is selling 3D Models profitable?

Cgdigest did an interview years ago with one of the top sellers in the 3d assets marketplaces online. Although he does not want to reveal his true identity because he does not want to risk having his collection copied, he has revealed a lot of valuable information and shared some great tips that will prove useful for 3d artists who to make money selling 3d models on TurboSquid, Sketchfab, Cgtrader, and other 3d marketplaces.
This guy has been educated as a visual artist and he is a self-taught 3d modeler. He began to learn 3d studio max when it was at version 3 and he started to work as a professional in 2003.
At the time of conducting this interview, he had more than 600 3d models in his collection and he was making about 50,000 USD a year.
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[@frdsg8350]

I put the default Blender cube up for sale. Should only be a matter of time, I can feel it..

[@UnknownDino]

Yeah, i can finally delete it TWICE! Tell me when you put it on the store.

[@racketsong]

And I will be the guy selling it cheaper...

[@Vigilence]

Just stick a banana on it. Then it will sell.

[@user-wt9jl3vr5p]

@@UnknownDino kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYGsfXeKqatgq9E

[@user-wt9jl3vr5p]

@@racketsong kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYGsfXeKqatgq9E

[@csmemarketing]

I really like these 3D Business videos, because after all, we don't want to be doing 3D as a hobby alone. I remember when 3D rendering was a specialist skill where you would hardly know anyone who does it. I have one good buddy who was the first person I knew doing 3D, using LightWave. I started my design company with the intention to give him jobs that would require 3D, but he became too busy with his new TV Production job. After a While, I decided to go back into 3D and learn Blender this time. It paid off very well when doing Product Design jobs. Using 3D in my workflow actually speeds up the Client approval process and they seem to hand over money quickly when they get to see what their Product / Location or Event would look like when completed. Now in the coming months and years, I'll have to charge more money.

[@abiyyupanggalih854]

Yes man as a hobby👌👌...

[@bertob9835]

I remember, before the internet, a 3d artist junior in the games industry (in uk over 20 years ago) could start at £24,000 a year with no experience! Now they start at minimum wage and it is expected to have a university degree and enough experience to start straight away with no training.

[@SerMattzio]

The market is basically rigged against the artists IMO. The vendor gets a huge cut of the artist's take just for listing the files and on top of that you actually have artists undercutting each other even on premium quality work. I've also seen freelance artists doing free work to a very high standard, again basically putting out the message that people can expect amazing work for nothing. It's really frustrating.

[@thebends6580]

Insightful. I'm curious, how do you prevent someone from modifying just a tiny part of your model and reselling it as their own? Is there any copyright protection among the platforms?

[@Niteshift56411]

I really appreciate the honesty of your advice. Thank you

[@3dgiftz]

Can we earn money by selling 3d models?

[@colbyisart]

I got into blender to make stuff for my music Video intros etc. I also am a lifetime artist. I find your videos super informative. Thank you.

[@hbert06]

Great video! 👍🏼

[@SJAutomotiveDesign]

The best advice is to not live off selling 3D Models. Never focus on new stuff, you will work in vain. A new smartphone that doesn't exist in the store today will be available in the marketplace in 50+ versions in one months. Yours will be forgotten. Always release stuff that doesn't exist or if it does, try to do it as best as possible. Try spending 6 months on a product and sell it for 400$ and your revenue will be much higher than if you work one week and sell it for 5 dollars.

[@tolebaybaglan4330]

Awesome information! Go ahead bro!!! Can you make a video about books for 3ds max about character rigging, animation, and materials/shadings?

[@yishahai1798]

Selling 3D model and making profit is a very frusturating process, you really need to make a nice portfolio first.

[@hotlineoperator]

More marketpalces for selling assets if for game platforms like Unity, Unreal. Then there is market for textures, maps and materials.

