Selling 3D Models; A Complete Guide

 So, you want to sell your 3D models and give up your day job right? Well, unless you're already well established in the industry or have a massive social media following that is likely to buy your models then you should think again.

If you're just starting out on this adventure though then it is very possible that you will never have to spend your "real" money on Christmas presents or even holidays, ever again.

The first thing I will advise you to do is to keep your boring day job, model in your spare time, and carry on regardless.

Depending on where you live will also play a huge part in this. The cost of living for someone in England is very different from the cost of living for someone living in India. Whilst $200 a week would barely feed the dog here, it may very well be a large chunk of income in Dheli (I've lived there, this is not a guess).

Here is my complete guide to selling your models and a few tips and suggestions that I had to learn the hard way;

Where to upload my models?

With TurboSquid being recently sold, things are a-changing. Many moons ago, TurboSquid used to be the go-to site for developers, movie props buyers and commercial model users, and its traffic counter was much higher than any other model selling platform.

In the past few years, CGTrader has gone through the roof. It offers the artist a better deal (75% v 40%), the customer service is the best you could wish for, and uploading your work there is easy, though laborious.

Model Traders (in no particular order)

Sketchfab 7/10

Another usurper has also surfaced, Sketchfab. This one really is a game-changer, although still not as popular with the buyers as CGTrader, it does offer a great platform for uploading your models, and the rate is also a great improvement on TurboSquid. The problem with Sketchfab is that you have to be a subscribed member to upload anything of any great substance on there.

If your model and textures are over 50 Mb then you have to pay to be able to upload it (not per model though at least). It isn't cheap either. Seven Euro's a month only allows you to upload ten models to the site that are over 50 Mb, but less than 100 Mb.

Sketchfab will allow you to upload your smaller models for free, and this is how I use it. It won't let you keep draft models on there for more than a month (a recent addition), but if it takes you a month to fix any problems you spotted then you should give up now and become a lumberjack or something.

The rates you get as an artist are 70% less Paypal charges in your country. This is a reasonable rate you can live with. 

The other fantastic feature of Sketchfab is that there are no comebacks, i.e. the buyer gets exactly what he sees and doesn't have to rely on your description or selective screenshots.

Try it below to see what the buyer sees;

Sci- Fi Terminal by Simon T Griffiths on Sketchfab

TurboSquid 3/10

My rating here may appear a little harsh but read on to see why I came to this conclusion.

Firstly, they've just been bought out by the worlds most annoying internet image ruiner, Shutterstock. This screams out that changes are going to be made, even if they promise that they're not.

Secondly, the rate which the artist receives is terrible. 40-60% of the cost price less Paypal charges for your country. 

And, thirdly, uploading to TurboSquid is akin to acquiring a degree in computer science. It's cumbersome, laborious, and too precise.

This might just be me, but I really dislike everything about TurboSquid. On the other hand, it is worth uploading a model there so that you can appreciate how much easier it is everywhere else.

3D Export 5/10

Ok, this one is somewhere in the middle of my personal scale for rating model traders. I don't have a lot of models on here and I've never had a lot of sales from it either, in fact, it's a very rare occurrence to see that I've sold a model there at all. It used to be bigger and better, but it has been left behind and has never evolved. 

The rates are reasonable, between 60 and 85%, and the uploader is slightly better than TurboSquids. I can't honestly think of anything else to say about this site that's either good or bad. It really is 5/10. Average.

RenderHub 5/10

This is another average Joe, depending on what it is you want to upload. It does cater to a LOT of adult content, and I suppose my medieval and sci-fi models are not being seen by the right audience there. Bare, naked ladies and sex toys appear to be the order of the day...

The uploader is a bit awkward but usable, and the rates are again an improvement on TurboSquid at 50% for none exclusive models, and 65% for exclusive to RH.

My advice for this one is to steer clear unless you make a lot of sex-based models or Daz models.

Cult3D  7/10

This is one of my top three favourite sites to work with. Although it does cater more for 3D print models, I have sold game-ready models here as well. It has more of a family vibe to it than any of the others, and one of my favourite things is that it pays me in good old pounds sterling (you can also get Dollars and Euros if you're into that sort of thing).

It has the easiest of all uploaders but it doesn't accept as many model formats as I am used to uploading. It also has one of the best rates out there at 80%!

Getting paid is a little strange though, you have to contact support when you've got yourself a nice cache built up and then ask for it. This is to prevent Paypal from taking a cut for every sale, and is sort of a good idea, although weird.

CGTrader 9.5/10

By far the best trading platform on the internet at the time of writing. The artist rates are good (between 70 and 90% depending on your score - explain this shortly), the uploader is easy, and the payment Is prompt. The support is what makes this site the best for me (as well as the cash I generate from sales, of course). It is second to none.

CGT also supplies you with an analytics database, it's pretty slow but very informative. It allows you to see what types of model are currently trending and helps you decide what your next upload will be.

There is a system on CGT that allows you to gain reputation points which in turn, raises your royalty rate. Everything from uploading a model, getting model likes, comments on your model, sales of your models, and even posts in the forum can get you points.

Summary

There are many more platforms out there you can sell your models on, one I am currently watching is ArtStation, but Shapeways, Etsy, and many other sites allow you to upload and sell your wears. 

I would suggest picking two or three to start with, and deciding which one is the best one for you.

What do I need to start?

Hopefully, the above picture hasn't terrified you and made you give up before you've uploaded your first model?

All model traders require a bunch of information before you can start trading, after all, you are opening a shop.

