Selling 3D models on TurboSquid

Is this the best website to sell 3D models, I have a couple I made and just thought I might try to make a little money off of them. Is there a better website to sell 3d models form? And what percentage does turbosquid get of the things I sell.

 

I haven't sold assets through them but that's always the first site I visit when I'm looking to buy 3D assets. They seem to have the biggest selection and the site seems to be the easiest to navigate through to find what I need. One bit of advice though, if you're going to sell 3D models, offer it in as many formats as you can. Nothing more aggravating than finding a model I like than to see it's not available in a format I can use. Oh, and also please check all those models to make sure they exported properly. I recently purchased a set of models and the .OBJ files were all missing UV info. I had to manually unwrap each and every one before I could use them. I won't tell you who I bought them from, but he's a frequent advertiser here and he isn't Turbo Squid.

 

What's the main format you use? I'm putting my models up in at least 4 formats, I did .3ds, .obj(with the .mtl file), .dae, and .fbx.

 

I mostly use .OBJ since I can import that into both Blender and Carrara (my two main 3D apps). I'm not sure how viable .3DS is since when I import them I don't get any material or UV info. If you can, you might also want to support MAX, Maya, Lightwave and Cinema 4D native formats. I don't use any of those apps, but lots of people do.

 

They take 60% initially. If you commit to exclusively selling on TurboSquid you can start at 50% instead of %40 and it can get up to 60%.

http://www.turbosquid.com/SquidGuild

 

Yeah I decided to probably just sell of www.the3dstudio.com since I get 60% of the sales and that seems like a much better option, I may sell of turbosquid to, just to get visibility.

 

I'd post on both just to see what happens. TurboSquid gets a lot of traffic, you might end up w/ more money just due to the volume of sales even at a lower rate, but try them both out and see what happens. Let us know

 

I'll be sure to

 

From what I've been told, and I don't know this from experience, but Turbosquid is more of a buyer's site than a seller's site. More geared toward the satisfaction of those buying the content than those providng it. Nothing wrong with that, it makes it a great place to get models from, but maybe it's not the best way of distributing your models.

Again, that's only what I heard from someone, not something I know personally. So take what I said with a grain of salt.

 

I thought I'd pipe in. You're welcome to sell on TurboSquid, we'd love to have you and any game ready models for Unity in particular. TurboSquid brought the idea of a marketplace to 3D, like iStock did for photography, as we've got partnerships with Autodesk and most other 3D software companies. I mention this because that's why we have so much business. (previously we were a 6 person animation shop for most of the 90s)

For a marketplace, you have to develop both sides, so we seesaw between buyers and artists who are selling, and we've just spent 9 months mostly investing in features for artists. You get a full file system for uploading and organizing publishing products, tons of reports about what sells and how your stuff is doing.

We're just about 4x larger than the number of models for the next biggest site, but in terms of sales we're much larger than that (based on dozens and dozens of reports from sellers). Here's the relative ratios of people searching on "TurboSquid" to competitors.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=turbosquid,the3dstudio,flatpyramid&cmpt=q

Alexa and other sites aren't useful gauges because there is so much traffic for people who think they can buy real things on our site like ipods who will never buy a 3d model.

A place where a lot of people like to get free content is Google's 3D Warehouse. You can see where they came on the scene.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=turbosquid,the3dstudio,flatpyramid,3d warehouse&cmpt=q

Anyhow, hope this is helpful. I've always thought Unity was a very interesting engine (in particular since I run on a mac).

Regards,
Matt
--
Matt Wisdom
CEO
TurboSquid

 

Problem with TurboSquid and other 3d content sites its a total nightmare to get your money out of them if you do sell anything, you have to register with the US IRS, get taxcodes and fill in forms every year else you lose a bunch of your royalties. Really wish that side of it would be sorted out.

 

Got my first model up at the3dstudio, it's a moon rover I designed, fairly detailed. I would like your guys opinions on the price, do you think it's a reasonable price? Thanks, here's the link http://t3ds.com/282284

 

That model is cool , if you can, you should add textures and raise the price a bit. that will attract customers, if they can buy a model knowing they dont need to add anything

 

You should add top, bottom, front, back, and side views.