[@cgdimension]

I would say use trading sites to sell models you've made for other purposes, so you have made a bunch of models to use in an animation or some high res still renders and you can then optimize them, maybe alter them to be game or print friendly and eventually those models might make you a tidy sum over time. Making models just to sell is often a guessing game and you need to check their aren't loads of similar models, so you can imagine their are lots of star wars and marvel related models

[@edjonacademy7435]

Unique is your voice, was seated in a train and heard someone watching your video on KZbin but I realized it's just by the voice

[@guruprivatbahasainggris4496]

Thanks your video always help me to understand about the 3D artist environment and condition. I'm a newbie in 3D artist and thanks to your advice i can be upgraded myself and know about the world of 3D. Peace and love from Indonesia.

[@cpd2569]

Thanks for this one. I think it's very hard to earn mutch money with selling models, but why not sell it when someone did a lot of work for a good model... But the price should be right, nobody wins if anything is cheap or free.

[@lazygardens]

I heard the same arguments when desktop publishing was introduced.

[@EthanfromEngland-]

The issue with being original is that the model is TOO unique. It becomes obvious when players see a unique model in every indie game for example. You get away with it when its a glock, because a glock is a glock. However, when you make a super unique model like the vehicle you showed in the video, unless its exclusive to your game, players are going to see it pop up time and time again in different games. Thats not a good look and thus im not going to buy it. I think personally its a balance between modelling generic things everyone can use in a game and also keeping it high quality. If I need a specific model exclusive to my game, I will model it myself OR hire somebody.

[@artspace2830]

Thanks!)

[@bikkirajbhar255]

Very well said... everyone is applying the same rule...lower the price better it will perform...no...think in a long term , if you had done the same work for a studio is that the price would u have Willing to accept...please have a respect for your work and other artists works too...you are hurting other artists sell, because nobody wants to buy a course or a model for 30 dollars, they wants it for free or under 3 dollars... They are disrupting the environment and they leave after they get burned out....think about that...its not a easy work... don't make the prices low that make the impression to the people its an hour job to produce a high quality product.... Okay so here is my question to those people, if a studio approach to u to make same level quality work for them in the same price, would u be willing to do that...if these things doesn't change, this is not that far away....

[@Alucard-gt1zf]

This is called the free market Get over yourself

[@Roozy_Persepolis]

How to avoid piracy?

[@jonathanwennstromm1578]

@InspirationTuts as someone else mentioned/asked, could you link the Interview mentioned?

[@SerpentGirl21]

Super positive. So basically you're just saying to give up. Thanks for the motivation

[@SergioSanchez-fn6su]

He’s giving you a realistic expectation. Stop acting like a little kid

[@D1gv1jay]

@@SergioSanchez-fn6su

[@oskar7063]

Do I have to pay income tax if I sell a few 3D models on (e.g. CG-Trader)(in Germany)?

[@defonten]

6 Easy steps to avoid frustration on TurboSquid: 1. Have left-over good lookin models from an already sold bigger project. 2. Dump them to turbosquid for a really high price 3. Don't spend too much time researching competitors prices 4. Forget about your models 5. Check the models in half a year or even a year 6. Be positively surprised

[@eth7928]

What about 3D scans or animations/mocap?

[@spoiledengine]

where is there a link to the interview?

[@riodelo6634]

What do you thing about built my own wordpress/woocomerce online market and sell 3d models by myself ?

[@racketsong]

50k a year?

[@vvitor95pt]

short answer : no it isnt

[@higorss]

why?

[@ADB-_]

It actually is if you do it as part time while doing studies and other work

[@hellatze]

@@higorss high competition and big skill gap. I am still struggling

[@Niko_3D]

Selling big Assets packs such as environment pieces for fair price is the way to go. At least from my research... and by fair price I don't mean 5 USD.

[@ADB-_]

Making models on demand is profitable, If you are a person doing his/her studies, Nice way to earn for spending on things you really require

[@Drmelv0131]

please make video explain about licence (cc) in website 3d model

[@thisisvlog4073]

How to animate the modal like roling

[@MGSBigBoss77]

9:12, Where is that Back To The Future Part II style futuristic police car from? (shrugs)

[@majorkuso6720]

Cyber punk maybe?

[@CGDeluxe]

Does Sketchfab have a large audience?

[@dalienware668]

What keeps people from buying your model and then turning around and selling it for half price?