Most will ask you for a photograph of your passport/ ID card with your personal number on it. 

They will also need your payment details, so before you start I would suggest running off and opening yourself a Paypal or bank account. Sadly, most of these sites will pay you in dollars, which means you take another hit when you go to exchange your income (unless you're smart and watch the exchange rate carefully).

Tax. Yup, thought you would get away with this? No chance. Only two things in life are sure, death, and taxes. I can't be sure about other countries, but for the UK, your National Insurance number works just fine. Our tax office allows you to submit your earnings once per year (thankfully, not every sale!) so this isn't a big deal at all.

Make sure you have all the above information before you click the "Start Selling" icon, you will need this information and there is no way around it if you want to sell your models online.

When you started out on your modelling trail you probably read things like "Model everything!", and "Model anything you see!". Good advice when you start, not so good when you've started.

You have two real choices here. Become a niche modeller with your own genre, or, become a trend modeller. Anything in between this and you will fail miserably (way to go with the optimism!).

A niche modeller is someone that specialises in a certain genre, like Sci-fi, Medieval, Character modelling etc. and rarely deviates from this style. This is a good way to flood the market with your own models, and hopefully become the go-to guy for anything "X" based.

A trend modeller is something more difficult to explain and demands a lot of research from the artist, and a little foresight as well.

Simple things like a movie or television program can influence the type of models that are in high demand at any particular time. A game developer might be sitting there at night watching the TV wondering what their next project will be and be subconsciously influenced by what they're seeing on the screen. i.e. when The Witcher was released on Netlfix my medieval models saw a 200% rise in sales a few weeks after release. At the time of writing this, Sci-fi is booming.

To be a trend modeller you have to know what is going to be hitting the big (or small) screen in the coming months, knowing what games are coming up for release in the near future, and, believe it not, paying attention to what is going on in the world politically, and socially. 

Basically, a trend modeller is the stockbroker of the modelling world. It's not easy, but if you're good at it you can make a decent income from it. 

I'm a little of both, taking advantage of current events is more my style. For example, the Coronavirus won't be around forever (I hope), but while it is, make hay while the sun shines.

CGTrader also has a great analytics database that gives you some insight as to what is currently in demand. It's there, it's free, use it!

High Poly? Low Poly? Polly put the kettle on?

This is something you have to decide depending on what you want (think) your models to be used for. "Game-ready", doesn't mean models that look perfectly like their subject matter with 100,000 polygons and 8k textures. I would say that was more "Movie-ready" than game-ready.

If your target buyers are stay-at-home game developers with a meagre budget, using free engines such as Unreal or Unity, then the models they will usually want are low-poly, PBR.

Employing normal maps to add fine detail instead of hard surfaces.

Whereas if your target buyers are catalogues and commercials then your models will most likely be used for screenshots and you can hike up that poly count to get those corners and edges just right, not worrying about the silly things like good topology and render time.

There is, of course, 3D Printing models as well. The market is flooded with these so I avoid making them unless I receive a specific request that is going to pay me enough to bother.

3D Print models are easy to make because there is no need to spend your precious time UV mapping your models and texturing them, and because of this the internet is full of free printable objects that makes earning money in this field very difficult.

How much do I charge?

NEVER charge based on the time it takes you to make a model. You're not selling your time here, you're selling your artistic ability, your thought and effort, and your know-how.

If you want to charge for your time, add all these things up. Divide the amount of time you spent learning how to model verses the number of saleable models you've made and you will see that time isn't your product.

Too many free and cheap models flood the market, meaning all the effort you have made will be for nothing. Keep your prices sensible, but also worth that effort. If you're not sure how much to charge, search for similar models and offer yours at a similar price, but don't try to undercut the other artist, it isn't a competition.

Social Media

Whilst a lot of things are touted around on social media, models aren't one of them. How many people on your Facebook friends list buy models? How many people on Instagram do you think are there to search for model traders? Not many I should imagine. So, why waste your time and effort posting your models with all your links and information on Facebook for people that have zero interest in making a purchase?

Over the years, I've found two social media platforms that actually work for getting your products out there. Twitter, and Pinterest. Twitter works because of the hashtag system it uses and you can exploit this. There are Twitter bots out there that actually search for these tags and retweet your posts for you. And yes, these bots do cater to 3D modelling and game development.

Here are a few useful tags to add to your model posts, copy, paste the lot into your post if you like;

#3d #3dmodel #cgi #3dmodelling

#indiegamesharer #indie #indiedev #indiegame #indiegames #IndieGameDev #art #gameart #digitalart #gamedesign #leveldesign #game #gaming #gamedev

On top of these tags, you should also add tags for the model subject. i.e. if your model is a spaceship, you can add tags for that as well; #space #nasa #scifi etc.

This works quite well for getting model views. Don't forget to link to where they can see (buy) the model as well.

Pinterest is a long game, but it does work eventually. I've noticed by the number of blog visits I get sent to me from Pinterest so I know it really does work.

Make sure you fill in all the requirements if you want it to work for you as well. Informative title, good description, and most importantly, a link to where it is.

Once you have enough models, maybe consider your own blog? Your own subreddit, YouTube channel etc etc etc...

There are many more things you can do to sell your models, and if you've read this far you will have realised that most of it is marketing to the right audience, more than it is modelling.

It takes a lot of time and effort to be successful, and I wish you all the luck in the world. If this has helped you in any way, please, use the social media tags below to share this article and/ or leave me a comment.

Thanks for reading.

Simon.

My models on; CGTrader - Sketchfab