Author Topic: Toon Vectors (Read 19875 times)

michaeldb · « **Reply #1 on:** May 07, 2012, 16:13 »

The pages loaded very fast (and I am on relatively slow DSL) and everything seemed to work. Sometimes simpler is better, and I didn't see anything which I thought was missing.

One quibble I would have is calling the license an 'End User License Agreement' since the buyer isn't really the end user, but rather a licensee who will use your product in another product for an end user. This might cause some confusion.

Very nice site, IMO.

click_click · « **Reply #3 on:** May 07, 2012, 21:19 »

I think if there was something "severely" wrong, your site would have been ripped into pieces here by now if I compare it with Yuri's launch...

I see a clean and inviting site with good vectors. You should get a good Google Page Rank with this domain name and content.

Best of luck!

PinnacleAnimates · « **Reply #4 on:** May 08, 2012, 08:58 »

good site.. simple and attractive...

do you accept all type of vectors or just toons?

Noedelhap · « **Reply #5 on:** May 08, 2012, 10:02 »

I might just upload if it wasn't Dropbox-only. I like the site and the commission.

MisterElements · « **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2012, 10:33 »

Congrats on your new site. I applied and uploaded 10 images onto drop box in your folder.

Anita Potter · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2012, 16:34 »

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread as I mainly do vectors.

I think the initial thing about Dropbox is that it's sort of scarey to upload to because I'm not sure who all will have access to that folder aside from you and me. Worried about the potential of someone else coming in and stealing them. I've not used dropbox before so I'm not exactly sure how secure and safe they'll be.

Will accepted images still be in Dropbox or will they get moved to the sites server?

Thanks.

Eireann · « **Reply #11 on:** May 08, 2012, 18:24 »

Hi TV

,
I agree with Michael and Click-Click.
I too like your site

.
It's simple, functional, clean and easy on the eye. Nice

I like your site, I like your prices and I love, (love, love), your commissions

I've seen Cory's illustrations there, and I've decided. I want to participate, I want to upload my vectors, but there's a problem.
Just like Anita, the upload system via DropBox seems a bit unfamiliar to me. I already have a DropBox account, 2 GB free hosting, (by the way, get an account there Anita, it's free and it can be useful), and I'm going to spend some time reading your instructions.
Hopefully it's not a very complicated procedure.
I'm not only thinking about me.
I'll give it a try, but if we want to support your site and attract as many vector artists as possible, we need an upload system that is easy. A few clicks here and there, - done!
In my experience that's an important factor.
But you're only at the beginning, there's still time.
I'll give it a try, in the next few days.
Thank you for the fair artist commission and good luck

cthoman · « **Reply #12 on:** May 08, 2012, 20:25 »

Definitely nice royalties from the few sales that I've gotten. It will be interesting to see how it grows. Good luck!

chromaco · « **Reply #13 on:** May 09, 2012, 00:18 »

Just uploaded my 10 samples. It was very easy and it worked exactly like it should. I actually like this process better than site uploads and even ftp's. I can see my progress and even a jpg preview when it is done. The migration was seamless and all the IPTC info transferred correctly. If you can market the images as effectively as you have built the site I think you and the contributors will do very well.

I'm pleased with my initial experience with toonvectors

Toon Vectors · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2012, 21:09 »

Not an amazingly Earth-shattering feature, but I did add a Moneybookers payout option for artists and affiliates this week (in addition to the default PayPal).

Yes, this post is a shameless thread bump.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #15 on:** May 16, 2012, 21:38 »

I've decided to give it a try after all.

helix7 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 17, 2012, 07:44 »

Quote from: Toon Vectors on May 08, 2012, 15:22

Any style of vector art is welcome, not just cartoons...

Any concern that the name might limit the pool of potential buyers? Not sure that anyone would go to a site of that name and expect to find anything other than toon vectors.

lirch · « **Reply #17 on:** May 17, 2012, 08:10 »

Nice site but is there a chance that images on the front page receive a watermark? http://www.toonvectors.com/

helix7 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 17, 2012, 08:46 »

Speaking of the watermark, you've got to change that. You don't own the copyright to the images on the site.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #20 on:** May 20, 2012, 17:41 »

I deleted a vector file from my portfolio and dropbox folder, to replace it by a better version, but when I resync, the new file with the same name can't be found.

