Quote - As far as the artist cost are concerened, I have spent thousands of dollars on software and hardware, $2300 on a computer I built, $550 for a Asus Pro Art calibrated monitor, Adobe Creative Suite, Poser Pro 2012, Carrera 8 Pro, ZBrush, Pen tablet, it all adds up. I can spend months working on a project that I intend to sell. I am currently finishing up a project I've been working on for 3 years. So even if you do sell it your still basically giving it away considering your investment in time and equipment. I occasionally see where people complain about the cost of items, If they had any idea how much work and time goes into creating these things, they would blush at their ignorance. Selling items does push you to get better, to improve your knowledge and skills. Sales dollars gives you a real tangible measuring stick and you might just make a little extra money on the side.

I'm not sure if I do agree. First of all, if I do create a freebie, it is of the same quality as the items I do sell. I spent just as much time on it and even freebies do push me to get better and improve my knowledge and skills. It really makes no difference, whatever I do create, just a render for fun, renders for customers, content for fun, content I do sell, content for projects, it makes no difference.... I push myself to get better and better then before. No shortcuts because it's free.

Secondly.... selling isn't the same as giving it away for free not at all. Yes, I've got the expensive hardware and software needed to create content, but..... I've bought it all with money from my sales. I've got a simple rule, I never take money from the household money or my job to finance my content creation. Yes, of course, I borrowed some money from myself to get started, but I paid it all back and once I did I started to expand and grow. Creating content didn't cost me a thing and it's actually even making me a profit. If that would be the case, I don't think I would continue creating items. OK, I'll admit it doesn't take me 3 years to create something and to be honest that is quite extreme and you will never get anything in return for that, but I doubt you have worked on it 3 years day and night. As a vendor you need to find the balance on how long you spent on a project and how much it will give you in return. Once you find the balance, it's actually worth to sell content.

As for the whole free or not, I do think we've had this discussion before, many times and we may never solve the issue at all :-) Personally, I've made a choice to create content and ask a little in return. People who do buy my items pay only $1.99 per item. That may sound way to low, but for me it works well. I also have some items here at Rendo and you pay a lot more for them..... that is not my choice, but because Rendo sets the price for an item. Personally, I hate that and I prefer not selling here at all, but my customers have asked for it and they do realise they pay more per item. It's not that my items aren't worth a higher price and they do sell well here at Rendo for the full price, but it's just a choice I've made. $1.99 isn't free, but isn't expensive, people can afford it and it pays for my expenses and gives me room to expand. I cannot afford giving everything away for free, live is expensive enough as is, so I need to ask a little in return to finance the whole content creation and ensure I can keep on doing it. I doný think that's to much to ask from a customer and is totally fair.

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk