Should Pricing and Tags Creation really be up to sellers?

Discussion started by miaomiao3d

I feel that the creation of tags for the models one produces should become automated and not left up to individuals to manage. It takes a long time to set that up properly and most of the time it feels like the models aren't searchable or easy for people to find unless they search by artist making it very difficult for newcomers to sell anything if no one knows about them and they are not famous.

I also feel that the pricing for the models should not be left up to individuals. CG trader should be in charge of pricing the models based on what the experts believe they are worth and what the market is willing to pay for them. There are too many models on CGtrader that are not selling well and it is not because they are of low standard or quality but it is because nobody sees them or they are either being overpriced based on the market or what people are willing to spend on them.

At the end of the day the 3D modelers don't care how CGtrader sells the models so long as they get a decent pay check at the end of the month and it doesn't make sense for CGtrader to struggle selling models because they are overpriced or simply not searchable by the buyers. Most sellers struggle with pricing and tagging because they are not experts in it unlike CGtrader who has been in the business for longer.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Answers

Posted about 9 years ago
4

captainmarlowe, the other issue with letting people price their own models is as you suggested that if you look at the free area on CGTrader... there are models that look like they should be worth 200 bucks or more and are being given out for free... That devalues all the other high end models. I have been on CG trader for years and I've only managed to sell a handful of models which is ridiculous.

My models aren't the best ones on CGtrader but they aren't the worst either and I feel that unless CGtrader takes action and fixes the tags and pricing on all the models on the website, (taking it out of the individual sellers hands) my models may never sell properly. I feel that there are lots of other struggling artists who are going through the same problem. In the end the top sellers could be selling better as well as the new and upcoming artists would if CGtrader took control over the pricing and tagging.

How often do your 150 dollar models sell? I have noticed that the only way the new people can make any money on here is by selling their models at really low prices and that is true for most other 3D websites which is also really sad because again it devalues people's work.

Don't you think that as an artist it would be so much better if you could just focus on creating great or at least mid range level models and not have to worry about the sales side?

Posted about 9 years ago
3

I would not accept somebody else setting my prices LOWER for me. They can be RAISED if underpriced, I'm okay with that.

Price setting is a one way street, and the street should always lead toward a higher price range.

miaomiao3d wrote
miaomiao3d
Dear Exnihilum, so what you are telling me is that you prefer selling your models at a price of your choosing even if CGtrader could make you a lot more money every month by selling your models based on what the buyers want which could go either way... higher or lower? What is your purpose of being on CGtrader? Are you just a hobbyist or are you trying to make a living? Most people who want to make a living on CG trader would tell you that they would prefer getting a steady monthly pay check and not sell the occasional 100 dollar model every 3 or 4 months. Do you care about making more money or are you selling so well that it isn't really relevant to you?
Posted about 9 years ago
3

In the long term, not having control on your prices would just have a very unpredictable impact on your revenue. Just think about it : if the selling site starts to have some financial difficulties, it will be tempted to undercut your products or put them on sale without your authorization, and you will loose a lot of money.
On the other hand, on another selling site, a service provided is to offer a free evaluation of the price range of your products by the site owner. I used that a lot when I started to sell my models, to be sure to be in the right range.
After a few years, I think I'm experimented enough to find the good price range. I can accept an advice from the site owner (too low or too high) but I certainly don't want them to fix the price for me, especially when you start to sell on several sites, you want to keep control on your pricing to keep some coherence in your products.

Posted about 9 years ago
2

I'm not sure the problem is overpriced products. The more expensive ones I've seen here are generally roughly on par with other "high end" selling websites.
There are a lot of underpriced low quality models by people wanting to enhance artificially their reputation or wanting to undercut the market, and I would tend to think that It hampers visibility and credibility much more than a good-modeled, nicely textured and properly rigged character sold for 100+ $.
I'm not a top seller (and especially here on CGT) but I've been selling for a few thousands bucks on other sites during the last years, and the models I have sold were 90% of the time the most expensive ones.
Except for hobbyist who won't pay a high price for their models (but then, they have dedicated sites), a guy in search of a model for a project will tend to assume that an underpriced model is flawed, especially if in addition to being very cheap, it is showcased without proper renders, from all angles, and without clay and wireframes renders.
I wouldn't certainly pay 10-20 $ for a model I can create by myself on 1-2 hours of work, when I would gladly pay 100$ for a ready to use character I need for a project which would require me several days of work, especially texturing and rigging. As a result, I wouldn't pay more than 25$ for a non-rigged, non textured character, even if it has a very good topology.

As for automatic tagging, I have been selling on a site where it was existing, with sometimes very weird results, ending in tagging the model manually... I'm thus not convinced by automated tagging.

miaomiao3d wrote
miaomiao3d
Would you mind telling me the name of the site with auto tagging you mentioned? I would love to take a look at it. Also by auto tagging I didn't mean that it should be an algorithm that takes care of it... I mean that the tagging should be created manually by people who really know what they are doing not just your average seller who just started selling and therefore has no clue what to do. The same goes for the pricing. The pricing should be taken care of by people who really know the market well and have sold really well over the years and can give a proper value to each model based on what buyers will want. It is also true that there are different markets out there and that most of the people buying the 200 and above models are companies and individuals doing high end projects however you will find that there are plenty more students and hobbyists out there who would gladly spend less for average models they can rework in a couple of hours since they really don't have the money as well as others who are getting into 3D and want to test things out before going all in.
captainmarlowe wrote
captainmarlowe
My mistake, it's not an automatic tagging, but automated suggestion of categories. Sorry for that. As for hobbyist looking for cheap models, I know they exist, but I'm pretty sure that their primary search would be on dedicated sites such as Cornucopia3D (I'm also a brokered artist there), Daz3D, Renderosity or RDNA. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me, except for the printing side, CGT would be more focused on a higher end market, considering a lot of sellers here are the same you would find on The3DStudio or Turbosquid.
miaomiao3d wrote
miaomiao3d
Thanks again! Your comments are super helpful! I will take a look at Cornucopia3D :)
Posted about 9 years ago
2

Some food for thoughts, thanks.

As for my models, I don't think they are quite relevant, since I'm mainly a hobbyist. I create my models for my own needs, not thinking about if they could sell or not, and then put them on sale when I have used them. For instance, my model of the Saline Royale has absolutely zero chance of being sold, but it was a personal challenge.
I haven't sold much here, so I can't draw a trend. On other sites, depending on the site, I have sold mainly in the 45-75 range in one of them (mainly game ready and/or sci-fi), and at 80% in the 99+ on the other one (mainly architecture and military).

Posted about 9 years ago
2

Dear Exnihilum,

so what you are telling me is that you prefer selling your models at a price of your choosing even if CGtrader could make you a lot more money every month by selling your models based on what the buyers want which could go either way... higher or lower?

What is your purpose of being on CGtrader? Are you just a hobbyist or are you trying to make a living? Most people who want to make a living on CG trader would tell you that they would prefer getting a steady monthly pay check and not sell the occasional 100 dollar model every 3 or 4 months.

Do you care about making more money or are you selling so well that it isn't really relevant to you?

Exnihilum wrote
Exnihilum
Dear marvimation, could you please provide access to your models because I certainly know better what prices are good for you? Any other approach would be very amateurish on your behalf. Who are you or anybody else to tell me what price I consider just for MY models? Just for reference: I'v sold since 2005 on TurboSquid making 32.470$ in total from a pretty small collection without even having any pop-cultural "bestsellers" in my roster. I've sold for 715$ on CGTrader, first sale in 2013. I am fully capable to take care of my own pricing strategy.
Posted about 9 years ago
2

marvimation, I bet that every single buyer would prefer to get $200 models for free. Does that mean that CGT should get rid of prices altogether then? After all, you would get the most "sales" that way. Just make a couple of your best models (not that you have any, it seems) free and see what happens.

Furthermore, CGTrader has a feature (which does not exist on any other site) called "Offer your price", so if the buyer thinks that your model is somehow overpriced, he/she call offer to pay a lower sum - it's up to you if you accept the offer or not. I had plenty of offers to buy my $100-$200 models for $10-$30 but I have never accepted, because I value my work a bit more than you do, apparently.

Posted about 9 years ago
2

This survey is certainly yielding some very interesting results! Please continue to comment I am learning a lot here :)

Posted about 9 years ago
2

I don't do a steady living out of selling my models, and believe me, I'm not sure at all it was easier to sell 5 years ago, when I started to sell models...
I'm a hobbyist and selling does just pay for my licences upgrades and my plug-ins. I started to sell around 2009, and it took me around one year before my first sale... I'm happy when I earn 1000$ in a year with 3D models...
I don't think you can expect a steady revenue from 3D models selling unless you have at least 150-200 top notch models, ans this would certainly not be enough to make a living. Top sellers on Turbosquid are around 55,000$ a year, according to what I've read, but are most of the time studios of several modelers.

It's not a top dog VS low end issue, really. It's a matter of time and of quality.
You could consider cleaning your library from all models you don't feel their good enough, create some models you could offer for free on hobbyist websites to get some feedback without having to pay back if they don't fit, improve, and when you think you're ready, start to offer some free models here or on Turbosquid, and when you begin to have a certain reputation, then start to sell models.
It's what I did, I offered free models for years on Renderosity or my own website between 2005 and 2009. I knew I was starting to have the right level when the Renderosity staff invited me to become a merchant. I then slowly started to replace the free models with paid ones on TS and T3DS, then here on CGT, when they invited me. Yet, I have waited almost one year on CGTrader before selling my first model.

Posted almost 8 years ago
2

I think if CG trader left a recommendation on what to price your model that would be great. Then no one is forced to price their model at any point. But they can still see what they should price something at. But the manpower for that would be insane.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Wow! Which site provides that kind of service? I want in! Especially since that way I could re price my models here to get better results!!!

By the way I want to thank every one of you guys for providing such helpful comments!!

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Dear Ricardas Marozas,

no that is taking things way too far!

Not everyone has the luxury of saying no to money when it is offered to you.

It has nothing to do with how much one values their models.
Maybe you are rich, have other jobs etc... and can refuse to accept offers like that... you are very lucky.

I am just upset because the value of 3D models has become zero these days and when you go to the free section you can pretty much just get whatever you want for free which defeats the point of buying any paid models. I also find it very time consuming to come up with prices to sell my models since they hardly ever sell.

No CGTrader would never give all the models out for free and for a sale to be a sale by definition there needs to be a monetary exchange else it becomes a freebee or give away.

I am not blaming CGTrader at all here because I have used another 5 or six other websites in the past that were horrible hence I switched to this one, and yes CGtrader's make an offer system is great.

So in short the two main points I was making were;

1. It would be much better if I could focus on just building models and have the professional sales people take care of pricing and tagging in ways that are more efficient and drive more sales. I would be more than glad if CGtrader took over the pricing and tagging side of things especially if I could make more money this way relying on their many more years of sales experience and use of surveys. I also believe that many other sellers who aren't doing so well would also prefer it that way.

2. It feels like if you can get all the models you want for free there is no point in buying people's models.

3. I prefer to get a steady income of say 100 per month consistently as oppose to getting a sale every so often.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

So far based on all the comments received this is what we've learned, (But also please correct me if I am wrong.

1. The more experienced 3D modelers and sellers who have had better success in selling are saying that it is far better to create complete, high quality models, possibly fully rigged, textured and rendered and sell them at higher prices or prices in the range of 100 and 200 dollars each.

2. Those same sellers are also really against the idea of CGtrader taking over the price and tagging because they believe it would yield poor or unpredictable results and possibly make them want to leave the website altogether.

3. On the other end of the spectrum you have the newbies and the unsuccessful sellers who are struggling like crazy to sell their models and in part it must be because they are trying to sell their models at too low a price.

4. These modelers seem to be quite happy to let CGtrader take over their pricing and tagging in order to obtain better sales.

Just some food for thought here... what if CGtrader kept things the way they are now for all the top sellers but also implemented a program only for those who wanted to opt in such as the struggling sellers and newbies where they helped only them and took care of their pricing and tagging?

Would this option make all modelers happy?

After all we can all agree that more models are sold the better it is for everyone's business at CGtrader.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

I can refuse shitty offers because I know that sooner or later that would lead to every single customer offering 10-20% of the original price and then I would be completely broke.

Just because you can't or don't want to make quality content does not mean that better models should be dragged down to your price level. You know why people don't by your stuff? Because most of it is useless and even if someone would by any of it, you would still be broke because of the ridiculous pricing.

The3DStudio used to add tags, product names and other stuff and guess what? Sales were non existent over there and now the site is basically dead as far as 3D model sales are concerned.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Ricardas Marozas,

you don't have to mean about it... nobody insulted you or your work.

I am blogging on here to learn something and perhaps some of what I wrote may not go down well with you but so many others can learn from it.

Not everyone is as talented, successful or as knowledgeable as you are about creating good quality work, pricing etc...

I for one didn't know about The3DStudio going under although I did remember trying to sell stuff on there a while back. CGtrader is 100 times better then that site or many others I have tried that is for sure.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Saying that I should sell my work for pennies is an insult. One dumbass recently even called me stupid for declining $30 of "free money" (his words) that he offered for my >$160 models. You are basically doing the same thing.

"Not everyone is as talented, successful or as knowledgeable as you are about creating good quality work, pricing etc" - as if people are born with these skills. You should go work on something challenging to improve your modeling instead of sitting in a forum claiming that someone else should do the work for you. Maybe after working on a quality model for a month you'll figure out the pricing (people tend to value their own hard work more than they value the work of others) and keywords (after a month of making one product you should recognise the words associated with it) and won't be so inclined to sell your stuff for 20% of the original price just because someone offered the money.

miaomiao3d wrote
miaomiao3d
Dear Ricardas, You obviously misread this entire thread... but that is fine...your honest mistake. Nobody ever said you should sell your models for pennies I even stated that I felt it is not right that there are so many free models that look like they are worth hundreds of dollars. This post is about allowing CGtrader to price models more effectively than what newbies would do or struggling artists and as said before the pricing could go either up or down. If there were less people pricing stuff randomly it would also benefit you and CGtrader's reputation wouldn't you think? You did well to refuse the 30 bucks on that deal. As a newbie on this site and not knowing how to sell I just fell into the mistake most newbies do of selling at lower prices just to make a few dollars. That has nothing to do with how I value my models but more about desperation and not knowing what to do. I have already begun re pricing my models based on what I have learned here. To answer the last part of your comment... blogging about this stuff is not a waste of time. I see new comers ask these questions all the time and maybe if they took a look at this thread they would also learn something. You just seem to be a very aggressive sort of person and I apologize if this topic has offended you but you just misread or miss interpreted my words.
Posted about 9 years ago
1

Dear Ricardas,

You obviously misread this entire thread... but that is fine...your honest mistake.

Nobody ever said you should sell your models for pennies I even stated that I felt it is not right that there are so many free models that look like they are worth hundreds of dollars.

This post is about allowing CGtrader to price models more effectively than what newbies would do or struggling artists and as said before the pricing could go either up or down. If there were less people pricing stuff randomly it would also benefit you and CGtrader's reputation wouldn't you think?

You did well to refuse the 30 bucks on that deal. As a newbie on this site and not knowing how to sell I just fell into the mistake most newbies do of selling at lower prices just to make a few dollars. That has nothing to do with how I value my models but more about desperation and not knowing what to do.

I have already begun re pricing my models based on what I have learned here.

To answer the last part of your comment... blogging about this stuff is not a waste of time. I see new comers ask these questions all the time and maybe if they took a look at this thread they would also learn something.