It does work when I rename the file to something else, but imo it would be nice if it would work the normal way (for instance, checking the modification date of a file to check for updated files?)

Toon Vectors · « **Reply #23 on:** September 01, 2012, 18:35 »

I am sorry to announce that Moneybookers has been removed as a commission payment option at Toon Vectors. It is no longer possible to add funds to a Moneybookers account in the United States which makes it rather difficult for me to send out money through them.

This unpleasant discovery was made this morning while I was processing August payments. I spoke with Moneybookers customer support and they confirmed that the ability to add funds was removed "about a month ago". They have plans to restore it, but could offer no definite time frame.

PayPal of course is still working fine. I'm open to suggestions for other methods of paying contributors who cannot or prefer not to use PayPal.

Maui · « **Reply #24 on:** September 02, 2012, 04:29 »

Quote from: Toon Vectors on May 20, 2012, 20:34

On the subject of watermarks, I have a new design for these which is present on the most recently published images. Before going through and replacing all of them, I am still playing around with something for the 140px size, although I am leaning heavily towards leaving thumbnails at that size without watermarks or just adding a bottom bar which is cropped out on the site display but can be seen if you drag or save the thumbnail image.

I would suggest to have a watermark on the 140px size as well, because those images are still quite clean and crisp for many purposes.

EmberMike · « **Reply #25 on:** September 02, 2012, 09:37 »

Just have to say, I signed up with ToonVectors last week and the experience so far has been great. No sales yet of course, but Chris has put together a great site. He's even managed to figure out the problem of generating a color-accurate preview directly from an EPS file, which is something that no one else I've worked with has done. Not even Getty has figured that one out on ThinkStock.

Good work, Chris. I'm hoping for good things for you and TV.

EmberMike · « **Reply #27 on:** September 02, 2012, 22:10 »

Quote from: Toon Vectors on September 02, 2012, 21:31

Thanks! For automated EPS thumbnail generation I've been using Ghostscript and ImageMagick - both are free and open source (although maybe a little complicated to setup the first time). Seems to work pretty well as long as reasonably close ICC CMYK profiles are fed in for the conversion to RGB.

Shhh! Don't tell Getty that!

Toon Vectors · « **Reply #28 on:** September 03, 2012, 00:28 »

Quote from: EmberMike link=topic=15978.msg270447#msg270447

Shhh! Don't tell Getty that!

Honestly, I don't mind sharing things I've learned. Perhaps this is a bias from primarily being a software developer, where we have clearly seen over the last couple of decades that an open community of shared learning reaps vastly more benefits for everyone involved in the end as opposed to closed silos of trade secrets - especially for the smaller guy.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #29 on:** December 19, 2012, 12:45 »

I must say that I had my first downloads and I love the $14 RPD. Keep up this great site.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #31 on:** December 20, 2012, 14:16 »

Looking good. Wondering if I might take a shot at getting in. Hopefully the upload process is as easy as it appears in the FAQ. Is Chris Thoman (the founder) and Cory Thoman the same person or are they relatives?

Quote from: Toon Vectors on May 06, 2012, 21:57

Toon Vectors is a brand new microstock website for royalty-free vector graphics and clip-art. The website is comparatively minimal and simplistic at the moment, with its current set of features driven by the philosophy of a minimum viable product, but I have a number of enhancements and improvements planned for the near future. Constructive criticism is most welcome.

