brakes. I no longer contract and have refused well paid work from 2 companies in Perth for that reason. As a 1 man band with at least $1800/week AUS outlay...I just cannot survive that long without being paid. LOL lucky it wasnt me at the other end of the e-mail...I am the type to cruise down to coventry for a chat...I guess you get like that in the construction game LOL

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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# 13 18-11-2010 , 05:43 PM

Head of 3d Admedia
Join Date: May 2007

Location: nairobi , ken-ya

Posts: 1,340

that sucks it happened to me at the beginning of the year and i had hospital bills to pay i had to free lance at other places getting shitty pay just to get by but one day you will look upon this and will have a great bar story to tell user added image

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