[@cgdimension]

The site you sell on has terms that if you report someone for doing that, they can ban them, but it needs someone to report them, it might be best to not make elaborate models and sell them for a high tag rather the opposite so you won't be undercut, basically make low poly models and don't charge that much, you could then build up a large library and sell in packs for much more. Someone selling as mentioned in another comment, a very detailed model they spent months and sell for hundreds could be undercut very quickly and find they don't sell anymore because someone has as you say resold their model for less.

[@dougieladd]

depressing...

[@Sadam.23]

Naise

[@carbonx95.08]

So if I upload my model on a website for free , will I still get money from the ads? I'm thinking about starting to upload my models and I need help with where to start , where to upload and do I need to be a super pro and be active all the time and constantly upload models? Any help would be deeply appreciated!!!! Thanks alot for the information you share with us!

[@PoggoThomas]

Artstation is the main website for all artist. You don't have to be "super pro" to make your portfolio. Unless it's a "job portfolio" then you should have some understanding arleady. Artstation also have tab called "Latest" where EVERY artwork will appear untill they will be pushed away by other artworks. So, if you post something, and someone is actually looking at that page in that time, there's a chance he will look in and leave a like, or maybe also follow your page. What about being active... Yes you should. And it doesn't mean uploading 1 model per day, but taking part in contests, or just taking time to visit some other artists, view their artwork to find inspiration, leaving a like or comment about what part of his artwork you like the most. There's tiny chance that someone might get interested and peek into your portfolio.

[@bmwguy27able]

This is not a viable business. 1) your competing with artists all over the world for a tiny advertising/development market. 2) Any model you create can easily be duplicated or altered after the purchase transferring the saleable rights to the new artist unless your doing unique creatures never before imagined(not easy). For example, if you make a really good weapon its easy to retopologize and then just repait and sell it.

[@threeanimator]

its not just unbiable, its a waste of time and your dignity as designer.

[@nekbeth]

Couldn't agree more. Unless the digital assets are protected (probably NFT), any design you make is a waste of time. Also, one time purchase should be a thing of the past, just like software, any 3D asset should be able to open if and only if you have an active subscription.

[@cheikhna1947]

Very bad idea, the all market will be lost in the museums if you do that

[@Hokunin]

I put around 9 vehicles for selling, in various shops for testing waters - none was sold.

[@InspirationTuts]

you need to test a lot to find what sells and what doesn't. a good way to test is to upload different types of models.

[@SynisterGatess07]

Check the analytics from cgtrader it s good

[@csmemarketing]

Marketing is almost everything. You can sell shit as long as it's packaged in an attractive way.

[@shyamsundarrajan2469]

Faceless void is used in dota the biggest E sport out there

[@AbhayRajKarun]

yes

[@drfrankenstein5414]

Selling models online is a big trick that will only waste time and will not sell anything. Also, someone can buy a model and sell it again at a cheaper price.

[@tomhilado]

Here's a question that I've always wondered about: If I make a model of an existing ship, plane or car, do I need permission from the manufacturer? Do I need to pay a license? Thanks for these, by the way.

[@GyanPrakash]

Yup, you need licence and permission from the owner. As the model belongs to that company or industry. For example if you try to model an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars and wanna sell it. You need to have permission from LucasFilms or Disney in order to do that as it's a property of those companies. Well, you can't even sell any Photoshop image including Star Destroyer as that belong to disney and is copyrighted. The thing you can sell is what you made from scratch and you are the owner of that design. Then no problem.

[@tomhilado]

@@GyanPrakash Thanks for the info. I was hoping to put together boats and boat engines. I just really seem to like them, so far.

[@benv.4036]

@@GyanPrakash What I find odd is that this doesn't really stop people. I saw a rigged model of Spider-Man for sale on Blender Market not too long ago. I wanted to ask the modeler, as a joke, if I could use it commercially. I think he was asking somewhere around $60 for it.

[@GyanPrakash]

@@benv.4036 As long as the Copyright owner doesn't sees it you're good. But if owner caught you using it without their permission they can ban that item from commercial use or do whatever they feel necessary. Thanks !

