Custom 3D: The Changing Template of Stock Photography
For many years, artists were able to sell their stock photography for a decent profit if they knew what they were doing. The internet, after all, was a new beast and companies were in need of content both written and visual. Writers supplied the text while artists and photographers supplied the visual. In both instances, of course, plagiarism and intellectual property theft ran rampant, threatening to bring down the industry. Today, custom 3D artists face some of the same challenges as artistry and computer animation design moves beyond the two dimensional sphere.
Custom 3D artists face the same challenges as did their predecessors in the field. For one, the price point has always been difficult to manage in this field. Content producers naturally want a price for their work that is commiserate with the time they spent on it and their inherent talent. There is also the technology costs that go into purchasing the right rendering software. Artists usually go about this in one of two ways. One, they sell their pictures at a high cost, typically selling each picture as they might a real life painting. Once it is sold, it is taken off the market and the artist moves on to other works. The other, more common method, is to follow in the footsteps of stock photography. Place a much lower price point on each picture and then sell it multiple times, hoping that it will pay off in the long run.
For now, it is unclear how successful this will be in the custom 3D realm. For one, it usually costs much more in terms of time, effort, and actual software prices to render a digital 3D picture. Webmasters are as tight with a penny as ever before and are always on the lookout for the best deal. There are some who are more concerned with having a great looking site than getting everything done for the lowest possible price, but they are greatly outnumbered.
Still, there were plenty of naysayers who thought selling stock photography online was a losing proposition. It has since proven to be a successful method for many photographers to make a living doing what they love to do. The same may very well hold true for custom 3D artists as they settle into the economy and find just the right market for their works of art.
Custom 3D artists face the same challenges as did their predecessors in the field. For one, the price point has always been difficult to manage in this field. Content producers naturally want a price for their work that is commiserate with the time they spent on it and their inherent talent. There is also the technology costs that go into purchasing the right rendering software. Artists usually go about this in one of two ways. One, they sell their pictures at a high cost, typically selling each picture as they might a real life painting. Once it is sold, it is taken off the market and the artist moves on to other works. The other, more common method, is to follow in the footsteps of stock photography. Place a much lower price point on each picture and then sell it multiple times, hoping that it will pay off in the long run.
For now, it is unclear how successful this will be in the custom 3D realm. For one, it usually costs much more in terms of time, effort, and actual software prices to render a digital 3D picture. Webmasters are as tight with a penny as ever before and are always on the lookout for the best deal. There are some who are more concerned with having a great looking site than getting everything done for the lowest possible price, but they are greatly outnumbered.
Still, there were plenty of naysayers who thought selling stock photography online was a losing proposition. It has since proven to be a successful method for many photographers to make a living doing what they love to do. The same may very well hold true for custom 3D artists as they settle into the economy and find just the right market for their works of art.
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