Archive for August, 2009

Premium 3D Models

- posted in Premium 3D Models

Finally after a lot of planning and hard work, Premium3Dmodels.com is online.
Everybody in this field (including me) uses pre-made 3d objects to populate the scenes; it’s much more cost effective and less time consuming.

During the years that I have been working in the architectural visualization field, I have been using 3d models from various companies. Some of them were good and some of them were not. The problem is that the good ones became so popular that everybody uses them and this way the renderings from different architectural visualization studios are starting to look the same.
This is the main reason why I started the premium3dmodels.com project. I wanted to provide a fresh alternative to other well known 3d models collections and make your renderings stand out in front of your competition.
At the moment, there are 3 main collections available:

Complete Courtyard Collection

A collection of 161 3d models suitable for populating renderings of courtyards, patios, gardens, pools, etc.

Complete Urban elements

A collection of 91 3d models suitable for renderings of city centers, streets, and so on.

Complete Wedding Furniture

A smaller collection of 23 models, suitable for using in renderings of wedding halls, ballrooms, receptions, etc.

The first 2 collections are split in 5 parts, just in case you may not need the entire set.
Every collection has some free 3d models available for download, so even if you don’t plan to purchase something at the moment you may want to have a look.

Furthermore, if you register, you will most likely receive discount coupons in the near future, and be updated with the latest additions on premium3dmodels.com
Speaking of discounts, I almost forgot…. There is a 30% discount on all products, that will last until 28th of September.

I will make a detailed review of each collection soon, but for now feel free to browse through the website and if you have any kind of question don’t hesitate to ask.

Best regards,

Alex

P.S. I will keep posting free 3d models and tutorials here as well, so don’t need to worry about that :)

Over 50 high quality free 3d models and resources

- posted in Free 3d Models

Another free 3d model for you to use in your renderings; this time a ceiling fan 3d model, suitable for renderings of livings, dining rooms, halls, lobbies, etc.

As usual the model is available in max format (version 9) and 3ds.

Download the 3d model of the ceiling fan

If you are new here, don’t miss all the other free 3d models that are available for download.  There are more than 50 3d models and textures with alpha maps, from 3d furniture models, lighting fixtures, vehicles, bathroom accessories, playground elements, kitchen appliances, etc.

You are allowed to use them in personal AND commercial projects; you just can’t redistribute them to a third party under no circumstance.

If you made a rendering that you really like and you used some of the models from cgdigest, I would be happy to hear from you and even showcase it here.
cgdigest {at} gmail {dot} com

Best regards,
Alex Mincinopschi

New things in the 3d world

- posted in Ramblings

Hello everybody,

Sorry for not having posted anything for so long. I’ve been (and still am) busy with a project that I started planning about an year ago, and think it’s about time it goes live.

It’s a 3d models online store dedicated to digital architectural illustrators who want something new in their model libraries. I’m still working on some technical details, but hopefully it will be launched in about a week. I will let you know more when it’s done.

Until than, there are 2 things that caught my attention during the last couple of weeks.

The first one is a forum www.3dstocktalk.org where people who sell 3d models online are gathering to talk about the problems that they’ve encountered with different websites, and even revealing how much they made with several 3d market places.

The good thing is that Matt Anderson (owner of The3dstudio.com) and Jonathan Loyd from fallingpixel.com are also active on that forum and more than happy to answer to any questions you might have for them.

The second interesting thing is a search engine for 3d models and textures that is gathering data from several important 3d marketplaces (except turbosquid for which they don’t have permission to index anything) – www.3dfilter.com.

Although it is still in it’s early stages, and I’m not sure how the ranking system works exactly, I feel that this project has a lot of potential.

Hope you find these useful.

Best regards,

Alex Mincinopschi

Bad move by turbosquid

- posted in Ramblings

If you are selling 3d content online, you are already aware of the fact that turbosquid will be lowering the royalty rate to 40%. The only way to keep your royalty rate above 50% is to sell exclusively through them.
But it doesn’t end here; they came up with a scheme that classifies sellers by the total life time sales.

It goes like this:
0-150 usd –           clear level –         50% royalty
150-500 usd –       bronze level –     51% royalty
500-1500 usd –     silver level –       52% royalty
1500-3000 usd –   gold level –         54% royalty
3000-6000 usd –   emerald level –   56% royalty
6000-10000 usd – ruby level –         58% royalty
10000+ usd –        diamond level –  60% royalty

In my opinion, by trying to force their sellers to become exclusive, turbosquid intended to drive their competition out of business. If they were a little less greedy, they could have had a real chance to succeed.

It is well known that they have the largest market share; therefore people are selling more through them than trough other sites. If they offered a 75% royalty for the exclusivity I am absolutely sure that all their competition would be in real trouble.

In the current situation however, some sellers (including top sellers) are packing their bags, while many others are raising their prices and in the meantime look for other alternatives to sell their stuff. Also, new comers who are clearly disadvantaged by the new classification will most probably go somewhere else.

What are the alternatives?

1)    The3dstudio.com
2)    Fallingpixel.com
3)    3d02.com
4)    3dexport.com
5)    exchange3d.com
6)    Flatpyramid.com
7)    The123d.com
8)    Altairmodels.com
9)    Presto3d.com
10)  Digitalelements.be
11)  The-Blueprints.com

Some of these are too small or too new, but a few of them combined can make more sales than turbosquid alone.

I think that on the long run, buyers will also start looking for new places to shop around and turbosquid will become less and less popular. Already, judging by the alexa rank (a traffic indicator), The3dstudio is dangerously getting close to them.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that turbosquid’s intent to drive their competition out of business will do them a lot more harm that they could have expected.
I’m curious to see how thing will go until the 1st of September when the royalties of non-exclusive members will be dropped to 40%.

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