I recommend reading the FAQ and end-user / artist agreements linked below for more detailed information, but here are some highlights:

Fixed prices: $19.99 / $99.99 standard / extended royalty-free licenses
No buyer subscriptions - ala carte purchases only
70% artist commission on all sales
10% affiliate commission program
Payouts through PayPal or Moneybookers processed monthly, no minimum payout
EPS v8/10 uploads required
IPTC metadata extraction if an accompanying tagged JPEG is provided
Uploads handled through Dropbox
Based in Austin, TX
One employee currently (yours truly)

Home Page
http://www.toonvectors.com/

Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.toonvectors.com/help/faq

Royalty-Free License Agreement
http://www.toonvectors.com/help/licensing

Artist Agreement
http://www.toonvectors.com/help/artists

Artist Signup
http://www.toonvectors.com/register?type=artist

chromaco · « **Reply #32 on:** December 20, 2012, 15:32 »

Chris is Cory's brother. In my opinion this helped him out a lot because Chris has managed to avoid all of the start up mistakes. At least that is how it appears, I'm sure he has made plenty of mistakes but none that would affect us as contributors. The upload is one of the best out of the 20 or so sites I upload to. I love it and it serves as backup at the same time. This site works and for me it is outselling all of the low earners except GL, and outselling BS and DP as well. Not all that hard to do with $14 royalties and $70 els. Doesn't take a whole lot of sales to get your numbers up there in a hurry. Not a ton of sales yet but been fairly consistent for the last 3 months.

This site is a winner- you need to give it a shot.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #33 on:** December 20, 2012, 18:46 »

:)This really makes me happy. I think THIS is the site microstock illustrators have been talking about supporting all these years. The site is connected to real illustrators and the pay is excellent. Now that you've confirmed the connection to Cory, I vote that all of us consider supporting ToonVectors 100%. I've only had a few correspondences with Cory, but from what I can tell his work ethic and thoughtfulness is top notch. I'm sure his brother, the owner of ToonVectors is similar. Keep in mind I don't even know if they'll accept my work, as I haven't yet applied

.

Regardless, I plan on giving them a chance. Sending some exclusive illustrations to them should also be in everyone's plans. If enough of us get behind them and the good words spreads, ToonVectors could be a big turning point for the illustration side of microstock.

I would like to add that GLeftovers and the other smaller sites are decent payers too. So I don't want to sound like I might be putting them down.

Quote from: chromaco on December 20, 2012, 15:32

Chris is Cory's brother. In my opinion this helped him out a lot because Chris has managed to avoid all of the start up mistakes. At least that is how it appears, I'm sure he has made plenty of mistakes but none that would affect us as contributors. The upload is one of the best out of the 20 or so sites I upload to. I love it and it serves as backup at the same time. This site works and for me it is outselling all of the low earners except GL, and outselling BS and DP as well. Not all that hard to do with $14 royalties and $70 els. Doesn't take a whole lot of sales to get your numbers up there in a hurry. Not a ton of sales yet but been fairly consistent for the last 3 months.

This site is a winner- you need to give it a shot.

DavidBaker · « **Reply #34 on:** December 21, 2012, 23:06 »

Hopefully, Toonvectors will become something profitable like Clipartof in the future. Toonvectors will be one of the agencies i highlighted to join.

Sadly, Hitimages started by artist chud is down and it does seem to have potential. Unfortunately luck wasnt in his side.

Currently, the only good and fair independent stock agencies for strictly illustrators left in the market are Clipartof, drawshop, toonvectors. I am also hoping Yuri acurs who own peopleimages.com will start to accept illustrators as well in the future.

Toon Vectors · « **Reply #35 on:** December 24, 2012, 11:54 »

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm on vacation this week with a somewhat spotty Internet connection, so the submissions review and approval process has ground to halt, but business as usual should resume at the end of the week.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #36 on:** December 27, 2012, 10:29 »

Quote from: chromaco on December 20, 2012, 15:32

The upload is one of the best out of the 20 or so sites I upload to. I love it and it serves as backup at the same time.

It works well, but DropBox isn't exactly a standard way of uploading. I prefer FTP, so I hope this option will be built in someday.

DavidBaker · « **Reply #37 on:** December 27, 2012, 12:10 »

I think ToonVectors can be better if you can group the artworks into different category eg, like lifestyle, medical, sport etc. It make search easier and it reallly helps.

toots · « **Reply #38 on:** February 12, 2013, 12:42 »

Oooh just seen this thread and the new Toon Vectors site. I like it. Going for it.

