What do you guys think? Model Heaven doesn't have a lot of models yet but it will grow quickly for sure.
Paying money for something usually means you can get product support. That's the difference between free and paid. This is why I pay for Substance Painter and I don't use Armour Paint, that is why I would never touch Blender with a barge pole (that and all the other reasons that put me off it).
Companies don't want free, they want support.
Really nice answers, thank you everyone it's really intresting to have diferent points of view :)
90% of the content on internet is free, 10% of it is paid content, yet somehow people keep paying for that 10%.
Just make content like that 10% and avoid making content like that 90% (if you want to get paid). There will always be content here on CGtrader that's like that 10%, but 90% is always going to be, you guess it, like that 90%. Also keep in mind that eventually the 10% will become content like that 90% at some point. CGtrader will exist as long there are artists that frequently make content like that 10%.
In a nutshell, on free 3D model websites you mostly gonna find content like that 90%, if you want something like that 10% you automatically end up on sites like CGtrader.
Also keep in mind all that free and cheap content creates new opportunities for those who can see it.
In the long term CGTrader can destroy (or seriously downgrade reputation):
Blender designers who started modeling 3 days ago (nevertheless, they sure that the results of their work can already be sold).
Designers who modeling/texturing well but do not value their work at all and, in pursuit of a quick profit and reputation level, sell their assets at the lowest possible prices.
Jewelry designers who sure if they made a ring with rose, it must be duplicated in another 9000 variants.
All other reflections about potential competitors and "killers" are nothing more than just talking.
Level of quality between free and paid models can't be compared, there just isn't enough motivation to do something as good as it gets if you gonna share that for free. As far as "don't make models for congested category". You can get sales in that category if you know what, why and how to do it, otherwise avoid it.
It is very difficult to foresee the future, there are always new players, new technologies, etc.
It is true that there are many free models, all this is just one more challenge, and it will force us to refine both in the choice of models to create, and in choosing our type of client.
There is no point in creating models in fields that are already over-exploited.
Why am I going to create an ogre with a sword, if there are already thousands, and many are free, and cover a whole range from realism to the most stylized synthesis?
Sure, in games there are many ogres, that's why there are so many models, but the games will change, and the fashions too.
Modeling something to end up giving it away does not make any sense
We lack an artistic vision, from the commercial point of view, it is more profitable to pirate models and sell them cheaply than to work a whole month on a model that will then have to be seen if it sells.
If we think like this, we are dead.
Most likely it will happen as with 2D printing, each person has the means to create 2D material, and many have enough with that, but that does not prevent an expert designer from being needed to create quality material.
New Corona will kill Vray (everyone knows how it ended)
Maverick killer Keyshot (everyone is alive and well)
U-render will bury Redshift
Redshift hammered nails into the coffin lid Octane
It's funny, that's all. On real business, such discussions (as well as the appearance of new players on the market), as a rule, do not affect in any way.
CGTrader obviously shouldn't worry. It's Haven need to worry about future. Because there is Quixel (and they cannot compete with them), Pixelsquid, and most importantly Adobe and Autodesk, which, if desired, can easily buy all three sites at once.
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