I know that this has been asked a million times, but bare with me, please. Can I really make money with Blender? I know that it’s a top notch software, it really is. And I’m actually just wanting to make enough to buy a new PC. Not a $2000 PC. More like a $400 to $600 one. Does anyone weather I could really do that or not? FYI, I have good skills in Blender, but mostly just modeling and materials.
One thing is sure: Blender is capable of producing data people pay money for you can life from.
If the question is: “Are you allowed to sell stuff made with Blender?” - the answer is yes.
If the question is if YOU are capable of making stuff with blender you can sell the answer is:
Post some of your work. Saying you got good skill does not intrest a potential client.
Then you might get an answer.
Well, to be honest, I’m kind of embarresed to have said that. But, let’s just say that I have decent skill. What could I sell that people want to buy?
EDIT: If you want to see some of my work, here’s some.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=149328
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=194713&page=2
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=194611
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=193971
maybe you can make models and sell them via 3d model stores.
the architectural models were a bit more detailed. Joan shows
too many generic looking features to separate that model from
the competition.
the renderings you showed were not strong and 4 are also not enough
to judge ones competence. potential of ability and again skill are not the same.
not to provide the wrong vibe but if you want to really see what is
going in the field check out portfolios on CGTalk or model
levels and complexity on sites such as turbosquid.com
this might provide some good insight.
Selling models you make using Blender shouldn’t be your concern. It should be getting a job creating 3D for real money. That is if you really want that. Otherwise, don’t expect to make a good living selling 3D models.
I sell some of my stuff on the3Dstudio.com
as said above, I wouldn’t rely on selling models as a main source of income at first, but it does help. Obviously the better you are, and the more models you have available, the more you’ll make (assuming you sell stuff that people want to buy, and there aren’t already 100+ of them available).
My commercial works in my 10 years of gamedev job:
http://etyekfilm.hu/mweworks/
http://etyekfilm.hu/bfworks/bfworks.html
http://etyekfilm.hu/igniteworks/
http://etyekfilm.hu/makingofignite/
-other 2 car racing game for pc
-other gameboy advance games for THQ (one is heavy use of Blender for full level making)
-other smaller works for money
Blender has been at a professional level of quality for some time now. Two factors still prevent its commercial success, both of which are outside of the BF’s control.
#1. Professional infrastructure. If your studio has a track record of successful games or movies, that probably means 5 years of operation building a portfolio of proven quality and owned creative properties. 5 years ago, Blender was NOT a force whose tools could largely replicate a basic Maya pipeline. Consider today’s professional infrastructure. If your company has 20 Maya licenses sitting around, and all your old content is built on it, you will LOSE money by switching to free software. And even though newer commercial endeavors could grow into powerhouses on a Blender pipeline, that takes decades. Even today, what would you say is the MOST successful commercial Blender endeavor as an organization? The answer is, unfortunately, still the Blender Foundation, or perhaps some of the VFX houses in South America and Europe. Comparatively, what’s the MOST successful stories of Maya/Max? Blizzard. Lucasarts. Pixar. Pretty much every name-brand 3D movie producer and game producer you can think of. Autodesk wouldn’t even come onto the list of top 20 Autodesk cheerleaders. It’s still worth keeping in mind that these are companies with 10 to 40 years of VFX experience. Will some Blender-based companies reach that kind of status with an equal amount of time? Probably, hopefully. But not yet.
#2. Educational infrastructure. At minimum wage in the US, a month of training would be roughly $1500. Most people being honest with themselves would say it takes AT LEAST two months of a new 3D software to even produce something that’s not laughter-inducing. In other words, 2 months of training costs as much as a commercial Maya license. How many pro art schools are teaching Blender? It would be cheaper to hire someone with a formal Maya education and just buy what they’re comfortable with, than to retrain them into a software you can get for free. Once again, this can only be fought with time, and also through community efforts. I think one of the best parts about doing Blender User Groups is that you can either connect with the self-taught Blender users, or you can start getting users of other 3D software over that hump of learning, so that they can burst onto the scene pretty well trained.