 

yes turbosquid might take up more percentage than others, its still the most popular 3d modle sharing website ever. so id say u would want to sell it on TS

 

I saw that we got linked to in this post, thanks for that and it is true that we pay the highest royalty rates around.

Our standard rate is 60%, so you get 60% of whatever you set the price at every time your resources sell. If you join our NON-exclusive loyalty program you get a full 70% of every sale and can still sell on other sites if you want. For a site as old and large as The3dStudio.com that's hard to top

I noticed the unethical squid (http://www.the3dstudio.com/blog_detail.aspx?id=873) posted some google stats that don't really tell us much beyond who is searching for the term "turbosquid". In my 14 years of running this business I find that people who know the name "the3dstudio" don't google us but simply come to our site...again and again so I won't waste time with skewed stats

I don't think the squid does more in 3d model sales when we compare the number of their 3d models to ours, most people who sell with us rate us as their #1 (sometimes tied, and sometimes #2) source of sales income. Keep in mind that our non-exclusive 70% rate blows away the default 40% squid rate and we don't bully you into exclusivity. That means that you need far fewer sales with us to make much more money.

This is a fairly good google link that likely better tells the picture of some of the marketplace sites out there but I wouldn't even fault the smaller sites here (why not try them all...I know many of them and they are all great people)...

http://trends.google.com/websites?q....com,+flatpyramid.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

It's also interesting to note that The3dStudio.com has more products for sale than the squid (or any other 3D marketplace) and we allow textures, tutorials, stock photos, and much more.

We're also committed to the best customer service on the planet...that's not lip service like you get from most companies, it's the core of our business philosophy. Need help, have questions? Contact us via our contact form and you get a fast reply (many times from me since I enjoy the customer service side of this business).

 

Yeah if I had to go with one site it would defenitely be the3dstudio, but since you guys are awesome enough not to have one of those annoying agreements where you can only sell to one site, I thought I might as well try multiple sites.

 

I fully agree with you Astrauk, you should try them all and find what works best for you. Where not the #1 source of sales for every seller and sometimes different sites have different customers and you'll do better some place else.

The nice thing, as you pointed out, is that with us you have the option to sell on other sites and we don't penalize you for that.

So, other than some time uploading you have little to lose. Oh, and thanks for the kind words...much appreciated!

 

I will say that, although I usually visit TurboSquid first when shopping for 3D assets, the few times I have purchased assets from The3DStudio.com it was because they had the exact same model for a lower price. Competition is good, I will continue to shop both sites in the future.

 

A lot of artists will sell a bit cheaper with us for that reason. Since they get so much more from us it makes sense for everyone

 

Just chipping in my 2cents:

Don't expect to be making a lot of money with any of the online 3D intermediaries. The market is so varied (and vast) that getting a couple of sales on a really professional model will seem like a lot. Luck also plays a big part in it.

Also, given this, never agree to any form of exclusivity contract (however appealing it might seem). Try to branch out and cover the small marketplaces as well (you'll be surprised).

 

I don't think luck factors in...at least, not any more than it does for me in Las Vegas which isn't much! Quality models that are in demand can sell VERY well while lesser models that aren't in demand won't. Finding the items we don't have and filling those niches is a great way to go and we even offer a real time search report so you can see what customers want (and what we do and don't have). My authors watch this to get ideas on what to make and it can be a good approach.

There are some big players in this business (buyers and sellers) and those top sellers actually make a living selling in 3d, stock photos, etc. Some make a very good living as well and I actually just got to see some photos of a brand new house that one of our top sellers just bought with the money they have earned from us!

This is just some info from my viewpoint over the last 14 years...this can be a very serious business / job / career for those that put in the time and effort. Or, it can be anything from a few extra dollars per month to a few hundred or thousand as some nice side income. You truly do get what you give in this business.

I'd love to see what you all have to sell with us...half the fun for me is just seeing the creativity that the community has and watching all of those "wow, why didn't I think of that" models appear.

If I had models that I made I'd at least be listing them, because if they are just collecting some e-dust then there is always a chance you can profit from them if they are listed. Never hurts to try and you have nothing to lose but a few minutes of listing time.

The other option, if you don't want to sell, is to give some of your models (etc) away for free. It's nice just to give back to the community so others can learn from your work.

 

I completely agree with this and it should be common practice for almost any 3D artist .

 

I try to stay out of the way of the mud slinging and name calling from some of our competitors. We'd love to have you on TurboSquid, and hope you'll tap into a serious career for many, many people.

Matt Anderson does some claims that should be looked at.

He says: "has more products for sale than the squid (or any other 3D marketplace)". Let's look at that:

Total 3d models on TurboSquid = 184,117 (over 46,000 models published in the last 12 months)

http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models

Total 3d models on t3ds = 49,016

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_0=1&sort=rank

Total products TurboSquid = 286,000

http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?keyword=&date_published_after=6/30/2010

Total products t3ds = 269,000

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_0=&sort=rank

Matt Anderson's claim is obviously untrue from any angle, but it also shows something else:

t3ds is really focused on stock photography and it is 76% of their inventory (205,179 photos), which is probably not very helpful to Unity developers.

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_category_0=290&ipst=0&sort=rank

t3ds claims on their homepage "1,144,000 3D Models, Stock Photos, Textures" and over 1m in press releases, but you can't get that in search results. Each photo counts 4 times, or something like that. Matt Anderson says "I don't waste time on skewed stats", but given the misleading press releases and the false claims, it's hard to believe that either.

...

Regarding the earlier point, tons of people type brand names on Google searches accidentally or on purpose to save effort guessing domains. It's quite a relevant stat because it measures high quality traffic, but take it for what you will.

...

Regards,
Matt
--
Matt Wisdom
CEO
TurboSquid

 

Since we may have the attention of both Wisdom and The3DStudio here, I'd like to put in a plea for them to officially support Unity with the assets they sell. I don't know about The3DStudio, but I've purchased models from TurboSquid which were totally unusable in Unity--half the polys on one building had reversed normals, other weird stuff, and since I'm not a 3D artist I couldn't fix them. TurboSquid tech support said they didn't support Unity so couldn't guarantee anything (though they did helpfully refund the price). Or at least encourage artists to check things in Unity and indicate that they're "unity-friendly" in the description.

 

Well hello Mr. Wisdom, nice to see you finally out and about in the community sites!

You seemed to have incorrectly listed our stats though, we actually have many more products than you listed there and have more products than you have as we just signed on a few big name stock photo sellers. Some you can't see without an account and others are still in our approval process (we weed out stuff that is under par) so they won't show up in all listings and searches yet but give it a few days. I think I saw our 300,000th product run through the queue a few days back so we're pretty excited about that.

As for that resource count, pretty impressive at 1.1m resources. It's amazing how much support we've had in the last year to really ramp that number up, very exciting stuff! But, that too is just another number...just a count of resources so people can see how much changes from one day to the next.

To me it's more about the community and the customers and making sure we help everyone in an ethical way and without forcing them into some sort of exclusivity program. I mean, I can't imagine going to our authors and saying "Either you sell only on our site or we will drop your rate to 40%". Ouch...can you imagine doing that to these great people that are the reason we are all in business in the first place?

That would be like biting the hand that feeds right? And since some don't read/speak English very well they could certainly be confused and end up not knowing that they are even agreeing to such a program. It's that sort of thing we like to avoid and our authors actually seem to appreciate it, go figure.

You are correct, we focus on 3d models, textures, tutorials, and stock photos as our core business. We find that many 3d artists have a need for all of the various resource types we offer. Sounds like you aren't placing any value on the other items you sell like Textures then? Interesting...I haven't seen the TS site in a while but I always thought that was a big part of your business...guess it's only about 3d models now? I think that's where a site like The3dStudio.com really stands out though, we have the ability to be more things to more people.

I do agree that many people do type in names into google but we find that those that use The3dStudio.com actually remember us and our domain and just come right back. Kind of like when I buy something at NewEgg.com I just go ahead and type in NewEgg.com because it's a good site and has good service so I remember that and just go there without googling it. I feel comfortable saying that most customers do the same but I certainly don't want to take away from your achievement of getting a lot of people to google your business name. I am sure that has to be good for something? I'll just stick with keeping the customers happy so they know where to come back to but by all means do what makes sense to you!

PS - If you get a minute, drop me an email at support@the3dstudio.com as I'd like to give you some info on a person that was allegedly posing as a TS employee and placed a fraudulent order on The3dStudio.com several months back. I contacted your support people that confirmed the person worked at TS but nobody ever returned our calls when we left messages. I emailed you about it as well as talked with your attorney about it but never heard back. So, if you read this please contact me so I can get you that info...if it is a real TS employee you can then deal with them as needed. The IP address seems to point to your area as well and I'd love to give you the info to make sure they don't do it again if it is one of your people or somebody that somehow got their information.

 

Dave, can you drop me an email at support@the3dstudio.com ...i'd love to just pick your brain on that subject actually.

We have unity customers but haven't had any problems in doing conversions for them so I'd like to know more about what formats you tried and all of that. I can use a sample free file we have and we can even do some testing with you to see what works best and what doesn't.

Many times we find that it's just a matter of finding out what format works best and then what software we need to use to convert to that format correctly.

 

I dropped Dave a line on eduweb, and am happy to discuss Unity. We have artists working online 24/7 who will test out a model for you before you purchase or do refunds if it doesn't work out for what you need. The key would be a clear test environment and process so you can get the right feedback quickly about whether it works in Unity, which shouldn't be too hard to do.

TurboSquid is focused on 3D artists and 3D models. Of course, textures are helpful to 3D artists and we have a very large collection, and so are plug-ins. The biggest need however, is for 3d models and that is our main focus. We are the world leader in 3d models for a reason.

A last note regarding Matt Anderson: he likes to claim he treats people how he wants to be treated. For now, unfortunately, it's same old falsehoods, attacks, and misleading claims.

 

So, you have a Textures section but don't seem to care much about focusing on those artists? I guess that is your choice but must suck for those artists then...could be why many do so sell with all types of resources on our site since we focus on all types.

For a guy who doesn't like to sling mud you sure slinging a ton of it! What's with the personal attack there?

Considering you and I have never talked or emailed and other than some fake accounts made on our site (and that fraudulent order I mentioned) we've have zero contact. If you ask me that is a shame, I'd love to just have a conversation with you and I think we could both benefit from it. I actually talk with many of the other owners from FallingPixel, E3D, and so on and we all work together very well and I would like to have that same business relationship with you. Are you then saying you don't want to work together for the greater good of the community? I think that's sort of an old way of thinking but if that's what works for you than that's okay. We're happy to keep leading and innovating and sharing our ideas as always!

I guess I just don't understand where the attitude is coming from. I mean, we've watched TS take all of our ideas and copy them as well as try and steal authors away with the goofy guild but I actually have no issues with you as a person at all. I'd bet money you are actually a very nice person though just don't seem to run your company with any ethics. That's not a slam against you, but it is one against how TS is run. I think that move was just a terrible way to treat the starving artists out there (and as you know, many left you because of it and the rest simply despise you for it).

You are right about me though, I treat everyone how I want to be treated every single day. That doesn't mean I am perfect, and that doesn't mean I do everything right...BUT...I do my best every single day to help everyone any time I can. If I make a mistake I will acknowledge it, learn from it, and do better next time. Guess I don't see what is misleading about how I act?

 

@MattWisdom - Just some feedback from a TurboSquid customer, I've tried 3 times to have a 3D asset that is listed on your site converted into a format I can use in Unity:

The first time I received a reply from your automated system notifying me that the artist was being contacted, but never received any followup.

The second time I received an automated reply, then a reply from one of your people saying the artist was being contacted, then another reply a week later saying the artist could not be contacted.

The last time I also received another automated reply, but this time I was put in contact with the artist. Unfortunately when he did contact me it was to tell me he could not convert the model into a format I could use.

I bring this up because when you wrote that your people are working "7/24 to test models to make sure they work" thus implying your company is working to make your products compatible with our intended purpose, I think that is a bit misleading.

 

@Matt Anderson, that's quite an olive branch.

