How NOT to make money with Daz 3D
Sort of a joke title - but here goes. I've been mucking about with Daz for a couple years now. I've spent too much money on assets for it (we're talkng over $1,000). I kept telling myself I need to find a way to make money off of all the time and money I'm pouring into this. There should be some return on investment - right? Otherwise this is just pure tom foolery. The sort of thing a serious person like me shouldn't be wasting my time on. Right?
Today I had a sort of a revelation. It's fun. I enjoy doing it. That's enough?
Anybody else out there that just loves creating images or animations with Daz 3D, spending too much money and time on it - just for fun? Perhaps we can form a support group....
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Hey, doll / dollhouse / miniature collecting is a long, time-honored hobby. This one is just virtual.
People spend thousands on their hobbies (in general), and rarely make any money back on it. So as long as you enjoy it, and it gives you at least as much pleasure as going to a sports event, or going fishing, or pretty much anything else that only takes money, I think you're good. :)
The "DAZaholics" thread in the PC Forum is just this place...
With regards to earning an income from the hobby, threre are passive and active ways to do this however unless you change the purpose you create art, its more like subsidizing a hobby rather than actually getting a ROI. A hobby is for enjoyment. Investments by thier very nature are a sacrifice - and most DAZ shoppers are not sacrificing enjoyment for the purchase.
Passive methods to earn income are to leverage art you would normally create and one way is to repurpose it into something tangible that you can use yourself or sell via word of mouth like printing the image on cake frosting, wall calendars and other printbles, using the art for website/blog graphics,education, safety posters and training animations. Key here is to make it fun and find the potential buyer before going into production. Suppling items on demand instead of upfront inventory also limits risk. Furthermore by using a website as a storefront you can crate products by linking to customized third party samples of your art - like a T-Shirt made with your graphic on VistaPrint and have zero inventory on hand. The DAZ affiliate link on your remarkable webpage will also build our community here and get you some ca$h back.
Active revenue generation methods might be selling derrivative works on stock photo sites, advert & marketing contract work (on-line), news & media contract work, game development, texture 3d content development & become a DAZ vendor!
I turned my hobby (Model railroads) into a business.
Now I don't enjoy either.
I have a webcomic that I love creating. No ads, no income.
Too true. As soon as you start making money doing something you enjoy, it almost always becomes "work", and the more you start to depend on that income the more other people -- your customers -- start to dictate when you work and what you work on. The more that starts happening, the less fun it becomes (at least that's my experience).
Pay to go to a movie, or a sports event, or buy some content and make pictures. Spending equal amounts of cash, for me, usually means more time having fun creating "art" than watching the others and at the end of it, I still have the content AND some pictures to enjoy.
-- Watl Sterdan
You don't even have to depend on the income - if you're good at it and get a good reputation and are a bit of a perfectionist you find your hobby is now work for hire to other people. My father ran into that, ended up setting my great uncle in business, and went back to pure hobby mode.
Only about a $1000? I wish.... But, I have another hobby, I make lampwork beads (also not cheap at least to get set up correctly and safely). I actually do make money at that and it mostly pays for my Daz addiction. Its still fun and its still a hobby because I make them and put them up for sale, people buy them, I ship them. I sell on facebook (go figure right? Who knew) so no having to put together any kind of website, advertise or do anything than toss them up on a couple of group pages. Paypal is easy and competative as far as a percentage on dollars goes. Its still still a hobby because I rarely take custome orders (I don't like the pressure, that makes it not fun) Making beads is a very zen, relaxing way to spend four or five hours a week. I like to play with fire. I have a real job so I don't HAVE to do it. If something comes up and we want to take off for the weekend, well, I can make beads next weekend. I'm going to make them anyway, I can't possibly use even a tenth of what I make so its nice that people like them well enough to pay for them. If I ever thought I was good enough to sell my art, I would probably do the same. Set it up as prints or something that people can order from existing art work. I don't want a job doing this, if someone ever wanted to buy stuff I would be happy to sell it to them but I have zero desire to HAVE to make something specific in a certain time frame. I suck at production work and it totally kills my creative drive.