[@wewdly2927]

What if you buy models based on existing objects like specific model of gun, would i need permission from the company either way (and for marketing)?

[@Alberto-dk3pj]

Where can we find the interview mentioned? Thanks

[@jonathanwennstromm1578]

Found it?

[@Alberto-dk3pj]

@@jonathanwennstromm1578 Nop

[@chiajueiloh5688]

Consider yourself, please, how much time you spent making the model, pricing with your wage level if you were hired. Don't sell your blood for nothing, you're much more than that. Job vacancy is limited, which doesn't mean that your skill is not valuable. If you edit a purchase then upload, add cost's price into your new price. You know others are going to download yours and upload to elsewhere or even share duplication, so give it a good price. Put it there and consider that passive income, you don't even need to operate delivery. Wage contains social costs regulated by government, if a project team thought it is insufficient to hire one more man to get the result, they would buy your works!

[@johnewalker8749]

I have at least 30 textured models ,and my result is only 20 dollars . I sold only three of them inside 4 months... and that s totally waste of time.

[@scamberkk]

show your account please

[@YouTokur]

is it still same?

[@neumann1940]

I don't know but i feel this professional 3D Artist who doesn't want to show his true identity is Arrimus :/

[@T2Master01]

This is why the NFT system is being created. This entire art industry of freelance models will become mostly self regulated by the NFT financial system. Each model up for sale will become stablized at an accurate price quite quickly based on the liquidity or flow of transations of models on a bid/ask basis. This system will work similar to the nature of how all crypto currencies work in conjunction with the top crypto currencies like bitcoin. For example, a high quality model could open for sale at a price of 10$ and then quickly rise to 50$ or 300$ The creater or seller of the product would get paid VIA the comissions but also the reflections of an exclusive buyout as would the holders who bought a share or stake of the product. (there has to be some sort of risk/reward for buyers who have no intention of using the asset) Therefore the creator would receive cash flow simply because a company or individual "likes" it enough to buy in with the expectation that its worth more. the number of shares begins at 1 and rises on each purchase which may have a limited amount of allowed shareholders. The diluiton of the value of the product by the number of shares increasing would be non-existent because each buyer can only hold 1 share and nothing more. If a company wants to buy exclusive rights to the asset, they would have to buy out the value of the asset based on a secondary market system thats designed to close out the asset as no longer for sale and refunds all shareholders whether it be a gain or loss for each investor which also includes the reflection/comission paid out by the intended exclusive owner. When a buyer sells his share, he is really selling the rights to that asset but if he produces a product that includes that asset then his share goes to the burn wallet. His rights to the asset remains and the exclusive value of the asset is reduced and may even be reduced further by the number of purchases of the products made with that asset included. There would definitely need to be regulations set in place so shareholders cant just modify the asset to some degree and create a new NFT out of it. There would have to be some sort of algorythmic detection of similarly placed verticies encoded in the file cache. an upload would automaticly be linked to the original product giving royalties to the original author on the financial activity of that partially duplicated NFT based on the percentage of originality. A threshold percentage of originality of the duplicated NFT asset would have to be achieved to be accepted in the NFT marketplace. Automatic rejection would have to occur if duplication detection of more than one asset was discoved. This idea will definitely be developed if it isnt already in progress. It would revolutionize the 3d market place and create significantly new money making opportunities. Companies would be created simply to buy assets immediately upon inspection for the purpose of resale of their one share.

[@afritiglamour3901]

Designer used to be valued now its worst than candy. Selling your arts like candy is destroying the industry.

[@MatisosAnimation]

It's only natural for every business to decrease its prices over time, because of indrustry growth and competition. That's capitalism, there is no workaround that.

[@zdenekburian1366]

Very true, but this is also the weak point of capitalstic production system, directly pointing toward its next crisis. With this in mind, everyone can start to organize for the revolution.

[@dConceptdk]

Agree 100% - unfortunately it is very hard to compeed with desperate people. They should know they are both k!lling themselfs in “non” payed work load and they a are k!lling a industry.

