If you can show me an application that allows you to create models "cheaper" than what they are sold for on sites like squid, I would gladly pay 1000$ for it! Really!

Aaah, I see what you saying, I didn`t quite understand your first reply

I meant that buying software make sense for those who posses artistic skills. As for me(dev) there is no benefits of buying 3dmax\maya, etc.

I am 100% on your side there. If you are skilled and fast/efficient enough to make good use of a tool like Maya, more power to you. Given you have enough time to create the models in the first place, and that is actually how you want to spend that time.

I do create my own models... but then I am slightly insane, are a humble hobbyist without a deadline at the moment, and also interested in the artistic side. Thus I don't think I represent the average Indie programmer.

Now, I know some of the newer tools are really amazing, my time creating textures has really been slashed by using DDO instead of handpainting in 3D Coat or Photoshop. That tool really helped me a lot.

Try Substance Painter, and slash it more =).

To be honest, I tried substance painter when it was in beta.... I was less than impressed. The particle brushes where hard to control and the effects possible where not really worth the hassle. Going out on a limb, I was quicker painting some of the effects by hand than using the particle brushes.

Though I have to say, I gave up rather quickly on it, as I was much more impressed by DDO. Also not as hot as the promo vids made it look like, lots of manual tweaking needed, and because of the 2D mapping you have to be EXTREMLY careful with UV mapping, or need to tone down most of the material effects later on to hide the seams. Pretty much would have hoped for 3D mapping, but I guess that is a little bit too much to ask of a simple PS plugin.

The substance designer, while too quirky to be used for real texture work for me, proved actually very useful for Curvature map and AO map baking. So my purchase of the Substance suit didn't go to waste in the end, and maybe one day I'll give the newest version of the substance painter another try.

Still, I don't see procedural modelling getting anywhere yet. You might be able to do some simple models like trees by using procedural tools like speedTree modeller, or you might be able to kitbash stuff by using some stock or selfmade library... still, you are investing lots of your time to finish anything a little bit more detailled.

It`s not quite 100% procedural. It still requires a lot of knowledge and artistic view. Thats just a tools. (Substance\DDO)

Yes, but is there any real procedural modelling yet? I guess Mixamo Fuse and tools like that come closer, but they are usually quite limited in scope and what you can achieve with them.

Now, I earn around 35-40$ per hour (depending on how I calculate my monthly salary back to a hourly one) in my job. If I spend even 5 hours on finishing a model, which will most probably still be a rather simple prop in the end, that has costed me 150-200$ already to create!

That`s good if you have full time job or fulfilled with freelance tasks 8 hrs per day. But there are plenty of people who do things for fun or in between jobs.

Yes, of course. But these people will have even less time for their hobby and thus should be even more careful when deciding what to buy / get free art for and what to do themselves.

I am not saying getting got tools and learning to create art is a waste of time or anything. Just wanted to point out that DIY and buying stock art in the end is just another decision everyone has to make for him- or herself, one is not superior to the other, and that buying art can actually be the better and cheaper decision in the end, depending on the art skill, project and stock art. It also can be the totally wrong decision.

To be honest, I tried substance painter when it was in beta.... I was less than impressed.

I can understand that. UV`s and the way how you do masks is very important. Particles is a nice thing, but one of the many cool features.

We had done ~100 models with DDO. 4k textures. Some PSD files 5-8 Gb....thats was a heck to work with that.

Curvature map

Any money related decision either + or -, rarely 0.

It depends how much money it would cost to keep infrastructure running.

The more you give the more artist you will get, lowering the amount after you have artist will cause them to leave.

Very depends on how much visits website can expect.

If you plan on being around long you should have some exclusive content, while allowing for nonexclusive.

A simple thing would be to advertise exclusive content over others, this will motivate artist to make exclusive content without costing you much.

Good quesiton ;)
I still research customer base from "buyers" point of view.
PBR going to take over 100%. But how quickly it will penetrate indie market I don`t know.
Marketing related questions are open.

A good idea to keep marketing open, there is noting worst than a manger laying about the stores condition.

If we know a store is sinking then we can help keep it floating, lie and say everything is fine when we are at five hundred views a day and your just insulting the artists.

Good point! I was going to talk to buying customers what fraction of production price they would expect or satisfy.

This is a very tricky point.

There is a asset store that allows artist to report under priced assets, this prevents artist like my self that are non-American to post assets that make the other artist look like thy are overcharging.

This is a good thing, however it gets abused. This prevents me from uploading game assets at this store because I will be forced to increase the price to say $40-$50 when there is someone who at the Unity store asks only $5-$10 for the same kind of asset.

No matter who controls the pricing be it Artists,customers or even the managers temptation and ignorance will cause problems.

They download what is available.

This still isn't clear.

If you make them download all the formats at once thy will feel like you are giving them a bag of garbage with a prize inside, however if you allow them to download what format thy need you will have a lot of similar files.

Allowing customers to request formats doesn't work, thy prefer to do shopping with as little as possible inconvenience.

For 3D assets you could store the big files like .max, .ma and . blend but for code and other things it could be a bother.

No free assets. See more in licensing section.

No free assets will be a great loss to all.

Customers download free assets to test the payment scheme, artists offer free assets to bait customers.

The most common marketing trick used by artist is what I call the Bait, Hook and Fish method, you probably saw this before.

First I over what thy want, say a enemy pack with five goblins for free. Developers can now use this instead of the horrid programmer art, thy also get a feel for how the assets work in there game.

Then I over a half price package the hook, say five goblin riders with five wolfs for $20. Now the developer can continue making his game, with this amount of content thy would feel safe to announce the game and show the world what thy are making.

Then there are the fish, these are the other assets that there game can benefit from. The $40 goblin shaman pack and the like.

This is how I get most of my sales.

If you make money - thats the only thing required to keep you with us.

Personally I am not in it for the money, that sounds dumb but if I quit asset stores it would have no affect on my life.

I like so many 3D artist first discover 3D modeling when making props for my own games, it was then that I found the only thing that interested me more than making games.

I never lost my passion for games and I want to help others make games, that is why I and many artist like me make assets for game asset stores.

If you intent to keep artist like me, the ones who are willing to make great props in hope of seeing great games, you will have to appeal to our ideals not wallets.

Very few artist got into art thinking thy will be rich, this is true for all the fields.

Looks like somebody launched marketing campaign without asking sellers in the past? )
Given the fact that I shooting specific niche, reputation is a very sensitive topic there.

There was a case of a asset store giving vouchers to customers, this caused a lot of problems as artist would see downloads but never receive the cash.

We don't mind if asset stores do this, we understand that it is for marketing, just inform us.

There is a strange thing that happens with vouchers. If a customers has a $200 voucher he will download more than $200 and download things that he really doesn't need or want. The same happens with sales.

Quote
26.)The big one, what is the license?

the very clear and simple for everybody.
Buy and do whatever you want except of reselling it at other marketplaces.

However, I would love to hear from sellers what they think the best one could be.

You will really need to get a proper license, it really is worth the cost.

What do you mean with "do whatever you want" can thy use assets for hate speech?

Can thy claim thy made the asset?

Can thy edit the asset in a manner that it is considered to be indecent.

When working for a client I allow them full control over the asset after it is paid for, yes thy can claim thy made it.

However this is because I approach them, really do I accept work from someone who approaches me and I demand a lot from them when I do.

Anyone can buy from a asset store, the recent flood of bad games on steam has shown this to be true.

I would like a license that protects me from the bad decisions developers make.