You just seem to be a very aggressive sort of person and I apologize if this topic has offended you but you just misread or miss interpreted my words.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

"There are too many models on CGtrader that are not selling well and it is not because they are of low standard or quality but it is because nobody sees them or they are either being overpriced based on the market or what people are willing to spend on them. "

" I have noticed that the only way the new people can make any money on here is by selling their models at really low prices and that is true for most other 3D websites which is also really sad because again it devalues people's work."

"Not everyone has the luxury of saying no to money when it is offered to you.
It has nothing to do with how much one values their models.
Maybe you are rich, have other jobs etc... and can refuse to accept offers like that... you are very lucky."

Hard to misread. It is obvious that you don't have any idea how hard it is to sell models so you just assume that only newcomers have this problem, while in reality the only reason why older sellers can sell more stuff is because they have a lot more models available.

Here's the thing:
- Next month will be 10 year anniversary since my first 3D model sale.
- After that no one purchased any of my stuff for straight 9 months.
- In 2006, after uploading more models, I had only two empty months with sub $100 of average monthly income.
- In 2007 I made even more models and did not have any empty months - ended up with a bit over $100 average.
- Had one empty month in 2008 even though I have increased my total model count.
- Both 2008 and 2009 where lower income years than 2007.
- Finished university in 2009 and was able to dedicate a lot more time for modeling so ended up increasing my income in 2010 by ~4x vs. 2008 and 2009.
- In 2011 my income was slashed in half.
- Went back to 2010 level in 2012, even thought I had even more models available.
- Income from 3D stock increased by ~30% in 2013.
- Dropped to 2012 level last year.

So as you can see, even with over 300 models for sale my income is extremely unstable and most of my models never have been sold.

"This post is about allowing CGtrader to price models more effectively than what newbies would do or struggling artists and as said before the pricing could go either up or down. If there were less people pricing stuff randomly it would also benefit you and CGtrader's reputation wouldn't you think?" - that will never happen. Even TurboSquid can't afford the man power required to monitor pricing of every single model.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Very interesting! It sounds like the overall market is a mess even on this side of things... I guess it isn't just the game and movie industry that is on it's last legs...

I also think that the buyers have realized they can get pretty much any model they want for free or get kids straight out of school to build it for free, so it has pretty much made us obsolete.

I didn't realize that it was so hard to sell even at the top and that worries me a little bit.

judging by the models I've seen on most websites especially on Turbosquid I noticed that it is far more important to be good at texturing and rendering then it is to build really good geometry.

It is pretty sad to see a bunch of sloppy triangles, as well as models with too many polygons sell well only because they are so good at hiding all that with fancy renders. I guess when you work at the top companies you don't have to worry about that kind of thing.

Fact is that most students can't use any of those models because they are far too render intensive and require PCs with crazy amounts of ram to run especially if they are doing animation.

The same goes for the small studios or the video game firms because they have very stringent poly count budgets based on their game engines or low budget hardware.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Don't be confused by "high poly" and "not optimized", these are two very different things. Good textures and renders are part of a good model, but topology is paramount also.
BUT, define "too many polygons"...
If you want to create a model for a game engine, you'll have to reduce the polycount and bypass this limitation through textures and normal maps. OK.
But what if you need a production-ready model, which will be animated and rendered in a CPU-based renderer ? Polycount doesn't count there, but photorealism does. And if your model is to be added in a live shot with some close-ups, then all details must be modeled because normal maps won't do the job. For such a shot, a 500k polls model is then acceptable if it renders nicely and behaves correctly when added in comp in the live footage.

The good models that sell, in my humble opinion, sell because they provide a response for a need. If they were flawed, they wouldn't sell, just because disappointed buyers would post negative reviews about them.
But a good model that sells is : a good topology, with nice UVs, nice textures, a level of details defined for a need (game-ready or production-ready), etc. If the model doesn't spare hours of work to the guy buying it, then it won't sell, it's that simple.

