Totally lost my enthusiasm
eman
Posts: 32
in The Commons
As the title said I totally lost my enthusiasm. Piracy, stealing, resellers... in few months so many bad things happened. I spent so much time on trying to make good models and it was all time waste.
There is basically zero respect for our work and no one seems to care that much (Google first!).
Now I am a PA but I don't have anything yet here. I don't want to sell my characters because I know is not worth it. The only solution would be make low quality characters...
How do you guys deal with all of this?
Sorry for my English..
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Yes, all true! it is difficult to be a vendor.
Sorry for your troubles. Despair is futile. Sell your characters regardless of the obstacles. That is why you made them.
It can be very disheartening eh. Some pirates dont even give us 15 minutes to make back the months of work we pour in. "The only solution would be make low quality characters." No, thats not the answer, but making a full time living with this is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of hours, skill, ingenuity, a love of the craft, and income from other means/ rainy day funds.
Once, Feliks W. Kres, a Polish author who was known for helping aspiring writers, wrote a list of (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) suggestions. One of them was, translated loosely: "You don't have to be a writer. You can be someone else."
That applies to being an artist too.
You choose to be an artist. If you're discouraged so easily, if you perceive your personal growth and skills learned as "waste of time", then why be an artist? As for respect, a lot of people here show their appreciation for artists' work, buying their products, rendering, shouting out to their favorite creators... What more would you want? For all the people to have an idea of what it takes to be an artist... well, that's kind of unrealistic.
I know it would be great to earn living from your art and not to deal with all the problems that come from some people being unscrupulous, but the truth is that it's part of the business. You either take it into account and keep doing what you're doing until those things don't bother you anymore or at least don't make you miserable, or you, well, go be someone else. There's nothing wrong in having a day job and being a hobbyist or doing it just as a side gig.
Yes, basically I need to find another job...
Sorry joanna, I saw your reply only now.
I know there is people who respect our work, but for what I see there is much more who doesn't. And the problem is we are not protected, looks like nobody cares about it.
Seeing our work shared so easily hurts, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who think this.
Again, sorry for my English.
Well, you're complaining about reality.
Let me tell you something harsh: there are 8 billions of people out there, and yes, most of them don't care about what you or I create. This is the reality.
One thing one learns as an author is to grow thick skin. And as an author, I've found my books on pirate sites, scam sites, and I've seen readers saying that a $5 ebook that took months (or even a year) to write is too expensive and other readers asking where they can listen to audiobooks for free (when it costs $2000-3000 to produce one). If I got upset about things like that, I wouldn't make it into six books published.
If I were you, I'd focus on what you can control: on making great products that people will buy. On marketing them. On educating those who don't know better (not everyone is malicious: sometimes they just don't know they're hurting creators by what they're doing). I'd also focus on what's positive: people excited about your products, using them, spreading the word. It's in your power to choose where you put your energy and focus as an artist. Negativity and things you can't control seem like poor choices to me.
Probably not. But you've come to a place where people care, express their enthusiasm, and so on, and tell them "nobody cares" and it's all waste of time. People here are not responsible for the remaining 8 billion others and a change, and they are also not responsible for doing anything to satisfy your expectation of "respect" or "protection".
And then, again, it either hurts so much that you quit (and then there's no need to announce it like that), or you have that passion that drives creators and will continue doing what you're doing because you simply can't stop.
I guess this is not what you wanted to read, but making a living as a creator is not easy, and to me, focusing on the negative is a sure way to fail—or become miserable.
Well, here's a shout out to the vendors then if it makes you feel any better!
I bought a copy of Poser 6 way back when, then moved to Daz Studio sometime during the G3/Victoria 7 days. Funny thing is, all I do is make background and screensaver pics for my pc. I have a small online presence, no interest in learning modeling, pretty much suck with photoshop but love material zones and material shaders.
Anyways, as a non-artist that doesn't consider my renders art, but that does spend alot (my wallet weeps), thank you!
When I say "nobody cares" I mean big company like Google and similar... I asked them to remove a link from the search but they just ignored me. Not a good way to fight piracy.
I want to sell models, but I can't spend a month to making one. This is why I said "waste of time".
Trust me I try to focus on what is positive, I love what I do and I don't want to quit. But I have to find a balance between quality and quantity if I want to continue to be a vendor, and that's sad.
DAZ was experimenting with encryption of products at some point, only for a year from release date actually, then they would be decrypted again, which seem to be a fair compromise to me. I don't see it as a problem as long as I can still use my products during the encryption period, but the majority of users didn't want to buy these products, so DAZ dropped the idea again.
because it didn't stop the pirates
it just stopped paying customers from being able to use the content in my case Carrara users
I don't believe the pirates broke it - theya re a pretty lazy bunch, they don't generally get updates even.
I don't know how DAZ implemented it, but I believe it can be done in a way that is effective enough to make it worthwhile.
Could be a concept: sell subscriptions to figures instead of selling the figures, like:
Release version: the figure + one set of textures for the skin, maybe 2 or 3 make up variations and 1 tattoo
Then dropfeed updates;
2 additional make up variations (and maybe an additional tattoo) once every two weeks
1 skin variation every month
It all depends on the features the figure has, ofcourse, but it could stretch for 1 to 3 months before a figure is really complete. Pirates will have long moved on by that time, and thus, pirated copies will generally be incomplete. Paying customers may be annoyed at first, but I figure they'll get used to it. At least, paying customers should get their updates almost automatically through the DIM. This wouldn't be a good thing to do with the main Daz characters (as they're too important and Daz needs people to showcase them as much as possible), but could make sales more reliable for the PA's.
