Your 3D Models can make you rich!

Do you have a bunch of old model projects that are taking up space on your computer? If so you could easily be bringing in monthly checks by doing virtually nothing.

I have been a 3d modeler for over six years now and one day I noticed I had hundreds of files just sitting on my hard drive from my hobby. Most of these files were models, I had a lot of textures that I had made. None of these files I ever used anymore and I was contemplating deleting them since they were taking a crap load of space from my hard drive.

Then one day about a year ago, I had just recently gotten a real job as a modeler. I made some really good stuff and my company was nice enough to let me keep the rights to my work since they only needed for demonstrations. About that time I happened to be browsing a website called the3dstudio.com. Actually I had known about it for a while, Basically you can upload your models and textures and other stuff to their website and set a price on what you would like to sell each product for. They will then market the product for you and every time one of your products sells, you get a percentage of that sell price. This percentage varies from website to website, however at the3dstudio.com you get to keep about 65%.

However until that time I never considered myself good enough to up anything up that people would actually want to buy. But reluctantly I put one of my models up that I had made just for shits and giggles and much to my astonishment, that model sold in about 2 weeks and later that month I receive a big fat check of about $15.

Lol, $15 isnt much but I was on top of the world when I got that check, I couldn't believe I actually sold something that I had made myself. Afterwards in a frenzy I continued to upload every that I had made in my hard drive. Some stuff that I thought was utter crap started being some of my top sellers. And soon after about 6 months on another website I sell through called Turbosquid.com. I became one of their top sellers, and between the 2 websites alone I was bring over $1,000 checks monthly. The best part is that for the last several months, my life has gotten extremely busy and I have done virtually no modeling but yet the checks keep coming in every month. Also since they are digital files

that I am selling the same product can be sold over and over again without additional time and cost.

There are a couple things I would like to stress though. This isn't a get rich with no effort scheme. Yes you will make money though.

The thing is right now Im making bank and not really doing anything. But before I was able to just sit back and relax and just watch the money pour in I had to put in hours upon hours of work building these models and building up my collection. And you really don't see a good return on your models in the short run, However in the long run you get more than your money's worth. For example, One of my products over the course of a year and a half has made me about $2500. Which is way worth the effort I had put in but I had put in about ten hours developing it. If I had been paid by the hour for this product making about $15 an hour I would have made $1500 from this product in a week. However I didn't see the first sale for this particular product for about 6 months. Since then It sold a couple more times.

The point that im trying to make is that you can only make money from this if it's a hobby you enjoy doing and on make money on the side from it. Ive never met anyone that could make a living off of this although I guess its theoretically possible. Also if you're an experienced modeler that has built up a collection of old models over the years, this is a great way to earn some extra income.

The websites I sell my models through are:

http://www.the3dstudio.com
http://www.turbosquid.com
http://www.fallingpixel.com

Additionally I render some of my models as still images and submit them to stock photography sites. I don't make nearly as much as from the model sites but I can pull a couple hundred dollars from my renderings alone sometimes.

http://www.shutterstock.com
http://www.bigstockphoto.com
http://www.istockphoto.com