Is This Making Selling 3D Assets Impossible

[@LancerX916]

Undercutting is happening in most art fields now. I worked in Comics for 25 years. I am pretty much retired from comics because I can not compete with artist from countries that can live off of $25 a page, where I need $100 a page to survive. Not surprised it's happening in the 3D space to now.

[@idrawstudios87]

show me what your art look like send us a link because I personally know of some indie artists who are getting 200 a page just for inks

[@TheKevphil]

$100 is about my level, too; Are your inker-examples doing porn? That seems to be surprisingly lucrative. And I agree with @LancerX916 about models. Fortunately, there are still a handful of sites where you can just do screengrabs.

[@joshuaborner]

undercutting is a crucial part of free markets and has always been. It has never been fair. Capitalism simply sucks.

[@tusung3634]

I am a 3d charcter artist and have been working for almost 3 years now. Mostly I work freelance on upwork. It's really hard to survive selling the 3d models. The client mentality is getting 3d models as low as they can. Mostly I get the invitation for creating 3d anime characters and the budget is around $200 every time. I mean what is happening these days. Are 3d artist that cheap now? Usually I just reject the invitation. But last month, I had accepted few projects only because I am free and I thought its better to work instead of doing nothing. And I regret it a lot. I am really frustrated of the client's cheap mentality and the freelancers working for some pennies. Its really very very had to sell 3d models online. I am planning to join a agency or a studio as a 3d character artist now.

[@Leukick]

Yeah I've heard about upwork and fiverr being the absolute worst choice for 3D artists to work, and that it's "a race to the bottom", meaning people are basically willing to torture themselves with hard work for lowest price possible in order to get the job. Everyone is basically screwing themselves, and I've also heard it is mainly people who live in India who are willing to do this, partially because their cost of living is lower. Good idea on pursuing a studio or something where your skills will be more appropriately valued. I've looked at some of the posts on upwork and the job offer descriptions are insanely insulting. I'd say become an absolute pro in your niche and 'know your worth' and don't let people think they can pay dirt cheap for quality professional work. Also maybe try to expand your skill set into more areas that are in demand; like animating characters for company/brand videos (you can charge a huge amount for this service), etc.

[@Arturiens]

I think some of the problem is calling it an "ASSET FLIP" every time store assets are used.

[@iDidntAskToBeBorn765]

Competition + AI makes me rethink my career, since I'm 24 and spent 4 years working in 3D and didn't make any dollars, I think it's more profitable to work in agriculture or a cafe

[@casielcheconi1398]

competitions has been always there. AI only works if you know what you want and I think it's hard to get a 3D model from 0 with AI, even less with UV maps and all of that. The thing is to find a niche that you feel comfortable with and become good at that type of art/3D modeling. Maybe it's not selling 3d assets but making art covers for artists, animations for brands, start a patreon, and so on

[@hanumaanek]

Learn houdini and u are safe 👍

[@miriades]

@@hanumaanekthere is no such thing as safe in this industry.

[@hanumaanek]

​@@miriadesok.. but better chance to get job as houdini artist/programmer/animator than modeler

[@jontysb]

I'm into 3d industry for last 2 years, I was mostly into the ArchViz and now going into Game assets and trust me, one can easily make good living outta this work. There is huge demand, we just need to be best in our stuff and a knowledge to make a business out of it. Even some artists i know started into 3d from last 6 months and already made a quite good freelance business. You with 4 years of experience can definitely make a good fortune, remember it only takes a one or two good client to change your life.

[@musashidanmcgrath]

I work as a miniature/collectible sculptor and it's exactly the same. People used to be able to make a decent living from kickstarters and Patreon, but the space became so crowded with undercutters that it's pretty much impossible for the average artist to compete. The people that got in in the early miniature Patreon days some years back and built up large followings are now offering ridiculous amounts of miniatures every month for very low prices. Trying to break into that market now for a single artist is very difficult, unless you can create 40-60 good quality miniatures every single month. There's definitely still money to be made, but the market is completely saturated. I mostly concentrate on collectibles for regular client commissions so I'm fine, but it must be a nightmare for artists trying to break in and go down that route. I have turned down so many jobs over the last few years because the contract price was too low. It's also not just a case of undercutting, it's also the fault of the vendors lowering the quality bar, which in turn allows less skillful artists to compete, which in turn lowers the overall industry prices.

