One of the most daunting tasks any animator or 3D content creator has to face is the modeling of 3D constructs to use for whatever graphics job they are working on.
This usually involves hours of painstaking work building from a 2 sketch or from raw thought and layering all the minor details together that creates the final work. But recently there has been a trend of just taking existing models and reusing them into current works.
Merchants of models: Work smart, not hard
This might be the creator’s previous work that was adapted and modified to work for the current task at hand or in some growing cases, bought from 3d stores online such as CG Trader and others.
The uprising tendency has created a whole new industry for a different type of creators: those that have time on their hands and wish to make money. They spend their days building various types of models from humans to cars and even large scale cities to the studio creators that don’t have the time to build every individual piece of the puzzle because of time and budget constraints.
Instead, the studio professionals browse round online model shops to look for ones that match their needs and then spend some extra time modifying it to fit in with their work. This saves time and money for the studio or artist and generates revenue for the original creator.
But why are merchants of models a thing in the first place? As we said earlier they can be viewed from two sides. Both content creators but both in it for very different reasons.
Creators vs Creators
Our first group of creators are those we mentioned earlier, they have the time and resources to create simple to sometimes overly complex models because they want to as a hobby or they love doing it, maybe even just as a means to generate funds.
This leads to a large collection of models online for almost every subject matter under the sun. Plus the more popular the models created are, the more the creator can earn from reoccurring purchases.
The second group consists of creators that need 3D models for their project and either wish to save time creating them from the ground up or is looking for a cheaper alternative to constructing their own.
These can be individuals, game studios, or even VR Companies. They are willing and able to spend the money required to facilitate the speedy release or completion of their project.
The middle man wins
But in all this let’s not forget the middle man, the not so humble 3D merchant platforms of the internet, they create a place where creators get to browse through collections from the various artist for whatever models they seek or submit their works to be evaluated and or purchased at a certain prearranged cost.
The platforms don’t have to create any models themselves but collect a fee for providing the service. They are the real winners here but at the end of the day both creators and platforms understand that they need each other and the industry is better for it.
