Hi Jamestown,
I had to think about that for a while. Not simple to answer. I try to be clear and perhaps I do not sound motivational on first sight, but there is something that I think needs to be addressed. Offer your key skills, anything else will follow.
If you found already the key component, as you mentioned, they like your design, then focus on design, and get strong there. If you have that vision to design, anything else will certain follow. Go for what is the strongest first. My best wishes.
I’m not certain what you like to have—what you called CAD that you then renovate. If you need models, and don’t like to do it on your own, there are libraries in C4D and on the web.
If you like to build up a portfolio, use things that can be clearly separated from the work you did. Example: You take footage or a photo and place an object inside of it. Two clearly separable disciplines, and your future employee can see what is your part in it. I strongly advice against a blurry mix in this for a portfolio. The exception would be - if you worked from the start in a team, and things got mixed up over the project duration. Which is not un-typically. But then you have to separate what you did and why. I’m not certain if that is really a successful way of getting work, if you start right now to build a portfolio. Make it pure (your work), no mix.
A common mistake is to just get the stuff together, with a lot of help from others. It might help to learn some tricks or get something aesthetically appealing established. I see tons of such tutorials all over the place. But that is not what keeps you in a job. The main problem (if there is a problem) that I have seen is, while teaching people online over roughly ten years by now, more often than not a very thin understanding of the basics—but on the other hand a nice box filled with “cool” tricks. Nearly useless on the long run for a serious production. Not a healthy mixture either. Again, I talk about starters here. Basics seems to be ignorable, but problems boil mostly down to things which are described in the manual (And so solvable, if read in the first place).
Some people get away with it, but if the job is kept only based on some key-tricks, you are always in the competition with people who might know maybe one more trick than you. To stay healthy in a job, knowing most of the basics is key, and to adapt fast to problems, but most importantly is to combine all the basics in a creative way. That is not teachable, nor certifiable. This skill can be only achieved if the basics are very clearly understood, and applied as easily as breathing. That is what employers like to see, that you can play in a good way with the tools given to you, not just present some cool tricks.
Cineversity is a self pacing—buffet like offer, not based on a curriculum nor test based. If “you” just join and do nothing -or- watch every day and repeat the content in a project until you know the basics—is completely up to you. There is no option to control if the tutorial that runs on someones screen is watched actually at all, and certainly no proof if the content is understood.
Certification is NOT an equivalent to a complete education, and shouldn’t be confused with such. I can give you only a link:
MAXON offers you certification, you have to get in contact with them. How much studios, employees or such make their decision based on such “test”, I have no idea.
http://www.maxon.net/education/certification.html
My personal take: Keep in mind that most 3D is based on creativity (will say how well you solve given problems, or how easily you recognize problems in the first place). I haven’t seen in any of my hundred tests, that I took and successfully passed for my six degrees, any test that were able to certify creativity. Especially my Professors at the “University of Art, Berlin” have put that in question (Certification of Creativity). Long story…
So, make certain that this certification paper will really help you, as it cost you time and money. It needs to be renewed for each release as well.
The bright side of certification is certainly that you can explore with such activities, how well you know the basics of the app in question, and perhaps fill some (but certainly not all) gaps.
Good luck
Sassi
