How to make money selling 3D models: A Complete Guide

So, you love making 3D models and are a great 3D artist. But do you know that you can turn this hobby into an income source? If not, this article is for you and after reading this, you will have the knowledge on how to make money with 3D models.

Now, the very basic way to make money as a 3D artist is to seek employment in a studio and work there as full-time job. But not everyone wants to work on this permanent basis. If you are aspiring to work on 3D models in a studio as a fulltime job, then this article is not for you.

However, if you are a hobbyist and want to turn this hobby of making 3D models into some revenue, then this article is for you.

Now, there are two ways of making money with 3D models.

1. ACTIVE WAY
2. PASSIVE WAY

By active way, i mean receiving some revenue for each individual project.

By passive way, i mean making what you love and put it on a platform and make customers come to you instead of chasing them

ACTIVE WAY

Active way for making money with 3D models is by FREELANCING.

There are a lot of freelancing websites on which you can various 3D modelling projects. Most famous of these websites include:

• FIVERR
• FREELANCER
• UPWORK

What you need to do on these websites is first to make your profile and showcase all of your models and projects. The better your profile looks, the more is the chance of you being selected for a project.

You can set up price for your services yourself on sites like fiverr etc. while on others like freelancer, you have to apply for projects.

Read this freelancing guide for more tips and tricks.

PASSIVE WAYS

Passive ways are the best ways for hobbyists to make money with 3D models. The best things about these ways is that you have freedom about what to make and when to make.

There are a lot of passive ways to make money with 3d models:

1. Sell 3D Models

Lucky for hobbyists, there are a lot of websites where you can upload models by whatever you price you like and whenever someone downloads that you will earn revenue.

If a studio needs a generic model, that doesn’t need a specific style, chances are very high, they will not think twice before investing a couple hundred bucks into buying 3D models.

The need for 3D Models is very high but market is also so much saturated. There are millions of models on websites and for yours to stand out, it has to be of best quality and price should be fair too.

As a 3D artist, you might have some models lying around on your computer. You can upload them on these websites and earn some money from them if some one downloads them:

• CGTrader
• TurboSquid
• DAZ 3D
• CG Studio
• SketchFab

2. Start a 3D modelling Blog or Website

Giving back to the community is the best thing to do. Start a blog or website focusing on 3D modelling and all information related to that and interested people will come to visit your blog.

Showcase your work on your blog too and give out tips and solutions to problems that you have faced during your experience in 3D modelling. Give out some models for free and make people come back for more and built a community.

If you can make a successful website out of this, you can earn a lot of money through monetization and affiliate marketing.

3. Sell rendered images of Models on Stock-Image sites

Apart from selling 3D models on websites mentioned above, you can also sell rendered images of them on stock-image websites and earn revenue from them as well.

Setting up the account and uploading some images does not take longer than an hour.

Some of the popular websites for this are:

• GettyImages
• Shutterstock

4. Make Money selling courses on 3D modelling

If you are experienced enough and can teach others 3D modelling, then you can video courses of it and sell them on websites like Udemy etc.

All you need is a Microphone and some screen recording software and you are set.

Go do some market research to find areas people are interested in, make a plan, structure your tutorial and sign up as a content creator.

5. Sell 3D Scanned Models

This is a new way of making 3D models. Its called Photogrammetry.

All you need is some high definition cameras like DSLR cameras and photogrammetry software. These software include Agisoft Photoscan etc or you can use Meshroom software for this job which is super-easy to use and is also free.

TheCreativeCrops is a Website that sells 3D scanned Models of Food and you can also sell them on SketchFab.

CONCLUSION

So, these are the ways by which you can turn your hobby into some earnings. The amount of how much you can make is upto your hard work and techniques you use.

Also, you should research on these sites that what kind of models sell better than the other.

So, which methodology are going to use for making money with 3D modelling? Comment Below

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