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Illustrators Corner - Microstock Illustrators Forum => Illustration - General => Topic started by: charged on August 28, 2019, 20:54

Title: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: charged on August 28, 2019, 20:54
Just thought I'd ask a question that I already know the answer to. While I still upload photos, I mostly haven't uploaded any vector illustrations in 3 years. I stopped when I was getting $0.25 sales. I used to upload very detailed illustrations. Clearly that is no longer going to make any sense with $0.25 sales. As I look into the idea of resuming vector illustrations, I'm slowly looking into seeing how I can dumb down the illustration by a lot and figuring if that even makes any sense with $0.25 downloads. It isn't obvious to me that any effort makes any sense at $0.25 downloads. Vector work is very labor intensive, whereas photos, takes only a fraction of the effort per image. Once upon a time, in my best year, my vector sales was twice my photos sales for that year. Now photos are almost 3 times my vector sales. My sales of both formats have fallen a lot over the years, though of the two formats, vector has been the most, this year it is trending to end the year 87% down from my best year. I'm mostly posting on this forum now because I'm wondering out loud why anyone would bother creating new vector images in the age of $0.25 downloads.
Title: Re: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: qunamax on August 28, 2019, 21:07
I can only comment personally - I wouldn't do it, it's just too much work for so little in return. I'd keep it at simple and effective ideas, something that's quick to complete but effective and creative. Other than that, I'd rather invest time in 3D, takes about the same time, for simple things even less and you can derive more images from one scene or model. Not to mention animated scenes sold as videos on stock. You can be just as creative. Just an idea.
Title: Re: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: charged on August 28, 2019, 21:22
I can only comment personally - I wouldn't do it, it's just too much work for so little in return. I'd keep it at simple and effective ideas, something that's quick to complete but effective and creative. Other than that, I'd rather invest time in 3D, takes about the same time, for simple things even less and you can derive more images from one scene or model. Not to mention animated scenes sold as videos on stock. You can be just as creative. Just an idea.

Thanks for the input, doing 3D is smart. The only 3D I know is in Tinkercad, which is very basic. I'm not keen to learn more 3D right now but your logic about 3D makes a lot of sense. It definitely sounds much more efficient than doing illustrations.
Title: Re: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: k_t_g on August 28, 2019, 22:25
Its alright to continue to make them like others have said keep it simple and only do it if you can complete them fast. Or if you have already made a more detailed vector for something else, deconstruct some of it to create a simple set or something.  :)
Otherwise they're going to have to throw more then just a carrot at us.  ;)
Title: Re: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: AnS on August 29, 2019, 00:25
I can only comment personally - I wouldn't do it, it's just too much work for so little in return. I'd keep it at simple and effective ideas, something that's quick to complete but effective and creative. Other than that, I'd rather invest time in 3D, takes about the same time, for simple things even less and you can derive more images from one scene or model. Not to mention animated scenes sold as videos on stock. You can be just as creative. Just an idea.

Nice input! May I ask you what program do you recommend for 3D and animated scenes?

To the topic: a $0.25 sale sounds bad indeed, though it won't sell just once and with time it can make up in volume. Or at least that's how it used to be, a good one could easily make past 100$ and more altogether, however nowadays due to a lot of uploads new files tend to get little exposure.
Title: Re: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: qunamax on August 29, 2019, 07:14
I can only comment personally - I wouldn't do it, it's just too much work for so little in return. I'd keep it at simple and effective ideas, something that's quick to complete but effective and creative. Other than that, I'd rather invest time in 3D, takes about the same time, for simple things even less and you can derive more images from one scene or model. Not to mention animated scenes sold as videos on stock. You can be just as creative. Just an idea.

Nice input! May I ask you what program do you recommend for 3D and animated scenes?

To the topic: a $0.25 sale sounds bad indeed, though it won't sell just once and with time it can make up in volume. Or at least that's how it used to be, a good one could easily make past 100$ and more altogether, however nowadays due to a lot of uploads new files tend to get little exposure.

For anyone beginning now, wanting to jump into 3D, for fun, personal creativity, just exploration, stock or whatever other than chasing a career in a studio, hands down Blender. It's free, open source, it has grown so much in years, it's got pretty logical interface and workflow and has a huge user base and online resources for learning. It's now a serious package and it's only gonna grow more.
I personally use now dead end Softimage XSI and trying to switch to Blender completely, but that's another long story. 
Title: Re: Is stock illustration even worth it?
Post by: AnS on August 30, 2019, 06:58
I've heard about Blender but didn't really pay attention to it before. Thank you for the recommendation!