As for knowing in advance if a model will sell or not, it's always the leap of faith. Will the design interest buyers ? Will a buyer be in need of what you made ? etc. On the other hand, even if not sold, a good model in a library can showcase your talent and help people interested in other models make their mind about your own skills.
That's why one should always be sure to avoid putting crappy models on a library just to get a higher quantity, because it just doesn't give confidence to a potential buyer.

Then, considering free models, the good ones are not that frequent, and a lot of what you can find on the web for free is likely to have been stolen or extracted from video games. If you want to use them in a commercial render, then it's a big no-no, so there will always be a room for good original models, even it the sales are quite erratic, as Ricardas pointed out.

Finally, I don't buy your idea about high-poly models that students wouldn't use because they are too render-intensive. I have a simple 2010 iMac, and I do all my modeling, texturing and renders and animations on it without too much of a fuss, even in scenes sometimes counting millions of polygons. Even softwares like Vue or Poser can handle quite heavy models nowadays.
Students won't buy expensive models not because their computers are too slow, but because they don't have money for that. If you target a large audience, I don't think CGTrader is the right selling place. You should go for the hobbyists market (e.g. Renderosity, Cornucopia3D, Daz3D...), but penetrating it is very complex, especially since you'll have to go through a harsh beta testing before being admitted to sell there, and hobbyists expect to have the quality of 100$ models for 10-15$. Besides, you'll have to learn how to package the products in a specific way, for them to be Poser or Vue or Daz ready...
If you want to target high-end market, and sell less for more, CGTrader or Turbosquid and equivalents are the way to go, but they require complete products, usable easily in any package (interchange is paramount also) and likely to save freelancers or small studios hours and hours of work. Nobody would buy a 100$ model if it didn't save at least 1 day of work. The same way that nobody would buy a 10$ model that can be done in half an hour.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

The kind of sloppy geometry I speak of isn't something I have seen on CGtrader as of yet but on Turbosquid I have seen models with random geometry even with odd mixed faces 5 sided or more actually sell.

Obviously the buyers must have been students with no prior modeling experience and they were going for around 30 to 60 bucks range. If people like Ricardas Marozas and you captainmarlowe with impressive models can't make a steady living then the average newbie doesn't stand a chance.

I am just glad that I started this post because else so many other newbies would fall into the same traps I did and hopefully won't now.

As far as I am concerned I've learned a lot but I am going to just make models from a hobbyist perspective from now on just to keep my skills from deteriorating any further because I don't think that I'll really ever sell anything based on what I have learned so far.

I will keep improving my pricing, other skills and models based on the comments but I don't expect much success in sales. When the top dogs are struggling the low end doesn't stand a chance... We just need to hope the market picks up...

It was surely a lot easier to sell 5 to 10 years ago when I built my first models. The competition today is just cutthroat.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

That is certainly something a young kid starting out can do but I've had my fun working at art studios even had my own for a while and have moved on from that... I am glad I created this post at least I know why my models haven't been selling well on here.

I used to sell my models a whole lot better 5 to 10 years back to personal clients who only really cared about the models and not a full package deal like on here and worked at one company where I was making a steady 2 grand per month but this industry is just far to unstable and the company went under.

From now on since I probably won't sell anything I am just going to build things that I really like as a hobbyist. I already have over 100 models on here and I don't have the time to start from scratch on another site.

I am more than happy to partner with other artists who have great rendering and texturing skills and share profit with them should they want to help out but that is all I have time for as a full time parent.

Also for someone like me who only has a 1 or 2 hours per day to work on projects like these it doesn't make sense to make high poly models because one looses momentum. I used to make high poly cars, organic anatomical models etc... but that was highly time consuming and those models never sold as well as my creative mid or low poly game and animation models also because they are far less versatile.