[@Magicmedo]

The Metaverse is Coming. Sharpen your skills. Demand is coming like never before.

[@HalkerVeil]

Right so... DONT do electronics and cell phones since he said they're easy money. Becuse everyone and their dog will be doing it.

[@afritiglamour3901]

CGTrader is destroying and degrading 3d artists, if the artist has value of your works stop selling your works in low price.

[@retributionangel5078]

70% of Freelance Price. When Freelance is payed only a fraktion of what the Studio would charge. Hence why they use Freelancer in the 1st Place.

[@vlweb3d]

STONEMASON

[@jarppax7690]

if you think why not model sell think bout price. cheaper sell more bring more money lol. i never bought any model.becouse there is free models that is good enought.sometimes even better

[@mokhtarbelhadj707]

can i sell with cracks software??

[@PoggoThomas]

It's the question like "Can I seel these jeans I stole from the shop ?"

[@neatpolygons8500]

no the program sign the files. you can sell and you can get ditched out of ts

[@onur8848]

@@neatpolygons8500 lies. My friend uses cracked version and never pays. He sells stuff on cgtrader and TS

[@neatpolygons8500]

@@onur8848 wait for it

[@nelyrions1838]

Sadly this business will go down the toilet. People will undercut each other, especially as poorer countries will have people who can make a killing while the developed world are heavily burdened by insane taxation and high cost of living. I've been in contact with customers who asked why they should pay me 8000 dollars for 2 months of work(which is VERY low), when they can pay half that and get 3 workers on the same project done within a month (spoiler alert, they messed that project up and they got poor results). But that's the reality of a globalized world where everyone is on the same market place. We don't play by the same rules.

[@Superbustr]

I don't really see how people in poor countries will be able to totally overtake people in wealthy countries. They are not paid enough to compensate for the high software license costs and high hardware costs to do high end modelling. If you can do the work three times as fast as your average Indian modeller then you will always be in business as time is money. Companies will be cheap and hire a whole team from India to do models for them to discover that the quality of their work is low. Then inevitably the company will have to find one westerner to do the work properly albeit at a higher cost.

[@michaelm7901]

Ok, I have made much much more per year selling assets, is this a joke?

[@spartamerican6758]

They dont call us starving artists for nothing, hehehe.

[@camcappe353]

Supply and demand, the more there is of something’s the less valuable it becomes

[@darkman5050]

Nope its NOT!

[@higorss]

why?

[@GyanPrakash]

First

[@tolebaybaglan4330]

Congratulations

[@GyanPrakash]

@@tolebaybaglan4330 Thanks 😊😁

[@neginqasemi9509]

thats not a good money. 50 a year ! no~

[@etheriondesigns]

Its actually pretty bad, I agree. I know people who make triple that selling models online. But the problem is, they wont speak about it because its a competitive industry. Why tell everyone where the gold is? They'll just steal it!

[@jonathanwennstromm1578]

@@etheriondesigns Where do you personally feel like "the gold" is?

[@jonathanwennstromm1578]

@@etheriondesigns While it may be good/bad, it's passive income at the end of the day, that Dude could start working as a Lawyer and as long as there isn't a MAJOR change in how things work, it will still sell.

[@444haluk]

So capitalism is destroying artists? Good.

[@camilledesmeules5777]

Renat because people want to sell their thing so they under value what they sell, that hurt every artist in general.

[@zdenekburian1366]

@@renat_CIA more precisely, capitalism destroys the small individual producer, as Marx wrote 170 years ago, the process is called proletarization, when the individual producer, typical in middle-age epoch, is hired as wage worker inside great capitalistic firms, since the the class struggle declared the capitalistic bourgeoise winner over the noble parasitic classes, so boosting the productivity and welth in the society; the process keeps evolving today in the imperialistic phase of capitalism, when extremely big monopolistic groups take control of economy. You can see an example of the phenomenon ie in my country, Italy, where very small professional studios - an heritage from our ancient culture - are widespread in the economy, so dragging behind our competitivity in the market; abroad, big captalistic groups are prevalent instead, ie in architectural firms or entertainment industry.