How can I be a serious artist - Starting out
N-RArts
Posts: 1,603
Hi.
I've using Daz3D since 2013, and I would like to be a serious 3D Artist. Apart from Deviant Art, I have no idea on how to get my work "out there".
I know from past experience that my NSFW pieces have been the most successful of my renders. I'm also working on obj freebies, so it'd be nice to become a content artist, at some point.
So I'd just like some advice about how I can get "my foot on the ladder".
I know that everyone has different experiences, and that some may have "started out" without posting threads like these. But I'm just worried that everything I'm doing is wrong (because that's what my head is telling me).
Thank you for any advice or suggestions.
N_RArts
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Comments
NSFW images don't sell - anywhere. You may get 17,000 viewings in one day of an image, but nobody will put down money to buy a print.
If you are looking to sell prints of your images, be aware that there are 50 million other images for sale on the internet. That being said, if you can produce something unique, that there is a market for, that nobody else is doing, that can't be copied by another artist - then you may be able to make money.
Selling content at DAZ or some other store is FAR more likely to make you money.
Fauvist is not completely correct; I've found there are people willing to pay for adult image commissions, and pay reasonably well. The reason I don't do that now is that it involves too many requests for things I don't want to do, and the hourly on what I do now is significantly higher.
The economics are simple.
Anybody can get Daz Studio and free content. There is no paying market for images made this way because no one has a reason to pay for them.
Many people can learn to light and afford some paid content. There is some demand for this because realistic lighting is an art form that can be learned, but which most people will not learn, and setting up and rendering a good-looking scene is time-consuming.
Few people can learn to create content. There's more money in this because a lot of people will buy an outfit or set or effects pack that can't make one.
VERY few people can learn to create content that's marketable to a wide audience. And this is why Daz3d Premier Artists earn more than 90% of artists elsewhere.
This is not to discourage you from trying, not at all! I mentor a fair number of new artists. If you can already mesh a bit, that's a good start. Most people can't get over that first hurdle of learning to use modeling and texturing software. The next big hurdle is rigging; but this I can help you learn also, and so can others.
When you can model, texture, and do at least some rigging, then it's down to your ability to choose what to make that's marketable and get enough done in an efficient amount of time. This is not easy. My experience is that the biggest money is in making products with family-friendly promos that people are going to use for their own family-unfriendly renders, but that's certainly not the only business model.
Lots of people make art, less people produce content. Choose this route. It's more work, but the potential is there.
Also try to keep expectations low. PAs here put in a ton of work and many of them end up making less than minimum wage based purely on hours spent on work vs. sales. Sickleyield's advice is very good, you need to learn a LOT of stuff before you can seriously think about creating and selling quality content.
I've been involved in 3D art since 1999 and I made more money proofreading the English for a Polish artist's drawing book than I ever made on any of my actual artwork. Some people do make money making adult renders for subscription sites, but you'd need to be able to crank out dozens of pictures every month to compete (and there's only one 3D artist I know who actually does a good job of it).
Go slow and learn a lot, having the foundations will help when it's time to think about going the commercial route.
Responded to wrong person
My hourly is much more than that, but I also have tailored what I make and when specifically for the purpose of maximizing my hourly per item. Don't get me wrong, I don't make anything I don't enjoy making (special effects and chains and monsters are all things I love), but of the things I love, I choose first based on income, then based on desire. I also have put a high priority on enlarging my catalog so it can support me in a bad sales period, or when a risk doesn't pan out.
This is also why I make few character sets or clothes, though, and the market does want those. The trick is getting efficient enough that you aren't making big beautiful outfits or sprawling sets for $10 an hour. Every year we lose people much more talented than I am because of basically this problem (the other main culler of artists is things like the Iray engine change/paradigm shift, where everyone has to learn new technology in a hurry and/or suddenly get new hardware to keep up).
For me the best way is to find clients for book/CD/movie posters, etc... Do samples of all of these to show potential clients. The only real way to sell art is mostly doing fan art, comic book characters and stuff. It’s really hard to sell your own original art unless you make it actual art, do something really creative with it, put it on canvas, not just regular photorealistic renders.
I guess what's been already written about "prints don't sell" is true, as I don't expect there being many even thinking about buying a print, when there's free pictures on the web and colour printers are cheap...
On the other hand, there seems to be quite a market for erotic games on the internet. If You check patreon, there are tons of games available there. And it seems there are people who can live from what they make at patreon.
Some of those projects are "one man shows" with the same persond doing the 3d modelling and the coding for the game. But others have quite large groups of people behind them, who specialise in different parts of the game publishing process.
So if You can dish out high (or at least good) quality renders at a fast rate "on order" (= make them as the storywriter expects them to be) you could look for an opening on one of those teams. There have been occasions where team publicly (on patreon) looked for people to add to their team.