So far CGtrader is my all time favorite site because it is so easy to upload and manage your models and that is why I migrated over here plus they have a really good support team. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've asked for help and got instant feedback.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Well, I'm not sure how to read your previous post. It seems to me that you're making strange assumptions about people that try to help. For the record, I'm 43 years old with four children and senior executive with an awful lot of work... Not really a child starting out, and yet, I went the way I described.
I only create models while taking my breakfast on mornings and on week-ends. That's why I only have a few of them and why they take me such a long time to create, because I can't spare more than 5-6 hours a week on 3D creation. Yet I don't see it as a limitation for creating highly detailed high poly models. Now it' really up to anybody to choose its own way of doing things. Of course, it also depends on the toolbox. Lightwave is a very fast and capable modeler and has a powerful render engine, it helps a lot. For texturing, substance designer is a no-brainer to me.
As for the hobbyist way, it's exactly how I do things. I create models for my own needs, mainly 3d animation, and put them on sale when I am done with them. That's also why I create them completely, from modeling to rendering, because I use them in my short movies, so I need complete packages with a design I own. If they sell, that's good, if they don't, I just don't care since I had an usage for them before...

Posted about 9 years ago
1

"You could consider cleaning your library from all models you don't feel their good enough"

Dubious idea, the more exposure the better, and you wouldn't believe the kind of strange things that can sell better than anything else. Stuff needs to be gimmicky to sell, that's for sure. I only remove models that I don't think there's a market for, not the ones that feel outdated technology-wise.
For example, I wouldn't waste any more time on doing gaming landscapes, as most 3D engines today come with serious landscape construction tools for free inside the package.

"create some models you could offer for free on hobbyist websites to get some feedback"
Done that, realised the futility. Free stuff attracts only freeloaders that don't even bother commenting, and that won't do one single iota with the downloaded stuff. Serious people PAY.

About good topology: in all modelling except organic or very curvatured, slicing everything up into squares just for sake of having squares is a waste of time and polygons. I don't know who made this ridiculous idea a "standard studio demand". If it subdivides well anyway, I wouldn't waste my time, fix just the subdiv issues and go for it. This business isn't exactly generating the incomes to motivate such technical demands.

Really high-poly models that are close to camera are the sort that studios rather make themselves, I'd imagine. Again, enormous timewaste for low probability sell. Here they buy the stuff they stuff (sorry the pun) into the background, I suspect. Or reference material to model their own object around, and be rid of all legal issues.

A lot of "wasting time" there, but that's what it amounts to, doesn't it? Spend as little time as possible, since the sale probability per model is so low anyway. Reuse, retexture, remodel.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

About cleaning, I wasn't speaking about outdated models technology wise, but models impossible to sell because of bad topology or lack of UV or textures... But yes, the more exposure, the better.
I guess you're right with free stuff, I really only made a very few and it maybe didn't attract serious buyers.
As for quads... well for instance in Lightwave, CC subdivision is buggy, so you have to go with sub patches, that only allow for tris or quads. So n-gons are not that welcome in this software.
Once again, it is necessary to define "really high poly". My most detailed models are between 100-250k most of the time, and I think it is an acceptable level, I wasn't talking of supra highly detailed models. But there is a middle range between 1500 polygons and 1 million.
Besides, the models I sell the most are the ones with 100-250k polys.

miaomiao3d wrote
miaomiao3d
Yes you are right!! And when I say too high poly I mean when modelers use too many unnecessary polygons to construct their shapes and your models don't have that issue at all. I have seen that so much on Turbosquid and I think part of the reason was that many useless modeling instructors in the past would just tell their students to just keep subdividing their models and pulling vertices around to get better details which is the worst way to do it. The only time when subdividing is ok is when you've built an awesome low poly base mesh that you import into Mudbox or Zbrush to enhance but that is a totally different type of technique that does not work well in Maya. You can always tell the expert modelers out there only add detail where it is most needed to really define the shapes.
Posted about 9 years ago
1

There are always a lot of artists fighting over whether quads or triangles are better... The fact of the matter is quads are more versatile and it is easier to sell quad models to a larger audience of buyers.

Quads deform much better in animation shots especially when you need to rig your models... you can't have any triangles on areas like shoulders and hips it is disastrous...

There are a lot of ignorant people out there stating that quads are better for videogames which is totally wrong. All 3D models that go into games get triangulated as some point because it speeds up the process.

