As with ANY site, it depends on what you're selling...

My animations do pretty well on ClipCanvas and I make payout at least every other month.

dnavarrojr,

I guess the key word in my earlier message is "typically", as sometimes they go out a day before or later. In this month's case the payments went out early this morning, opposed to last night.  If you requested your payment by PayPal, it should have been deposited to your account a few hours ago.

Cheers,
Duncan

Okay thanks... It showed up today.  Just eager to add some new equipment and piss off the wife. 

Duncan, when a payout is requested, can you put that info up on the page?  (The 1st and 15th info.)  I was starting to wonder about a payout request I made around the 17th.

I'm trying to upgrade some lenses, so I have some "starter lenses" available, but most folks here probably couldn't use them:

Sigma 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 DG APO Macro EF Mount
Canon 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 IS USM EF Mount
Nikon (Nikkor) 50mm 1:1.8 manual lens (I have a Nikon->EOS adapter for it, but I'll probably keep that)

I also have a brand new (never used) JAG35 DSLR Rail Kit and some 58mm filters I no longer use.

I have a magazine that has offered me $250 to license an image for an article.  I'm wondering if that's a good price point for single use and does not include web rights (just printing in the one issue of the magazine).  It's a regional magazine, so we're talking 100,000 copies.  I tried to negotiate but it was $250, take it or leave it.

I'm planning on getting the Mark III as well.  So I am slowly upgrading my lenses to faster glass and non EF-S.  I am already finding dramatic improvements just from moving to better lenses.

The problem with Dreamstime is that they just don't have as the number of "buyers" as iStock or even ShutterStock.  I have almost the exact same portfolio on SS and DT and at a whopping 33 cents a pop for subs, SS outsells DT by a margin of 15 to 1 on average.  Granted I have less than 100 images, so my results may be totally atypical... but I make payout on SS almost every single month and it takes several months to make payout on DT.

I also find that as my more popular images sell and raise in rank, they sell less often.  To be honest, I tend to start with the lower level images first in my searches for stuff I buy before buying the higher level stuff when I can't find what I need for less there.

DT is my favorite still site and as a contributor I like how they do things there, but they just don't seem to be as popular with buyers.

Actually, I do most of my "design work" in Cinema 4D on my laptop.  Once I've finished it, I transfer it to my desktop for final render.  Doing the design on my laptop gives me great freedom to work anywhere.

I just wish they'd do more marketing or something... I have a smaller portfolio on ShutterStock and make 20 times the money there than I do on DreamsTime.

I have a love/hate relationship with Pond5... I love the fact that they accept almost everything and I HATE the fact that they accept almost everything.  That said... I'm looking at nearly a 2500% increase in sales for 2010 over 2009 at Pond5 with a near-steady 4-figure monthly payout that is still growing.  And that's after a 700% increase in 2009 sales over 2008.  Best of all, I'm seeing my clips regularly in television production and occasionally in movie production.  And I had my first direct contact with a big time production studio this year who ordered custom animations from me as a result of my work on Pond5.  As far as I'm concerned, they set the standard for footage.  They consistently outsell every other agency and are leading the charge in "agency-contributor partnering" which is another reason why I think they lead the industry.  Pond5 treats contributors with respect and works with them to make both the contributor and BUYER experience a better one.

RevoStock and ClipCanvas are learning from this and their efforts over the past year to build a MUCH MORE friendly relationship with contributors has resulted in their huge growth in numbers and sales this year.  While still not at Pond5 levels, they are headed towards surpassing ShutterStock and Fotolia in size and sales in the footage marketplace and perhaps even challenging iStock in the future as well.

I think that's where a lot of new sites make a huge fatal mistake.  They see the success of iStock, ShutterStock and Fotolia and think they can treat contributors just as crappy.  And they end of failing.  Sites which PARTNER with contributors are finding success because contributors are willing to sacrifice a little more WITHOUT all of the bitching and complaints if they feel they are being treated fairly.

Any camera company and/or encoding patent holder that enforces any type of restriction on shooting video with a camera will incur the wrath of Hollywood who is using these cameras in commercial productions on a daily basis.

If Nikon actually did try to enforce it, don't you think that the backlash would be so huge as to convert the entire industry to Canon or another brand?  If the H.264 patent holders enforced the language in their license, don't you think that H.264 would stop being the standard for video within a short period of time and they'd lose the millions they make on licensing fees now?

The MPEG-LA group has already put out a press release stating that they have NO (none, zero, nada) intention of enforcing that clause in their license.  All of the major players who really matter to them have purchased licenses for H.264 and that's all they care about.

This is just another of those rumors someone started to stir up trouble where non exists.  People like to see the "boogie man" who is "out to get them" behind every camera and don't actually think about the "problem" from an industry perspective.

If you really want a noodle-buster, technically speaking the patent on MPEG2 requires everyone who buys a DVD is required to pay a license fee EVERY SINGLE TIME the DVD is viewed. Do you really believe that will ever be enforced?

Also, the courts see patent law much the same as they see copyright law...  If a patent holder does not enforce every infraction of their license, the clause governing that infraction is weakened to the point of being unenforceable.  If Nikon or the MPEG-LA do not go after every single camera owner, they weaken the clause that governs that part of their license.  Any good lawyer can go into court and say "That part of the clause is invalid because Nikon chose to sue John while allowing Goerge Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and thousands of big name hollywood directors to shoot movies and television shows with the same camera as John."

I got 3D Studio Max about 5 years ago through my local college bookstore when I was a student.  I found the interface difficult to use and eventually gave up on using it.  Since I got the student version, I am unable to use it for commercial projects so all I really use it for these days are converting .MAX files to other formats I can use.

A couple years later I got Cinema 4D through college when I was taking some motion graphics classes and got After Effects.  The workflow was similar, so I ended up actually learning and using C4D.  Even better, when I upgraded from the student version to the full version, Maxon gave me a great deal... So I've been a C4D user ever since.  I wish I could say the same for Adobe... They love college students, until they graduate...  Fortunately I was able to win a full copy of CS4 at my local Adobe User's Group christmas party a couple years ago.