Anyway, there’s my two cents. A lot of freelance work or Turbosquid models will never have software choice be a detracting issue. The issues will be #1. getting more large-scale, funded projects done with the Blender stamp, and #2. having a significant population of blender users learning their way to pro status, and ready to instantly drop it onto a pipeline.
No need to be embaressed.
It is just that people need something visual, not verbal, especially customers - So prep a portfolio you can show, or if you find someone with repeating contracts offer to make the first job for free and they only got to pay if they like it - sucks, but often opens some doors and being a “company” yourself you got to start somewhere and unless you got the big buck in the pocket startup´s never easy.
Seeing your work, I´d say you´ll be able to earn a new machine with Blender quite easily. Don´t underestimate the time that goes into one project even with a small per hour payment you´ll have 1000 bucks in no time.
My advice:
Stay away from selling models on eMarkets.
Usually no one needs what you thought they will need and when they need it, they need it different in some way. And all the generic models many use like trees, plants, furniture. There´s plenty of free stuff out there and you´ll sit on your work.
Stay away from organic modelling for now, and also longer animations (1min+). It´s too much for starters and failing the startup jobs ruins your reputation - also as you tell you need a new machine, don´t pick a job that your hardware can´t handle.
Try to make paid models for small games, maybe still renders for browsergames, there is a big, big demand currently in Europe.
Don´t hesitate to join modteams or indie game developers it is experience even if it fails and you earn no money.
Try to make product visualizations or presentations - If you see a bad commercial for a yoghurt, reproduce it digitally and make it look like the yoghurt of gods and go to potential customers looking for artists, and tell them that the other companies product could have looked like that if they had choosen you - also currently they love to see their prototypes in stereo3D - at least the companies I work for.
Everything has to be 3D-3D 
Try to make architectural visualization, there is quite some demand for it as well, usually more than artists, you just got to find the jobs - also BGE is a + to have on the skilllist there, customers love to walk through their unbuild new homes 
Seeing your renders I find you got a feel for lighting and geometry of anorganic stuff, so most likely the last one would be the perfect fit for you.
And don´t be too exact in your work. In every project (besides Duke Nukem ) there is the point where you got to jump over your shadow and sacrifice quality to the deadline.
And concurring with ogbog, you got to fight your way through with Blender and you´ll get doubting looks until you deliver your first work.
I guess many of us are pioneers making room in the business for Blender. You just got to find your way into it. If you see an opening, jump into it.
There is no 101 concept “Moneymaking for CG Artists in a Nutshell”
a month ago or so i just recieved the last half of a payment made for me creating a maskot for a bus company in stavanger/norway. And I am in the process of aquiring another job from the same company… 
i’ve also done a small job for a company in Kristiansand/norway… Sure you can make money, you just have to make yourself visible for possible customers… And you need some skill… You don’t have to be a pixar quality animator or modeller, but the better you are, and the better offer you make, the bigger the chance of getting into projects you have… Also it helps to be inventive, and actually suggest to companies - projects that can help them get better publicity or improving their visibilty in the market…
-c-
Well, for my own I work with Blender many hours a day for now more than 6 years, and I have many things to show, in both still pictures and animation. I started as freelance artist 3 years ago, and did two big works for two industrial companies, but after that I haven’t found other clients. Despite an investment of around 500 Euros per year in advertizing (distribution of calendars, cards, demo DVDs) and visits in many companies, I don’t get any order.
At the beginning of this year, I have rebuilt my website from scratch (I’m not at all a programmer and it took me 2-3 months) with no more result. My website receives in average 10000 visits a months, but mainly foreign visitors I think because I visit only english spoken sites (there is no french site with enough good content).
@henrymop : You don’t tell where you are from. I am in France, and here laws about work are very weird. As a freelance artist, you can’t sell your 3D models, textures or materials. You even can’t make poster and sell them on the web. You can only sell what is called “original works”, meaning you can sell only unique works, not works that can be duplicated. As an artist, you can also sell to producers or book editors and be paid in royalties. It is considered as a non commercial activity.
If you want to sell 3D models, posters… you have to register under an other status, allowing commercial activity. The problem is that you have to pay for a heavy professionnal tax even if there is no money income ! Also, if you are hired by a producer or a book editor, it is not possible to be paid with royalties.
