Freelance work is all about persistence, patience, and keeping yourself organized. Since you are your own business, you are responsible for everything, including maintaining your hardware/software, looking for work, drawing up contracts, and, the part I hate, paying your own taxes.

Of course, the hardest part is actually finding work. Most modeling and animation freelance jobs are posted on the main cg and animation related websites out there (CG Talk, CG Channel, Gamasutra, Animation World Network, etc). You can also check some general job sites like Craigslist (www.craigslist.com) to see if anything is available. Generally, if you don't see them on those sites, they probably don't exist.

One strong part of getting freelance work is developing and maintaining a good reputation through your connections in the industry (whichever one it is). Word of mouth and personal references go a long way in getting you a gig with many studios. My last 4 freelance jobs have all been studios contacting me (rather than me pestering them) through my network of contacts. They weren't glamorous gigs, but they paid the bills, covered my operating expenses, and allowed some playaround money (got my girlfriend an iPod Mini ).

Most of all, you need patience and persistense. Finding freelance work is just plain hard. And I'm sure there are others on SM who can back me up on this.