[@ChristianIce]

In one year there won't me any market for "generic 3d assets". Free assets and AI assets will cover that. Professional 3d modeling for games will still exist, of course, 5 to 8 working for a company or in independent project, where *you* are the asset.

[@fingfufar9878]

Personally I think that market is already dead, there are way too much free generic assets out there I think, it's only worth selling specific assets

[@ChristianIce]

@@fingfufar9878 Yep, so specific that in the end you get hired to do them :)

[@fingfufar9878]

@@ChristianIce pretty much haha

[@dailybusiness8162]

Been years already when prices dropped too far, at least in the western countries, where living is expensive. Here in Germany many offices had to shut down or move their offices to cheaper eastern countries, Bulgaria and similar. You could chose to leave everything and everybody, move there and keep your job - or not. Fiverr was a great addition. I remember when a customer, whos not capable of english and the technical terms, asked me if I could support him in ordering 3D from there as it was cheap. Its like sawing on your own chair or cutting your own flesh to get food. I was even asking some government department to investigate the issue and consider some kind of "digital tax" for contracting in foreign countries. Cause some products competing with local production are having import toll fees. This would possibly balance things out and give everybody a chance, even from an international source. Things changed a lot through the last years and I wish I would not have specialized in that field. And I made the decision to leave the branch, since 3D (archviz in my case) was really crafting and creating once, but turned into all the same d&d hq asset gloss thing. Not challenging and not rewarding, in many ways. Anyways, thats how the cookie crumbles and whats called experience, I guess. 👍

[@Leukick]

Ok, so now how do we get every 3D Artist to watch this video? Because you covered the most important topic relevant to us all and our ability to make a living: Undercutting.

[@jermesastudio]

Thank you for this video it really help me understand the market as a 3d assets seller

[@ExpensivePizza]

I'm a hobbyist game dev and I actually buy a lot of assets, usually when they are on sale. I probably won't even use most of them ever and I know that. But I can only afford to do this because prices are low and I can buy them in bundles. If the prices where higher I would put a lot more thought into which ones I actually buy and I would buy less of them for sure. I'm also a 3D modeler myself, so I can appreciate how much work goes into it and when I need something specific I can make it myself. That said, I don't think you can "do" anything about the market. You have to accept that it is what it is and adapt.

[@phanduong80]

how about selling for 3d animator?

[@AutodidactAnimotions]

That is what I do.. I sell to the Daz community

[@Mrcgplay]

​@@AutodidactAnimotionswhat exactly you sell for community?

[@arjun220]

VFX/CG/Archviz even your grandmother is doing it right now, 3D in general is kinda over saturated today.

[@louielouie9502]

Where would someone go to learn the VR lingo for specific rigging functionalities?

[@bren8k]

Make a video about Nomad Sculpt and Zbrush being on iPad this year

[@arunachalpradesh399]

also AI is improving a lot, just like its generating realistic images many AI companies will come to generate 3d assets with texture and polys typed by prompts

[@mind_of_a_darkhorse]

Now, people have got to worry about AI-generated models that are getting better and better. Admittedly, the current generation is subpar and only usable as a far-off addition to any scene, but the future is looking bleak with the pace at which this is going because the quality is only going to go up!

[@anab0lic]

Not at all convinced, everything ive seen related to AI art looks utterly soulless and uninspired. I'm sure some companies will take advantage of how cheap it is, and people with bad taste/low standards will be fine with it, but there is still and always will be demand for top tier art and its never coming from a machine.

[@AutodidactAnimotions]

@@anab0lic Right that is the same self validating bluster key frame animators said about mocap in the early 2000's and Film based cinematographers said about digital cameras before that. I love how people look at the worst iteration of a new tech and convince themselves that this is the pinnacle of it and it will never improve enough to be embraced by the masses. Go ask voice actors how that is going for them.

