I am 32, scared, confused and desperate, and trying to pivot into a new career, wanted to work in games/animations (vfx) since I was a kid, but I am at a point where i need to just focus and try to get a job as soon as possible(6 months), need some advice, is the real time vfx industry kind to beginners?, should i try to get a software development job?, I apologize for the questions, i am just a bit confused and need some help.
So it’s a broad question.
First of all, doing anything in pressure of getting a job in a limited time is a bit of a gamble. Prob better finding any job that can secure you and working on your VFX portfolio in a free time. I know a lot of people that succeed quite well with that approach.
6 months can be a tough time if you also need to learn and create a portfolio. Time always depends on personal adjustments and how much work you will put in, but I would say that with a year you have quite big chances to prepare portfolio and find a job, with 6 months it might be pretty tough.
It’s quite simple to secure a job when you are a mid or senior, but for juniors there are no positions as not many studios can actually mentor you, so lots of people start with mid positions and for that you usually need to also show with your portfolio that you could handle effects decently. It’s not too hard (I did that for instance), but well, it takes some time.
Also if you worry about your age, don’t. I know a VFX Artist that transitioned and got a job being 45. I also know many people that did after 30 and it’s never too late 
definitely worth giving it a try if it was a dream of yours. Impostor syndrome will be eating you up, but never believe it! Just keep on improving and asking other vfx artists for feedback. With time you will manage 
Hopefully those answers help. They might not be fully optimistic, especially about time scope, but prob in this situation being realistic is more important.
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Hi
First of all, don’t apologise for your question, it’s absolutely reasonable, and I fell Your struggle.
I was in exact same spot in my 31-32.
I quit my ok salary job for dream, and was as much scared as passionate.
From the beginning I was trying to understand engine of my choice, which is Unity, necessary language for it, which is C#, and send with whole nothing portfolio, which is grow in a process, to all dev. job vacancy.
Long story short, I have lost 6 months exactly with 0 exp. In game dev to get first offer on trainee position in a small company, working on AR,VR projects with 350usd per month, and thankful them for it, that 1st work boost me so much, and I didn’d even imagine for the time, how dumb I been, lol
I was very good as pc user, using python for small tasks, advanced corporate excel and using image and video processing soft on good enough level when started, still can’t draw by hand.
Now I’m working as tech.artist with 1800usd/per month after 2 years.
If I start my journey ones again:
-Create art station page
-Look for work
-Select engine, you will still get familiar with any. Personally recommend to start from unity and don’t create games, otherwise it’s will be great waste of time.
-Learn base of language which engine uses from documentation only. If you know russian, use metanit.com
-Learn base of engine from documentation only
-Learn math, linear algebra, trigonometry, basic understanding of matrices. Freya Holmer tutorials on youtube is a way to go
-Get familiar with Mesh architecture and UV, learn how to build primitives in 3d software, Blender is my chose, you can use what looks appealing to you, they all work basically in a same way
-Get familiar with shaders and material, book of shaders website is a way to go. Try to write your own and build also on node systems like Shader graph for unity or Material graph for Unreal
-Get familiar with particle systems in engine. Right now Unreal uses Niagara and Unity uses Particle systems, that one is kinda sad and suboptimal, but important for mobile and web projects, and VFX graph which is just insanely good
-For that point you will already have strong enough knowledge and portfolio for work, look for work, build up portfolio
-Now we go deeper, cause still know just bare minimum, topics to learn:
Spaces, transforms, why matrices is important
Learn how to really code
Rendering pipiline
Pbr/non Pbr piplines
Opaque/transparent, actual differences
Shadows, why, how
Light, why, how
Rendering hacks like Stencil, Dither etk
Start from MIT lectures about GPU rendering
Good luck, worth it 