My Starbucks hobby has not gotten me any money. Well I have gotten free coffee but I have not figured out how to make money on it.
I did but it was in the pc forum and I am no longer a pc member.
Hahahahaha *wheeze*
I'm embarrassed to even try to look up how much I've spent on content. But then, this IS my job.
Fortunately for me this was not a passion hobby first. I got into it specifically hoping to monetize and then learned to do some things for fun afterward. :D
For me the hobby that I spend time/money on and get no return except the fun is gaming. I buy a lot of games from Steam, and I spend probably $10 a month on Pokemon Go at the moment. I would not want to work in the gaming industry, which is known for using up new talent and then throwing it away.
Hey SY! Love your stuff.
Yeah. It occurs to me now that I'm just missing out on half of the hobby.
I think I need to set up an account on DeviantArt and start posting renders. Just for fun. At least then I'm actually producing "something". Yeah. That's the ticket. LOL!
There are a couple of artists on DeviantArt & others that do comissions and they're constantly closing their commission pipeline to catch up. I doubt that you'd make a lot per hour, but if you're doing it for enjoyment anyway...
If I may add my 2 cents
I have countless amount of money into 3d & Daz, after having been using daz so long. I would make a fair guess anyone that has been using daz studio to create art for any period of time all have a lot invested in this art form too.. .When I started with daz it was because I needed to create art work I just could not do with Adobe illustrator. and fell in love creating animation with it.
Fate though in the last year or 2 brought me the opportunity to sell my my daz renders to make some money. By creating book cover art for other people, Art work for web site designs and logos.. Art work for advertisements for use on the Internet in banners. and 2 printed newspaper ads.. & I recently created a Kids Christmas animation in DVD& Blu-ray, for a county music singer Gus Gregory in Nashville for a new Christmas song that Gus is releasing. so my advice to anyone is love Daz for the hobby, nurture it,and grow your assets and skills , then apply your skills to making money when the opportunity arises over time after people have learned and seen what you can do with Daz, they may comssion you to create some renders for them.. and plus if you really would like to make some money with daz you can always become Daz Affiliated
Yeah, I often feel like I should want to be a merchant, but I really don't. Sure I like to tinker but doing all the promo stuff and trying to market things, not so much. I did spend some money and plan to spend some more money, but its my collection and hobby. Its okay to invest in a little joy. I buy and collect things that give me flexibility, shaders, morphs, fabric tiles and things like that. So why don't I try to be a merchant? Well, the stuff that pleases me so much doesn't have people lining up to buy it, neither the art or stuff to make it is in demand except for by a handful of people. I am okay with supporting the artists that work so hard to make these things. There is something about my hobby being in the computer that makes my "work" not feel like it has any impact on the household except for pulling me away from more pressing real world projects and people. Fact is, this keeps me happy and able to do all the rest. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I do things on the computer and that builds me up inspite of my best efforts to tear it down again by putting it down as useless. Every once in a great while someone says, "Can you edit this print ad we are going to run?" " Can you design a flyer?" or even, "Can you open this file?" then I get to be extremely important and useful afterall. Those tiny skills and programs and even a limited amount of knowledge can turn out to be handy for people too busy to acquire them for themselves. I suppose the more social I am the more requests I would get, but I'm not too social and still people manage to find me with requests. I can feild most of those with Gimp. If it wasn't for Daz I wouldn't have Gimp or Elements installed much less bother to learn how to use them. Besides, my mom is a horder, me and my sisters are collectors by nature, my beads take up massive space, all my daz files fit on a little harddrive keeping my place neat and tidy. None of my Daz stuff will pollute the planet by landing in a landfill either. Its a good hobby for oh so many reasons and the more people spend on virtual things the less real world trash they are running around creating. So there you have it, Daz is saving the planet, one virtual pair of shoes at a time! Enjoy!!!! Be proud!!!