I’ve been a while on my journey to become a Rhino/Grasshopper developer, and it’s been really fun, but I feel like I might need a change. I am currently looking for new job opportunities through linkedin (Rhino/Grasshopper related), but it just seems hard to come by anything intereseting, so I come for advice.
I would really love to hear your stories of how you came by your current job as a Rhino/Grasshopper developer, and if there is any advice on where to look for these types of jobs, I would really love it (maybe I just don’t know how to use Linkedin well lol).
I originally studied and worked in Architecture. I started out using Revit/Dynamo and found that Rhino/GH was much more efficient for intensive Geometry calculations a few jobs into my career, at the time I was doing Stadia mostly which has lots of interesting opportunities and is pretty fun.
From then on I started using Rhino / GH more and more. I then decided it was so much better, I looked for a job as a computational designer where I could use it full time and learn about it on the job. I ended up helping generate timber structures, and developing gh plugins here and there to help projects along.
This accidentally ended up in me developing Rhino Plugins full time with a team, and then McNeel
I studied Finnish language and culture (but didn’t complete my university studies, since I became a professional software developer in 2001). Self-taught programmer.
I came into the Rhino world from Blender where I was an active developer (did a couple of projects as paid developer on Blender Foundation payroll) between 2003-2018 (some commits since then as well, but not much). I work on the Cycles render engine integration into Rhino since November 2013, accessible as the Raytraced (since Rhino 6) and Rhino Render (since Rhino 7) options.
I don’t know if you like my story, but
its confirming your experience.
I started my career as a RH/GH developer in Automotive industry and basically substituted “RH/GH” with “software” over time. Now I assume I have a lot of expertise in this domain, but hardly anyone really needs it. This is why I hang out in this forum. A mix of nostalgia and curiosity.
For my daily bread, I develop very different software. I mean my paycheck and the complexity of my projects went up. I can’t complain. But its a strange feeling to know that a big portion of your skills are simply not in demand. On the other hand, I’m a person who always enjoys learning new things, and I’m not sure if I would be super happy to do the same job today. I have experienced very negative things as a “computational designer”.
Btw, I found my first job using google. As simple as it sounds, I added a couple of buzzwords and found a couple of offerings. This was 11 years ago.
I’ve never had a job title of “Computational Designer”, but have been using Rhino for around 12 years and GH as a tool since 2017. For most of that time I have designed/engineered kitesurfing equipment, but I do get contracted into other similar projects from time to time.
In more recent times I’ve started polishing up the tools I’ve built for myself in GH as Rhino plugins and offering these as products to others.
After all of my time working in a around computational design here is my one hot take on it:
Computational Design methods and processes are SO FAR AHEAD of the curve that Engineering/Design management (you know, the guys that make staff and hiring decisions) have no idea what you can do and how you can improve process and product development - often by orders of magnitude!
It might sound a bit off putting, but really you might be best to change your mindset from “finding a development job in Rhino Development” to “Looking for a business you can fundamentally change”. This could involve offering to work on a project for free for a month or similar - just to raise the knowledge of the company to what is possible.
Case in point here is one of my current clients was sketching out a workflow for a new patented manufacture technology they were developing. From looking at the process they knew they would need a software stack, but had no idea how to get started. They started asking around software development agency’s and got estimates along the lines of “20 man years of work” to get to a usable product. Basically they were offering to build “Rhino” first, then the tools needed for this workflow.
One of the members of the team knew of my work on KaroroCAD, my kite design tool and reached out for advice. I ended up writing a prototype/demo in just TWO DAYS in Grasshopper and landed the contract that is still progressing 18 months later. To be honest here as well, even tho the CEO/CTO of this business is an 25y+ designer, who has a lot of Rhino experience, he barely knew of Grasshopper and certainly had no concept of Rhino as a 3D software development platform until this project.