Have just registered, got to sort out this dropdown box or whatever. Oh well, more fun & games for uploading

chromaco · « **Reply #39 on:** February 12, 2013, 12:50 »

Drop box is easy. Very similar to FTP but even more intuitive. Just upload the files (both eps and Jpg) to the Toonvectors folder and leave them there overnight. If you have the IPTC done that is all you need to do. If you want to move faster you can click on the sync button and the upload will happen immediately. Just remember to not move your images to new folders until they have been synced.

After the files show up on the site I catagorize my images into subfolders and use Dropbox as a backup for all of my files. Nice little perk

I think you will like this site.

toots · « **Reply #40 on:** February 12, 2013, 13:12 »

Hmm, it uploaded my .eps file but wouldn't upload the jpg, now I can't find out how to upload again. Shucks a learning curve coming up here me thinks.

chromaco · « **Reply #41 on:** February 12, 2013, 14:27 »

Just sent you a PM. This system has always been very easy for me. Hopefully we can figure out what is going on.

toots · « **Reply #42 on:** February 12, 2013, 15:51 »

I kept getting a flash error, but all is ok now

I've uploaded and syncd my first 10 files to toonvector, so am just waiting for review and obviously acceptance to the site.

By the way, did you guys download and install the dropbox or are you using the web version to upload?. I haven't downloaded it $:-\$

toots · « **Reply #43 on:** February 12, 2013, 15:53 »

Quote from: chromaco on February 12, 2013, 14:27

Just sent you a PM. This system has always been very easy for me. Hopefully we can figure out what is going on.

Thanks yeah I got your pm, but it was dinner time so I had to come off computer, then got a visitor doh. Always happens when you're trying to do something new eh

Starzipan · « **Reply #44 on:** February 12, 2013, 17:55 »

Quote from: toots on February 12, 2013, 15:51

I kept getting a flash error, but all is ok now

I've uploaded and syncd my first 10 files to toonvector, so am just waiting for review and obviously acceptance to the site.

By the way, did you guys download and install the dropbox or are you using the web version to upload?. I haven't downloaded it $:-\$

Downloaded it, The little icon at the bottom right (near the time but I'm a PC user) makes it super easy to open up quickly. I prefer this method of uploading to a lot of other sites.

Toon Vectors · « **Reply #45 on:** February 12, 2013, 23:14 »

I've been pretty happy with how the Dropbox integration has worked so far on the backend, although there are a few bugs to fix (mostly my fault) and minor enhancements that I hope to make soon.

I had planned to implement a similar upload system for Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive this year to supplement Dropbox for those who would prefer to use them, but the need doesn't seem immediately pressing - also perhaps the trust level and sentiment around Google and Microsoft in the microstock world is not so favorable at the moment.

mtkang · « **Reply #46 on:** February 13, 2013, 00:21 »

hi, can we upload vector made raster illustrations and 3d render raster illustrations?

toots · « **Reply #48 on:** February 13, 2013, 06:37 »

Hehe just got accepted, just a case of uploading all my vectors over the next few days or so

I've got loads of christmas ones, so I suppose they'll have to wait till later on in the year.

Thanks Chris for approving me so quickly. Am looking forward to helping build up this agency. Cool

toots · « **Reply #49 on:** February 13, 2013, 11:33 »

Question for Chris @ ToonVectors:

As toonvectors is basically a vector site even though you throw in a jpg version, should we upload designs with e.g. "sample text", "vector EPS10 transparency" text within the design or would you prefer we left such text off the vectors along with their corresponding jpg's.

Placing text like that on some images sometimes gives a visual representation to buyers as to what the image looks like with text on, sort of bringing it alive if you know what I mean. It's the jpg version that you're including which I'm concerned about.

I wouldn't want to lose sales because I've included text, but there again I'm more for selling the vectors of which text is easily removable.

toots · « **Reply #51 on:** February 13, 2013, 12:46 »

Cool, thanks Chris, I shall upload them together then.

Now I can start uploading images I wasn't sure what to do with.

toots · « **Reply #52 on:** February 20, 2013, 16:38 »

Hey there, I just put Toonvectors in my signature to promote this new agency.

Am sooooo hoping it will take off, going to add it to my email signatures as well.