People who want to buy an immediately feature-complete figure would have to look at the Daz main characters, or at PA figures that are 2 or 3 months old, obviously. Their benefit there would also be that those are often cheaper from stacking discounts.
That sounds like the worst possible solution, honestly. PAs would have to complete work on figures that won't be released all at once, for starters. Also, most prominent character designers don't also make their own clothing, at least not at the same pace, so they would either have to dedicate more time to making their own clothing or partner with other PAs whose work is now dependent on the release and success of a different PA. Meanwhile, customers know that character releases are incomplete and may not want to wait around for the other parts of the package which are as yet undisclosed and/or may not have money to spend by the time they're released.
Rampant "piracy" is a bummer for the people who are affected by it, but it's a reality of the internet and attempts like this to clamp down on piracy not only won't prevent piracy, they make things harder for the paying customers.
This is the truth of it!
This right here. And I used to be a PA and a Rendo vendor, FWIW.
I don't think there is a way to stop piracy. Search engines could remove those sites from the search, that would help a little, but they are too scared to lose users.
The only solution as I said is to find a compromise, and I think it's a shame.
There are countries that don't recognize IP or the notion of copyright, and there is not possibility of taking down the pirated material. Some sales are lost, but the truth is, the people using the pirated materials were never going to pay for it anyway. So might as well get on with doing whatever you're going to do because the pirates and their visitors are not your customers.
I agree. I would consider buying them on Daz but I do not get third party because I cannot get it to work with smart content.
I had a film of mine pirated big time a decade ago and I was so heartbroken. I'm always against piracy because I know it hurts someone. But I realized anyone who is going to pirate isn't going to buy it anyways, so you're not losing any money. The people who are going to buy it, will. So just do your thing.
I issue DMCA takedowns every week to Google Drive, Mega, Mediafire etc. I've been doing this for years and it takes me less 10 mins. Everything I release here gets pirated, my jewelry the most. If people knew how I create my work, the time I put into it, and the upkeep to my skillset then they'd ask why I bother releasing products on Daz.
We can contribute to the world in beautfiul ways that matter and that is what I choose to do. I love my work, I respect it and devote myself to it. I see the appreciation for art not only among the PAs but the customers as well, that is why I release work my here.
Take care of your work, even if it takes extra time out of your schedule. It deserves it.
~ Parallax
It was many years ago now, I used to make a point of reading all those website warnings people took the time to write. Some were downright hilarious but there was this one man who had found a way to deal with theft of his digital property. He was suing the perpetrators - and apparently making more of a living doing that than selling whatever it was he was selling.
If you're geserty, then I'll be buying one of your products next week. I have no need for orcs. Please take Joanna's advice and continue making products because your talent and hard work shine through.
When the crows were eating the Quakers crops, they planted extra crops for the crows. If people knew about you, they'd flock to you. Hard times come at the beginning of an endeavour to weed out the wusses and toughen up the lovers. Thieves steal. Liars lie. Creators create.
I can sympathise.
I make freebies (usually distributed at 'rosity) and have had one stolen and sold as part of a pose set at 'rotica. Simply unbelievable that a freebie would be stolen and sold like that. However, I can look at it and think that 'At least it hasn't lost me income', which it would have done had I been selling the stuff. The amount of effort to go through the correct procedures to remove it looked designed to disuade anyone from asserting their digital rights, but I persisted & got the offending material removed.
So, yes. It's horrible. It's disheartening and you feel bad about it. But it can be worth going to the sites & following the site's procedures for removal. Failing that, put down a review stating that you are the owner of the copyright and that the user is selling stolen material and is not to be trusted. If you can't get at them to get your legal rights applied, they will be unable to exert illegal rights, so you can safely put down the truth wherever you see them post any products in the future.
As for the material I had stolen, one thing that offended me more than it should have done was the fact that I regarded the pose they stole as the least good of the set, and actually they showed really bad judgement as well as criminal behaviour by not stealing the best.
Regards,
Richard
I actually know of someone who was doing just this a few years back , for example I cant go ito details but he created a still life of carefully arranged 'objects' and a major publisher liked the image but didnt buy a while later he found a book from said publsiher with his image on it but wait! someone had copied his image using almost the same props and lighting but was sourced from india.
He sued and won and I believe now is very effective at legaly exacting payment.
At the end of the day as said before is someone pirates you they were never going to pay but there will be people who appreciate what you do and they will pay for it.
I have a tiny portfolio on Displate and I used to max the prices on everything and sold a decent number every year then displate changed the pricing so you could not set your own prices and and I still sell the exact same amount of Displates but for less money because displate got greedy and screwed me so I stopped uploading to them.
Do your thing and those who are interested will pay but you cant give up you have to keep plugging away and creating that will attract buyers eventually but its a slog i wont lie.
That's not entirely true, a lot of them are making money with pirated content (more than we do by selling them actually), I'm pretty sure if there was no other way they would have bought them.
I tried to put down some links, but the next day there was three more... it's just useless. And I don't want to spend all my time chasing pirates. Also I do not understand these people, if you like my work you should support me... encourage me to do more, or am I wrong? But they are doing just the opposite of that.
Yup, I had the same situation. Not Daz-related stuff but mods I made for a popular game. I gave them away for free but at least one site was selling them. Best I could do was to publicize the situation with posts in several game-related forums and let players know they could get them for free from my site.
I have to clarify something, I lost my enthusiasm on being a vendor not on making 3d content, I'm actually making more than before. I only hope to find a way to make my art profitable because selling doesn't seem to be the right answer, at least on my experience. But I want to continue to be a PA here so I guess I have tu put something in my store or I will lose it. I'm not really sure how it works though, so if someone could give some info that would be very appreciated.