BUT Shutterstock has the best contributor support of any agency.... Shutterstock is the greatest stock agency in existence. Absolutely!

You have no idea how much i laughed. Thank you for your post.
Congratulations i think you're in 0,00001% that probably thinks that.

Please, please, please....
Don't forget to get a big tattoo with SSTK logo and btw upload-upload-uplload it to your portfolio too.
If you're right you probably sell thousands!!! Absolutely! ehehhe

Quote from: Evaristo tenscadisto on June 29, 2022, 21:39

my guess is that probably was removed by some moderator.

There is only one moderator who can do that, the site owner. From the past, there are no other moderators. It's his site, he has that right.

When the discussion stops being point and counter-point and becomes personal attacks or lopsided, biased insulting attacks, (from opposing sides of the opinions) there's a high probability that it will disappear. 

Quote from: Annie on June 24, 2022, 19:13

A juicy conspiracy theory is far more believable than the truth!

Yeah and I can never understand why? Seemingly intelligent people, will get fooled and spread the disinformation, as if it's factual?

My best thanks Uncle Pete for sharing this info. It wasn't exactly my idea when I made this topic. But I agree that there were times when I also felt that things could get a little more tense.

Either way, I do respect choices of moderator.   

Justanimage, I understand what you are saying.

Please understand also that all digital images are made in a unique combination of RGB pixels which is transformed in to numbers. Each Digital Image is combine in a unique way that may depend in the format you use (tga,png, jpeg, Gif, etc)- Mathematical formulas in binary code. The image itself is protect by law digital (binary code not pixel) or analogue and you can't use it even for training without consent of the owners.

In 2004 i was in R&D project where we need to train an algorithm to improve the pap smear diagnosis for the doctor based on image match. So you can imagine the process... a lot of diplomacy talk, European commission, Project officers, Evaluators, lawyers, Signatures, paperwork and consent (women, hospital and government)

But let's do the other thinking to explain it better...an image is binary code. your formula (code) too. So imagine you release your formula/image online so people can purchase or see your work. Now imagine that i will take it and put in a machine learning to the point where i create a new one. I will be violating your own work, right? Even if it was new the binary code was once based on yours or not? you know it was... otherwise will be a blank code producing blank formulas.

Actually this thinking already exists and its called "machine dreaming" and it's made by steps through generative adversarial network (GAN-AI) to produce new formulas(binary code), images (png, jpg, mp4) or sounds (wav, mp3).

So you said   "The eye is generated by a formula trained by lots of eyes....."  therefore i must ask,  real people eyes or "made" by you? do you have consent? do you ask or pay?

"... but to generate this eye, not a single pixel of the original images is used."  Of course not. You don't need it anymore. you train your machine to produce the necessary binary code/formula with generative adversarial network.

I will give an good example of my point. there is the site called https://generated.photos/

Please go there.... it is a microstock site where you can buy Generated photos like yours created from scratch by AI systems. All images can be used for any purpose without worrying about copyrights, distribution rights, infringement claims, or royalties. But you must pay to use....of course

and at the end of site you will see that was trained on studio photos by Icons8 who was paid or give consent from owners, right? 






 

This is good and as expected.  But what's next?  Maybe Pond5 clips appearing on Shutterstock instead.  Will they be available for Shutterstock video subs?  I hope not.  At least exclude Pond5 exclusive clips from Shutterstock video sub and make Pond5 exclusive clips for non subscription only, I hope.

I don't think p5 contributors will have their content in SSTK soon. During merge, the P5 CEO explained that they were not planning to do it.
I share Jo Ann vision. it's more a case of cutting resources of clips from primary business rival. 

It is worth watching, but I doubt it will replace us in the next 10 years.

But it is fun to use, I play with the nightcafe creator.

I think part of the idea is not actually replace us but increase the volume of our work. 10 years ago i barely could do 10 pictures a day with all the steps of cleaning, some rotoscopy, colorize etc... Today with AI in photoshop or LuminarAI and some scripts i can easily do 40 in a day. But if we talk about cleaning for just green screen my personal record is 327 pictures in a day.

In ten years perhaps volume will be so easy to create digitally than a lot of individuals can actually have a personal microstock site store with millions instead of thousands. But for news or documentary stuff i think this will continue shy with no big changes

 

SSTK rate i think it's just stupid in any perspective.

I was only a buyer in envato.
Last 2 years I've been purchasing more stuff from envato authors in their independent websites. 
New stuff is never upload in envato. I wonder why?

if they shutter pond5, they will start making restrictions on buying and selling to get people to move to shutterstock

so if you see pond5 start to have new restrictions added to make your life more difficult, you will know why

I am sorry but it does not make a lot of sense to me.

Big Stock was bought in 2009, Premiumbeatin 2015, Turbosquid last year. All sites are online and still selling like stand alone brands.

I see already "restrictions" in Adobe too and that doesn't have to do nothing directly with SSTK, right?  Actually I have been seeing "restrictions" to contributors for years now....It's call market. 

 

Because of low price share of income of big platforms my guess is that, slowly, this market will be following the trends of other markets. Just like Amazon, Etsy or Skillshare contributors, i see a lot of them migrate to personal websites. The old stuff is still in those platforms but new is not.

Buyers will always follow the new stuff.

Markets are always evolving....probably this will be the future: using a few old eggs in big platforms and link the rest to your website with new fresh stuff. 

Hi,
For my perspective P5 is doing ok for me.
If sales went down it probably has to do with a number of factors but for sure is not the quality of your work.

Pond5 hit 30 million clips and 100.000 contributors. Trends are always changing and algorithms revised too. Also if you sell your clips in other microstock sites for less this can be a factor too.

Perhaps diversifying your database or betting on a niche in a lot quantity can help you get more sales.

All the best for your sales!

The "big" difference i find between contracts is that GPP and LPP are not a option anymore.
I got this GPP/ LPP program turned on.  Usually i don't get much of LPP sales but GPP sales comes quarterly and it's ok for me.

More exciting news. The last thing that still provided decent return is gone. I used to upload my videos to Adobe first, see which ones would get traction and only then upload the low earners to SS. Now this is pointless.

Spend a pile of cash for very expensive 3d software and a powerful enough PC, spending hours and sometimes days modeling, texturing, lighting... Then rendering which also takes awhile, then editing, then keywording...
Good effort, here's a buck...

Full agree with you. The price and time spent in making a 3d video cannot be compared to shoot video camera or something done in a simple after effects program. Also let's not forget to mention the electricity too. A 3d video in 4K usually takes me 2/3 days to model and composite a and then week (non stop) to render. Less than 250$ a clip is bad business. forget adobe for that! just shoot videos and photos with your phone. For a buck that is what clients or Adobe deserve.