And when I eventually build my new website I will start to promote on there too. Must start that soon. My present one is all in flash, needs changing desperately.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #53 on:** March 15, 2013, 00:24 »

Quick question: I noticed that the search returns only 500 hits. Since there are many similar looking files (black and white versions and color variations for instance), most files hardly get seen. Isn't there a way to show more results, or to sort the search on File Age, Number of Downloads, etc?

Microbius · « **Reply #55 on:** March 23, 2013, 03:58 »

Is the site getting an upgrade? just noticed it a down at the moment

Noedelhap · « **Reply #57 on:** March 26, 2013, 17:34 »

Quote from: Toon Vectors on March 15, 2013, 01:05

Quote from: Noedelhap on March 15, 2013, 00:24
Quick question: I noticed that the search returns only 500 hits. Since there are many similar looking files (black and white versions and color variations for instance), most files hardly get seen. Isn't there a way to show more results, or to sort the search on File Age, Number of Downloads, etc?

The current overly simplistic search interface is definitely starting to show strain with the growth of the catalog over the last year. There are quite a few changes in progress for search that I hope to finish soon. This includes more total results, additional sorting/filtering options and changes to the way relevance tie-breakers are calculated to provide a better balance between newer and older images.

Great, looking forward to it.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #59 on:** March 29, 2013, 18:47 »

Quote from: Toon Vectors on March 26, 2013, 23:02

Quote from: Noedelhap on March 26, 2013, 17:34
Great, looking forward to it.

Some of the planned search updates are live now. The maximum search results have been bumped up to 960 with a small plus indicator when there are more results available - ex. "Showing 1 - 48 of 960+". I'm keeping an eye on the resource usage of this, but hopefully I can increase it again.

Different sorting options beyond the default relevance for search results have been added: Newest, Most Popular and Random Selection. These can work a little oddly with a multi-term search, since the terms are OR-ed together by default so the search relevance is essentially discarded - probably why I left the sorting out in the first place. Still, the new sort options can be useful for single-term searches and with search modifiers such as pluses and quotes - ex. "Santa hat" or +Christmas +hat.

Image "popularity" is still used for search relevance tie-breakers, but the popularity algorithm has been tweaked a bit to help stop new images from being buried so much. I have some ideas for further improving this which I've begun to experiment with. There is also a deep hierarchical CV/category system under-construction that should help people get finer-grained results once that is integrated into the image similarity, browsing and searching results.

Great, thanks!

flamingolady · « **Reply #60 on:** March 30, 2013, 11:34 »

hi,
I'm new to this particular forum, and this thread, as another MS contributor pointed me here.
First, kudos to TV for the startup, nice job! I hope you do really, really well, and so far I like your concept!
Just heard about it for the first time today, so will read about it, and may apply to see if I get accepted or not, once I research it a bit.

My questions to TV - are you a licensed business in the US (TX)? If so, could you please provide your business information, appropriate business name, corporation name, DBA, or whatever? Is there an on-line TX site where we can verify your business as being legit licensed? Do you take out the necessary US state taxes (as many US sites do)?
Please note, I'm not implying any thought of being illegit - it's just that as a business, I need to know who I'm doing business with (esp since using PayPal, moneybrokers or whatever, which is tied into bank accounts). Sadly, I've 'met' one too many embezzler's and fraud's, even as we speak, dealing with one (and yes, I know that having a legit license doesn't guarantee honesty, but it's a start).
thank you for your response, if you don't want to put your info here, could you please send me a PM?
dee

flamingolady · « **Reply #62 on:** April 02, 2013, 00:30 »

Thanks for your response.
Aha, so you are a sole proprieter, that's probably how many of us are registered in our (US) states, so to me, you are a 'real licensed' business in your state.
Here in MD, we have an online database where people can check you out, was hoping you had the same thing. My main concern is that my state requires me to collect state tax (for items sold only in my state obviously - as most states require), and they are very strict as states go about paying it, so, I'm trying to figure out how I would know if you sold to someone in my state, so I could pay it myself? With other businesses I've dealt with, they collect the state tax so I don't have to worry about it. I'm wondering what other people do, especially if they have gotten a tax audit - that could be a nightmare...
Keep up the good work!

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Author Topic: Toon Vectors (Read 19875 times)

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