All 5 sided or more sided polygons perform badly no matter what you do so they should be avoided and I love how easy it is to spot them using the tools in Maya...

My preference when modeling is quads simply because I like working with straight or curved lines similarly to how you would sculpt in clay or draw and triangles make it difficult so see the flow... plus I usually end up rigging and animating lots of them so it really doesn't make sense for the models to glitch up on me later on.

Posted about 9 years ago
1

"Quads deform much better in animation shots especially when you need to rig your models... you can't have any triangles on areas like shoulders and hips it is disastrous..."

Hmm, you realise that all quads & n-gons are broken down into triangles in any 3d engine anyway, and also in any 3D renderer acutally?

Posted about 9 years ago
1

Yes that is true Exnihilum, (I already said that above) but what the computer algorithm does is cuts well positioned quads diagonally so that doesn't hurt the structure of the mesh. If they start out as triangles and aren't appropriately placed it is disastrous. It also makes painting weights more complex.

When I worked in games I saw it happen all the time and I often had to send the models back to some of the modelers or had to remodel some of the mesh just so it would work accordingly. There are some really good modelers out there who model using triangles like this girl for example https://www.cgtrader.com/elza_grey

Modeling in triangles is extra difficult in my opinion and it works well if you are an expert but I wouldn't recommend it to any students starting out especially not in their organic models. It is easier to get away with building triangles on geometry that doesn't need to deform like props and vehicles and sometimes in games you have no choice but to use them because the game engine is so low end it only runs a few polygons at a time like Jagex if you ever played Runescape you know what I am talking about.

Posted over 7 years ago
1

Yup, the recommended price from CGT would be nice. There are many people including myself that have problem in setting up the price for models.

Posted about 9 years ago
0

From now on all our new models will also be printable paper or cardboard cut outs you can easily download to your desktop, print on any regular desktop printer and build for your kids or give away as fun presents.

The models will continue to be available in Maya and Obj formats.

Posted about 9 years ago
0

Mystery solved!!! I found out why my models weren't selling!!! This is what happened... When I first joined CGtrader I used their bulk upload system but I didn't check all of my files carefully before hand thinking they were all in order.

Now after a few years I have been downloading them off their server and going back through all of them. There are missing files in at least two of my best models and many of the descriptions were also messed up or missing...

I am pretty sure that people bought and returned those broken files and that must have really impacted my credibility on top of not having descriptions and image files in some of them.

I have now gone through all of them and fixed everything but I guess it doesn't matter because my sales rep must be ruined by now...

I guess I will have to start fresh with new clients but at least now I know the real reason this happened!!

Posted about 9 years ago
0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-Q2SOh21U

Iron Man Paper Animated Cut Out is almost finished check it out!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUz6Opt_QIs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPhiETxP3XA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRctE_k1elA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om005gih2Y0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5RceCq-3c

Posted almost 9 years ago
0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-23UjLaTQ&edit=vd Jacky Cheung is awesome and has inspired so many singers throughout the years but I really love this song because it is a little bit like a lullaby!

Let's learn some Chinese people! It's great for business :)

Posted almost 8 years ago
0

That would be an awesome way to do it Skeletex!!! I agree 100 percent if there was a way to have CGT give an estimated price for each model that would really improve the overall standard also from the buyers perspective.

If you think about it if both prices show up then the buyers get a real idea about what the true value of each model is across the board.

As it stands most buyers have no clue about what is a good model, whether it is priced properly and they just go by the renders they see which are often misleading and often times will complain about the products or return them.

If CGT would give you the industry value of your model and then if you price it differently both prices would show up on display. This way the buyer would be able to trust CGT with the quality and then see if the sellers are being good about pricing too low or too high.

If CGT says that something is worth 100 and people price it at 20 then the buyers can instantly tell that that model is either on sale or that that particular seller may not be very trust worthy or serious about his work.

There could be exceptions made where people could explain their prices are low because they are trying to sell to students or low end buyers who need to grab a lower quality model and then re build it to cater it to their specific needs which is what I do but at the very least buyers would know exactly who they can trust!

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