Dave and I have exchanged emails and are talking about approaches to get things working better with Unity.

@bigkahuna, I'm sorry it's been a struggle for you. We've had large portions of virtual worlds based on Unity built from TS models. I think the core of the issue is that unlike say, jpeg, which is just pixels and easily imported, 3D models have a much larger variety of compatibility. So, it's hard to say whether something comes perfectly into Unreal 3, Unity, Garage Games' Torque, Poser 5 (way old to new versions), Open Flight, etc. I suspect what happened is that since we don't have all of these testing environments handy, some of it is being passed to the artists selling their products to see if they will test their own products. Obviously that has not worked for you since they haven't had the environments either or been willing to figure it out. The whole matrix is difficult to support but we are spending serious resources right now to work on that problem. That's part of the benefit of being a larger company with a focus on 3D models.

I am hoping that Unity's management will engage at some level. In the meantime, could somebody post the formats that have worked for importing to Unity? Is Collada 1.4.1 successful usually? Stories of what has worked and what doesn't work would be great to hear and we can build on that. I see the import page in the documentation, but it doesn't give much feedback about success rates for different approaches.

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/HOWTO-importObject.html

Thanks,
Matt ~ www.turbosquid.com

 

FBX seems to be the most reliable format, but unfortunately it's quite a bit less common on TurboSquid than .3ds, which is the format I've had some troubles with.

 

That's the king of guy I am, but you don't seem to be taking me up on my offer still...why not exactly? What is it that worries you?

Don't you agree we can do better for the entire community by working together more rather than against each other? And isn't that the entire point of this business?

Considering we are both leaders in this business I think we could work together to establish better standards of listing, formats, conversions, and share information to better combat things like credit card fraud (a real issue at your place from what the sellers keep saying). Our anti-fraud systems are very good, there is information we can share there when fraud is attempted because chances are good they try us and fail and then go to your site and get through. There's a reason our seller fraud protection applied to all sellers and is unlimited where your version of it (oddly enough which popped up months after we offered it) was only for a few cases and only for guild members (if I remember correctly, I don't keep up so sorry if I have incorrect info on your current setup).

Imagine being able to work together to keep the thieves away as well...I mean, when we find a stolen model on our site and remove it we know it's on your site and I'd love to share that with you personally so that the person reporting it doesn't need to fill out a support ticket on every site.

We also do a lot of contest sponsoring that would be great to get you guys in on as well as sponsoring schools that have animation classes, and so on. We also do a lot of charity donating as well as Kiva funding and it would be great to have you guys join us in helping those less fortunate all over the world.

So, no interest in chatting over email with me then? It's support@the3dstudio.com if you change your mind...I won't hold my breathe so if I don't hear from you privately it's been fun finally chatting with you here. I hope at some point you'll stop hiding behind the tentacles and come out and play with the rest of us. The water is warm, come on in!

 

@Matt Anderson, I think I see exactly the kind of guy you are.

@bigkahuna, we definitely don't have a ton of FBX. I've had meetings with Autodesk, Google and Adobe to go over file format compatibilities and I don't think there will be a central open format that everybody agrees on any time soon. We're looking at ways to improve our collection of FBX and Collada 1.4.1, which seem to have the most traction of the modern formats (as opposed to OBJ and 3ds).

Over the next while we'll pursue adding Unity as a testing environment for customers that want to check compatibility before purchasing.

Thanks,
Matt ~ www.turbosquid.com

 

Glad you finally came around Wisdom, I didn't want you to get the wrong impression of me.

Still, no email from you? Oh well, I tried...guess not everyone wants to work for the greater good here.

 

@Matt and Matt

Wow guys... just wow. I have done business with both of your sites in the past, and all I can say it that I am amazed at the immaturity in which you two personally attacked each other. In the future, keep the politics where they belong. This is not that kind of place.

 

I've bought assets from both you guys and was happy with the products, that wasn't my point. My point is that I would like to buy more from you but your current offerings don't allow me to.