I studied industrial design and I discovered Grasshopper a year after, about 15 years ago and it never let me go. First payed application were longboard molds where I used Kangaroo to simulate plywood. I somehow got into the timber / glulam business which gave me quite some work and a good job for a few years. During that time I realized I want to work by myself so I started my own little business. I bought the best hand held 3D scanner which puts me in a nice little niche. My work is a mix of designing climbing walls and accessories, all sorts of 3D work for a cycling pro team and development of art work for various artists.
To sum things up, I never found an interesting job where I could work how I wanted. Self employment was the best choice for me.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke
Almost every single design or engineering manager who has ever seen any of my Rhino/Grasshopper workflow basically just sees magic.
Your biggest barrier to entry into Computational Design is not likely to be your skills and knowledge but other peoples lack of knowledge of what your skills can do.
Oh cool! I always wondered if the cycles render engine had anything to do with the one in Blender, is it just the same name or they do share the same source code?
I initially loved rhino just because of the user interface and workflow for 3d objects, something just clicked in me when I started using it at University, but later found out through many workshops the potential of grasshopper. And when the pandemic hit, I learnt to code, so my views on the possibilities again expanded.
With this in mind, I think what I like about developing grasshopper is the flexibility it offers, for creatives. From UI/UX customization, generating interesting logics for analyzing/processing data, just making interesting 3D from a underlying logic, idk man it is fun lol.
Sounds really cool working on cars! And I agree, don’t think any job is 100% fun and games, there are parts that we don’t enjoy, but it is part of the gig.
Can you elaborate on the negatives of your experience?
Also, thanks for the reply, good old google is where I constantly look for options also. Yesterday I spent a good amount of time for creating a profile for a website that seemed had some options, but when I finished creating it, it asked me for credit card lols
Cool story man! I don’t know anything about kite surfing, but the product looks really cool!
I’m not going to lie; I definitely agree with you, that if there is no demand, make it. I am still tinkering with this idea and what can I offer to create value.
In my view, having Rhino/Grasshopper development skills is most useful as a skill in support of a vocation. I also came at it from the position of architecture/architectural engineering. I learned programming in Rhino and Grasshopper in support of my studies in architecture and acoustics. This was great for distinguishing myself.
As a result, I worked for 4 years with Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago, 4 years at the Foster + Partners Specialist Modelling Group, and for the rest, I’ve been working as an acoustics consultant in New York with Acoustic Distinctions. (For the uninitiated, these are strong names in the fields of Architecture and Acoustics, and I’ve been very fortunate.) My work in Rhino and Grasshopper made me a sought after professional in acoustical engineering.
However, it’s a soft skill, and it also matters what you do with it. Hope this helps.
1.) In larger companies, many decisions are “strategic”. In less technical departments, such as in design, this can really lead to absurd work. Sometimes you are forced to work months to prove the failure in design.
2.) especially in design, you find a weird mix of incompetent narcissists, which are all-in for the career and money. They want you to achieve the impossible (for them). Literally. I sometimes felt living in a mix of an absolute monarchy and an episode of monty python. However, with some humor it can be quite entertaining.
3.) no understanding of the complexity of your work. The mindset of everyone is that they expect you to be the best of the best. And believe me, most people who have such expectations are below average. Its not magic, its solving a lot of technical problems before your reach the actual goal. If people don’t see the work involved, this always causes friction.
4.) sometimes its just boring work. I once made an entire interior to become a cheese grater. 2 million perforations. Not fun. (At someday they fortunately noticed that its impossible to manufacture, it saved my life)
5.) Oh and of course my favorite, “can you move it 1 mm to the right, ehm sorry left… what do you think… ah no, it has too look like this, trust me you should move it 1 mm up! Wait print me all 4 versions! And could you also use triangles instead? “ There were days I had this discussion multiple times a day. Im not missing this…
… I could go on, but while Im writing this, I notice how happy I am with writing software.
I think is very good advice. I’ve met some amazing programmers, but the best I’ve met had a vocation they could use to apply the programming skills to creatively.
