I'm not pointing any fingers towards anyone because I have no direct proof...  But among the many people posting in these forums to get volunteers to do models or art work for them might be underhanded art/model brokers...

One example:  They give you a good story and promise you glory or even money later on...
Then they ask you to just keep on sending your work over to them without any feedback as to what is happening to your work or how is it being used...  I can only image, the possibility that  your work is being "shipped" out of the country to be sold else where...

I ran into someone who posted in these forum who was so inexperienced in the very business he proposed to be doing that I had to think twice..  But one thing was for sure.... I should send my work to him and keep on sending it....

watch your back

Why.....would anyone keep making models for someone else? Especially if you saw no use of those models (even a render uploaded to a gallery)

A person keeps sending thinking they will be used and they are told that they will... I sent two images and because I did not see a result I stopped...  Hey!   it could happen...

Why.....would anyone keep making models for someone else? Especially if you saw no use of those models (even a render uploaded to a gallery)

you are thinking gallery.... you send and you see it up in the gallery... one process.... but if you are told that the art is for a project and your work will fit in a certain way into the project... needing time.  then it is no longer a one process deal...   you can keep sending stuff as long as you think the whole thing is real.....   By the time you find out you been had,,,,  they got some stuff from you... and remember you sent it to them voluntarily...  Very hard to prove there was no project... 

I've been making models for about 5 years, and the number of times I've seen them show up could be counted on one hand..;) but it's still cool.

I guess, get proof of their own work before you contribute your own, is the best advice I can come up with. it's a difficult situation.

Just not jumping too quick into a deal is good advice...   Yes, it is a very difficult situation.

In the end, there is always some level of a "leap of faith", lol. No matter how reputable the person/company may be.

I've asked for help modeling my two Dachshunds before, but I can assure you, I'm not a broker.

I recently downloaded a demo version of Archipelis Designer, but the demo is limited to doing a Rhino.  It would be worth the $65 to buy the software if it allows a newbie like me to model my pets.

Its a shame that we even have to talk about this subject, this site and this forum has one of the friendliest and helpful people I've ever seen in any type of forum, and it is disgusting that there are people out there who would use the friendliness for their own causes.

Maybe we can all agree to some kind of guideline to deter or avoid these brokers?

I can not put the dong back in the cow..... I can try and clean it up....   It was not meant for anyone we all know in these forums....  no one!     If it was I would deal with them my self...

**But nothing has happened!!! 

** I was being cautious that is all....   

Just food for thought over an - almost / possible / could have been/ bit of paranoid / - situation..

You need to be very careful especially if you are a novice in 3D computer graphics and happen to be very good and new to the online 3D artist groups. I would encourage you as an artist to attain from your bookstore “Legal Guide for the Visual Artist” and “Business And Legal Forms for Fine Artists” by Tad Crawford. These I think are a basic understanding of copyright laws and the artist and advise on how artists should use legal forms to authenticate their personal creations. In general, always remember that you own your art!

But it is an important subject that you brought up, and if people are interested we can maybe come up with some guidelines/suggestions that people can follow if a described situation arises.

Sounds like a good idea.

Generally I personally avoid free work. It just doesn't pay.  Even so you do need a certain level of trust to do paying work for someone online. I think you need patience. Snail mail is slow and you must wait for that on occasion for payment. I think it is better to go thru a third party most of the time like here at rosity or turbosquid or Daz. If you do free work do it for someone you know personally make up a fair exchange. I swapped a monster model for a building  and that worked out.

The job boards are always full of the same posts. "We are creating a game, no money now, but glory will be yours...etc."

Things to check:
If there is no website with it's own domain name then you know the person is not willing to spend even $9.99 a month to create one.

You can check the person's profile if he is posting here. Does he have anything of his own up? Images? Models? No?

Congratulations you've discovered a person with directoritis! People with this disease are prone to grandiose schemes that have few details. They like to collect groups of people and appoint tasks. Unfortunately they are not competent to direct themselves, let alone a small group.

People with directoritis lack the skills to integrate the resources they suck up for free into a cohesive whole. Eventually some member of the unit gets tired and tells the director where to stick it. At that point the director decides it's the member's fault. The director may try to limp along replacing members as they bail, or throw up his hands and abandon the project. Sometimes the director will start new projects. Eventually he becomes convinced that the world is full of ingrates, unworthy of his genus. He will then move on to the Department of Motor Vehicles or some other bureaucratic position where he has limited but absolute power over an individual. 

Fortunately, carriers of directoritis rarely move out of their parent’s basements and mate. The disease is spread by childhood permissiveness and the inability of parents to say No. Consider yourself lucky, Directoritis is spread by association and mental contact. Remove you self from contact with such people and stay sane.

*"Congratulations you've discovered a person with directoritis! People with this disease are prone to grandiose schemes that have few details. They like to collect groups of people and appoint tasks. Unfortunately they are not competent to direct themselves, let alone a small group."

*electroglyph I think you hit the nail on the head...   I believe I did have a run into someone like you described and I became nervous and thought they had another malignant disease...   You seem to have really listened to the lines in between my post...
everything now makes a lot of sense....

I think electropglyph nailed it. Better if you personally know the person or know what they can do arrange exchanges of various things. I might even do an exchange myself soon I still suck at buildings.  But still you need patience. I had to wait two months after compleatign some work to be paid but I did get paid.

I've had my own experience with that "Directoritis" personality type back when I ran lostin3d.com. One particular Gentleman had some grandiose project that he wanted done relating to Lost in Space and had no bones about trying to tell me what to do for him, with no offer of payment whatsoever. I told him where he could go as I had my own projects that kept me quite busy enough thank you very much!