I think testing your models in a game engine is only a small piece of the puzzle, the larger piece (at least from my perspective) is offering your assets in a wider range of file formats so they can be opened in a 3D modeling app, inspected / tweaked as necessary, and then imported into the engine. At the very least, you should offer them in .OBJ and .FBX. .3DS is worthless to most of us and .MA and .MAX are only useful to those people having those tools. Texture maps should at least be offered in .PNG and .PSD. .JPEGs are worthless because of compression artifacts.

 

I can't argue with you on that Jacob, it got the best of me for sure! But, there's a long history there that has caused a lot of damage to the industry as a whole and a lot of good artists (and customers) are being screwed over in the process. When I see that happening I will always speak up and try and make things right.

My only intent was to establish a communication with Wisdom as he has ignored us with every attempt in the past. Since he was actually replying here I thought he finally came around and was up for a chat.

I hate coming across as immature (if I did) but I am just passionate about the industry as a whole and hate to see bad things happening to good artists. I'll leave it alone from here on out on this post but I am still fighting for the greater good and that won't change

bigkahuna...if you contact me via email I'd be happy to work with you on that issue. I am not sure if you can't find the model you want or can't find it in the format you want. We can almost always export to many formats and if you want to do a little testing we can figure out what works best for you as a Unity developer (support@the3dstudio.com).

 

I disagree, at least about keeping it off this forum. The whole thing was keeping me mildly amused.

 

Hahaha...see, I knew somebody could appreciate it!

 

That conversation was intresting. Due to this informal discussion I found many answers, some view heated discussions as childish, i am relieved to two people acting as normal aggressive human beings. Quite informative, I'll have to watch this bb much more closely in the future.
To the people having problems with files, or reversing planes just check that stuff on YouTube that's informative as well.

 

Horrible website full of liars and hypocrites. I've been there for about 6 years and the administration has banned my account for no reason. When I asked why they told me "We will not be reinstating any membership privileges on this or any other account. This is not open for discussion. Thank you have a great day"
Actually in my opinion the world we live in is so bad because most of the politics in all countries are the same.

 

What is best depends on your target market. Every brokerage provides their own special terms and, even if its not obvious there is a specific culture of pricing that depends on the amount they pay.

The only time I look at % that pay less than 70% is when there is high volume. Turbosquid really isn't a high volume venue, but prices are high. If you are looking for monthly checks that can grow, Turbosquid isnt that great. I encourage you though to look at the vendor community there to make up your own mind.

Ive been in the software industry for quite a long time now, plus my company also has a very successful content studio. We do work with brokerages, resellers and distributors. My advice is as follows:

- Develop your own channel. This is rule #0. Your direct relationship with your customer is key to your survival* Brokerages own the customer relationship on their sales. Normal resellers in the software business don't work that way, though Apple is trying to change that.
- Don't undersell without thinking through. Resellers of all stripes typically ask for 30%. If a partner asks for more, then review their value regularly. Don't cry over 30% though, for software or content.
- Do brokerages create additional costs for you? Testing is great, but what they think is important is what they think is important. If they control the release, then they control your marketing.
- Do they provide a volume or profit channel? Some cost more. Some cost less. It is very important to figure out if high volume is what you need. This is where partnering with brokerages shines! Brokerages can add significant value here..
- Do brokerages ever dump content? Good ones understand that your market may not be a one size fits all. Holiday content is different from seasonal and "all year" content.

* let me reiterate this, because the direction of the market is over customer relationship ownership. When the market began to hit the ground in mid 2008, I saw many, many content vendors go out of business , and its clear they went out of business because they didn't have enough control over their own businesses and direct knowledge of their customer base.

 

You clearly dont want to work for the good of the community then, your jealous that TS has been successful with their venture and you havent been so much. You say you want to co-operate with him and TS, but not before slinging insults at his company and how terrible it is. So clearly its not for the good of the community, its for your ego. Honestly, I much more likely to go to TS now, I hate it when companies insult their competitors and just prefer it to be a friendly thing, and purely a business rivalry. Yes, they have exclusivity, but they are a business thats how they make money, just as we who sell it are a business who want to make more money.

EDIT: Woah, just checked the dates, sorry if Im reviving an old and dead thread, this probably isnt even relevant any more. Sorry

 

So, about that padlock...