[@anab0lic]

@@AutodidactAnimotions oh it'll be embraced by the masses for sure, the masses have bad taste/low standards. Also your comparisons are badly thought out. Tech advancement in conjunction with human creativity works and can take art to a new level.... wanting a machine to be creative by itself is never going to.

[@AutodidactAnimotions]

@@anab0lic That is a lovely sentiment as long as you are “taking art to the next level” for the pure joy of it but this video is about the commercial 3D model market and selling to mostly unskilled lay people who can’t or wont learn to create 3D assets, animations illustration themselves. you can insult their “bad taste” all you want, but they care NOTHING about your opinion or the “human touch” when they are looking for the cheap, disposable content for their youtube thumbnails and other marketing material art. No amount of anti AI crusading online can compete with Cheap instant and “good enough” when it comes to the unwashed masses of CONSUMERS.

[@anab0lic]

@@AutodidactAnimotions completely missing the point of my argument.

[@TEDraft]

Nobody talks about pirates! The thing is when you see a KZbin video with your asset in it, you CANNOT prove if this asset was bought or stolen. Because the video owner can just refuse to answer you. But I know some assets are stolen. What is the solution here?

[@junechevalier]

How do you steal a 3D asset from an online market?

[@TEDraft]

@@junechevalier Someone buy the asset and then spread over the internet

[@junechevalier]

@@TEDraft I see, but if that’s the case, we can only know who’s reselling it, but we won’t know who’s buying from that reseller, right? We don’t even know if the buyers realize that the products are stolen

[@TEDraft]

@@junechevalier Yes, this is what I'm talking about.

[@junechevalier]

@@TEDraft I don’t think there’s a way to prevent that. If they’re smart they can always modify the assets just a little bit and then resell them.

[@deeptobhattacharyya3249]

You have to understand as artists from developing countries keep joining the market, the artists from richer countries will have it harder. The costs are lower in the developing countries and thus its not sustainable to try and compete with them, instead try to move up the value chain.

[@davidmouser596]

3d props generated by text AI seems to be very popular at the moment, undercutting may be the least of things to worry about.

[@joshuaborner]

Don't worry about ai generated 3D. Nothing close to useable has come out of an ai so far. And by the looks of it we're still far away from ai taking any 3D jobs. Also training the ai on free 3D models from the web doesn't sound like it will ever produce quality stuff. Keep in mind that this field requires precision and intent. That is something ai generators can not deliver

[@vizeath]

​@@joshuabornerOh, so that means in order to "fight AI", we must not put our 3D files out there on the internet where the AI developer can steal easily?

[@joshuaborner]

​@@vizeath Hardly. Even if every 3d artist uploads everything they ever made it would be a very very tiny percentile of the available image or text data. People also have a skewed view on this bc everyone calls it ai. We don't have ai yet. Actual general Ai will immediately make most jobs useless and we would enter very different era of starvation, civil uprising and wealth redistribution. What we currently have are text/image generators

[@sherlockhomes9919]

​@@joshuabornerthis channel just posted AI generated 3d models that is pretty good. Watch it.

[@Philosophy.and.Tostitos]

@@joshuaborner That's a really smart take on it; thank you, I appreciate that!

[@vizeath]

"Doing challenges", no thank you... I think challenges are only for those who got no inspiration or project to do... My hands are already exhausted enough with my current projects...

[@MassiveMawEntertainment]

lol, during Black Friday, I bought kitbash for 59 dollars and downloaded their entire library. then I cancelled my subscription

[@chrisb3685]

You might want to read the terms of use if you plan on doing any commercial work with cargo assets from a non active subscription. Sure you have the models, but there's not much you can do with them legally after the subscription ends.

[@noiJadisCailleach]

This is where AI can come in. Sellers can't price the assets they sell. 1. post an asset/asset pack in the site. 2. AI evaluates your assets' value upon post. example: Textured? +$5. Rigged? +$10. High similarity score from this asset in another store? -$15. etc. Not happy with the evaluation? Contest. The algo will have to be constantly tweaked for the best possible outcome for the market as a whole. Site owners will have to work their ass off constantly to pull this off.

[@tomazznidarko8700]

I always buy assets at Unity assets store when they are on discount and I'm not the only one seeing how often Unity make discounts sales. If you make something digital, you can sale it in a lot of numbers, but you have to build it only once. So I'm convinced that a price is a biggest factor in Indy game development.

[@MasonPayne]

I think as an industry artists need to think about market forces more. If you are selling in a marketplace full of other assets then it will always be a race to the bottom. Supply and demand is always a factor. There are companies out there selling their assets for way more simply because they are decent and not available in the huge market place. They do this by owning their own storefront and filling it with their own stuff.

[@shadow_dancer]

Basically, when the Ai tools will be able to make any 3d model with high quality textures and high details without errors, this market will be completely dead, simply cause anyone will be able to create any model he need. 3d Magic from nvidia looks very promising, also Meshy (but meshy for now good only for simple objects modeling, it still cant create full scale high quality 3d character without errors...)

[@efeozturk5253]

Undercutting isn't the biggest issue, I made tons of money back in 2010s because we were the first freelancers with enough income to buy the tech, once the tech became available for bad actors, they started stealing your ideas such as sets you create, undercut it, and sell it. The most money is creating online content now, not selling your 3d models. Don't want to debunk what this guy says, but don't keep your hopes up by thinking outside the box, cos it'll be stolen by some guy lives in a country with a dogshit currency, and they'll be ok to sell it for 5 dollars.

[@paulhiggins5165]

It seems likely that AI will soon start to impact this market- not for the more unique assets perhaps but for more generic stuff. There's a bit of a 'catch22' here though- more unique and unusual things may be safer from AI competition but they are also likely to attract fewer sales precisely because they are so niche.

[@JuyongJeon]

But isn't ture that it's so easy to make those with Blender plugins and procedural...?

[@joshuaborner]

Making something procedural is everything but easy. It takes a lot of hours to make assets

[@ruudygh]

I also sell Tifa animations to consumers

[@patnor7354]

"undercutting"...also known as "competition"...

[@blanketparty5259]

its not really competitive , if i live in a 3rd world country and do the same quality as you then i will win every single time because 16/ an hour goes a really long way in my country.

[@joshuaborner]

@@blanketparty5259 That's still competition... Someone having an advantage doesn't mean it's not competition anymore

[@blanketparty5259]

@@joshuaborner its not a contest though. Unless you decide to move to a third world country. So what? Now bring born in a first world country requires you to migrate to a third world country to become a freelancer? Lol btw I say this as someone that takes advantage of this dynamic. I live in Russia and my prices are so good compared to my peers thats its no contest.

[@USminecrafting101]

The solution is move to a 2nd or 3rd world country so your money return is the same as those cutting you out of the profit with cheap labor

[@Cola-42]

😂

[@iDidntAskToBeBorn765]

ok lets exchange give me your house in 1nd country and i will give you mine in 3rd world country hhh

[@dozar911]

​@@iDidntAskToBeBorn765lol then he's just gonna give the kitchen and you have to give him the whole house

[@iDidntAskToBeBorn765]

nah kitchen is too much he just need to give me the visa and i will give him the whole house with family hhhh@@dozar911

[@DavidLGood]

Man... I used to really look forward to your videos, but this is just another example of a paid advertisement that needed some "content" to attach itself to. You talked... and said stuff... but I don't think there was anything really resolved or explored or... well... it was never meant to be anything because it was just a quick excuse for something to attach a paid promotion to. I would rather become a Patreon member and pay for your content if it was like you used to do, rather than watch this new stuff. I get it, I get it -- you're getting paid a good amount for the paid placement, and I wouldn't want to wish anyone ill on making a living. I just wish the content was a little richer.

[@smcfadden1992]

so the ones making good money from this practice are upset that the poor people are doing it for less? Sounds like your prices were inflated to begin with maybe? And you got used to a life outside of your pay? And now your upset about someone only trying to live because your living below your standards...

[@hypnoz7871]

Poor people are not doing it for "less". They are doing it for "more" because they take advantage of weaker currency. Globalization is a double edge sword.

[@marsmotion]

Anything digital will be zero

[@DaniesBenny]

Hai bro please answer me this Message. Which artists use excellent topology in their 3D models ?