16% portfolio growth
Earnings are stagnant - same as last year

Quote from: Chichikov on December 02, 2015, 16:30

Quote from: Metsafile on December 02, 2015, 15:05

Quote from: Chichikov on December 02, 2015, 14:09

Quote from: Metsafile on December 02, 2015, 12:20
They're after the lowest common denominator across all possible applications.

Yes, it was my thought too.
But I am not sure that today it still exists usable applications not able to open at least CS4 (for this I asked)

I think the concern is not with Adobe apps but being able to open the illustrations in
Coral draw, Inkscape, Serif Draw, Affinity Designer, etc...

So Coral draw, Inkscape, Serif Draw, Affinity Designer, cannot open an ai CS4 file?
(I was thinking to live in 2015 )

Illustrator 8 supports EPS 3.0 as its maximum version of eps coding, which is the last eps version that supported only simple vector shapes, fills and outlines. All other effects added on later (such as layer effects, transparencies, live objects, and the many many other complicated effects) are not supported in eps 3.0 and are instead simplified into that crazy looking stepped chopped look or rasterized for compatibility.

The coding in an illustrator file for transparency, shadowing and other modern effects are coded completely differently than the same effects in an affinity design or corel draw file. To cross code these effects and maintain the same look would be a daunting task for app developers. Thats why a simple FILE/OPEN will not work with an illustrator file saved above version 8. If sites microstock sites started accepting illustrator cs or above, then users of corel, affinity etc would either get incorrect rendering results when opening a file... or an error and no file at all... which would result in the most annoying thing ever - RETURNED SALES (uhg, just the words make me cringe).

As much as all the other apps cant read modern AI files, AI cant read any modern files from all of the other vector drawing apps either (AI can read Corel 11, circa 2001ish, and cant open affinity files at all) so it is good to have at least a baseline where basic drawings will still be compatible across many different platforms.

Illustrator 8 (EPS 3.0) is that happy medium where ALL applications can open ALL files. It's annoying but necessary.

Slightly off topic, but how does cutcaster perform for illustration?

Quote from: eyewave on September 17, 2015, 09:44
Yes quite obviously he uses parts of other designers vectors. Other than that I wonder how he got that huge load of similar stuff accepted anyway. I even get a rejection when I try to upload a completely different illustration of the same subject.

Like when you search within his portfolio for the term "tomato" and see the same tomato cartoon uploaded 503 times with different stolen faces and arms.

How did this guy get 12,000+ images approved? What could his rejection rate be? The DT staff must have a few loose ends in it's review staff.

Another one of mine:
Notice the arms and the spatula:
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-hot-dog-cartoon-character-sunglasses-grilling-sunny-summer-day-attitude-wearing-cooking-out-image30348939

And the Florianr image stealing those vector assets:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-ice-cream-cone-spatula-cartoon-style-illustrated-vector-format-available-image50170219

Another asset stolen from yet another user who is not me.

Original: http://www.dreamstime.com/kenbenner_info
Notice the arm and the ball:
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-cartoon-girl-beach-ball-image28660208

Florianr Image using the same arm and ball:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-tomato-holding-beach-ball-cartoon-style-illustrated-vector-format-available-image47549623

Another asset of mine stolen.

My original: See the arm and wooden handle of the sign.
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-hot-dog-cartoon-holding-blank-wooden-sign-image29495724

Florianr literally used the same vectors, stolen right from my image:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-cartoon-smiling-tomato-holding-blank-sign-style-illustrated-vector-format-available-image47212220

I'm looking for more, to further my complaint to Dreamstime

This user also stole a hot dog image asset (save vectors, different colors) from another user:

Original by http://www.dreamstime.com/sundatoon_info:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-chef-holding-hot-dog-clipart-picture-cartoon-character-image37352284

Copied asset from Florianr:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-exclamation-mark-chef-hot-dog-cartoon-style-illustrated-vector-format-available-image49448480

The hotdog shape is exactly the same as the other user, down to the 3 fingers holding it.

I will post further if DT takes action

Caught another contributor stealing assets from my images on Dreamstime. User is an exclusive. Other illustrators may want to view his collection, his work is extremely variable in style and uses lots of auto trace. Your images may have auto-traced too.

User on DT is Florianr: http://www.dreamstime.com/florianr_info

Used the face assets from my images for many of his own.
My Images: 27011573, 27728862
His Images: 44144066, 50327712, 46619494, 47735932, 47657009, 43903273, 44788859, 49294464, 45373834, 43875098, 45466457, 46377847, 45349944 - this is a small sample of MANY MORE.


You can see my complaint to DT below.

I would like to report intellectual property theft. A contributor is using image assets stolen from my imagery.

The DT exclusive contributor Florianr (http://www.dreamstime.com/florianr_info) has used image traced assets that i have created in his work. I have listed a few examples below, but there are a lot of them.

First, please see my images: 27011573, 27728862 and note the facial assets. (other images i have created use these same facial assets, but these are very good examples).

These are hand drawn by myself and i can provide original scans of my work to prove i created these assets. You will notice from my files that none of my lines are auto traced and my work is very consistent across my portfolio (http://www.dreamstime.com/capeman29_info). The file dates of my submissions are also much older.

Florianr image: 48444938 uses an image trace of my egg character's face (from my example files).
These assets are also used on other files in his collection:
45373834, 43875098, 45466457, 46377847, 45349944

Florianr image: 47656755 uses an image trace of the face used on my toast/cheese character (from my example files).
This face is also imaged traced in the following files:
44144066, 50327712, 46619494, 47735932, 47657009, 43903273, 44788859, 49294464

Florianr collection contains MANY more examples of images using these assets.

This user's collection strikes me as odd given the extremely varying degree of different styles and an obviously large use of autotrace. I would not be surprised if other images in his collection were derivatives of other people's work using auto traced assets he does not own.

Stealing and selling the works of other contributors is very toxic to Microstock as a whole, I am understandably disappointed to have ran across this and would like immediate action taken.

Please let me know. I appreciate any time you take to examine this further.
Thank you very much.

They usually mark every file as $1 by default, but their pricing tier says cartoons start at $3 (which pulls .75 per DL, which isnt too bad).

I contacted them about that whole dollar thing and they upped every file in my collection to at least $3, alot of them marked as $5. With only a few images on there, its already pulling enough to warrant me putting up the rest of my collection, which is 100% cartoons.

Of course, if you do more basic styles of vector, like icon sets or simple objects, its probably not worth it.

I upload to about 10 sites.
My Collection size is 250 images give or take.

SS is best, DT is second, CS is (surprisingly) third

IS used to be good but has dropped dramatically, i make about a quarter of what i used to...  (used to pull as much as SS)
FT is totally random, sometimes great, usually not...

VS, DP, 123, BS are all my low earners
But i dont have my whole collection on VS yet, so i cant vouch for that one.

GL and P5 are rubbish, dont even bother.

Sound's like my Pond5 or Graphic Leftover accounts.

100 vectors on Pond5 for 8 months. 1 single sale.

Same 100 vectors on Shutterstock = $200 per month easy.

Going to answer no.

Nevermind, looks like its already deleted! HAHAHA

Wow they are quick to hide criticism

I am unique as i both contribute personally and buy for my company from iStock.

Our company account has spent over 10K in the past few years on images.

I just posted to their forum thread, to paraphrase "screw me personally, lose me professionally"... then i followed up from my corp account to verify that i wasn't BSing.

The equation for them in my case is, get back $40-$80, lose $5,000 in the next couple years. Let's see how incompetent their decision is, or if they even care to read it.

My company may be looking at a shiny new shutter stock or fotolia account in the coming month!