So, it is not simple to be paid for your work !
Also, most of the architects I visited around here do themselves their 3D work.
ogbog
I think you skip few steps here:
Blender can do some of the stuff Maya can.
But Maya can do way more then Blender ever will be able to.
Render engine
Special FX
Animation Tools
I taught Blender for 4 years and was only able to get it into smaller studios
where what Blender offered was all they needed.
In all other scenarios where it photo realism was required it was never able to even be an option.
Other open source render engines were also never a serious option because of instability issues
either with Yafaray or Blender.
The other main problem with Blender is simply they do not have a support hot line.
When in class we found a bug in Rhino, we had a forum, hotline, or email and to be honest
got often an answer within 30 minutes. In an environment were time is money it just does not work.
Maybe soon at one point when the API is stable, exporters do not crash crazy, this might be different.
In the past 3DMax and VRay was a very attractive solution simply because Max brought the animation
tools and VRay rendered it out on a high level.
Andre is working on VRay for Blender exporter and this one looks already very good.
Since VRay is a commercial system Blender itself could finally get access to an industry standard.
Recently, I started with Octane render. It is very affordable and gives realistic images, but requires high end graphic cards. With good GPUs, it is very fast and easy to setup nice scenes. It is still in early age, but already really powerful. Since I discovered it, i render all my images with it. The export time is a bit long like any external render, but rendering is really very fast, even in high resolutions, and it also allows animations.
It is a very good complement for Blender.
Just my 2 cents for what it is worth. And I’m pretty certain someone is going to prove me wrong in the next post:eyebrowlift:
But it is incredibly difficult to make a business out of making 3d models as an individual or freelance. You’ve either got to be incredibly lucky or find a niche market where there is a call for your product. The fact is that especially since the economic downturn, the 3d bubble has burst purely because supply has completely outstripped demand for 3d based media products. There is simply too many (very good) artists out there and not enough work.
The other thing is that in essence 3d has turned out to be a very expensive business for clients and a lot of them just don’t have the money to buy in 3d services. Those who need it regularly will find it a it more cost effective to bring someone in full time than pay freelance rates. Especially as good 3d guys are 10 a penny nowadays.
I think as 3d artists its very easy to become blinkered and become fascinated with producing photo realistic renders and fantastically detailed models without thinking about the end product and the commercial viability of what we do. And i think its down to the fact that what we do can become an addiction because its fun!
But if you look at it in a cold commercial sense its a whole different matter. You look at some of the projects here and other 3d sites, guys put 50, 100, 200 hours into producing beautiful models which are not commercially viable. Even at minimum wage, you put 2 weeks into producing your rivet perfect Ford Mustang. 80hours x £7 = £560. That’s what you have make from the model to be viable, or else your better off flipping burgers at Mc Donalds (at least your guaranteed the money that way)
Sorry to sound all doom and gloom i would be very happy for you to prove me wrong but its so tough to make money from 3d without working fro a company.
Thanks
Paul
Roubal
that is very true - Octance is great!
I am not sure what you main need is for rendering.
Did you look into Thea as well?
I tested it for few days and it is very impressive.
It is a mix of biased and unbiased rendering on the level of high end render engines.
The quality output is amazing - and it is quite fast for that as well.
Well, the thing is that what I want is just to make enough money to get some stuff, like a computer. The thing is that, for me, its a win-win scenario. I like to make 3d stuff anyway, but if I can make enough money to buy a PC, then great! But, if I don’t, it doesn’t matter anyway. I am never interested in becoming a pro. It seems like it’s just too much work for me, because I have other goals in mind. And besides, to me 3D art isn’t about commercial, it’s just about enjoyment.
Henry
well from what you say I think you are more interested in the hobbiest area of 3D.
The pressure in the field is quite high, the work difficulty as well.
I would close to say it is a yes or no field, not a maybe.
Maybe then 3d model sides are your best bet since you can offer a good model for less
but the amount of it being sold will bring you the money value it took you to build it.
For every other option to make money with 3D you need to be more dedicated to it.
I’m a wings3d modeler. And -insert here whatever the tool- texturer. And wings is an open source software (bsd license instead), and also, is neither the standard in game companies. Like happens to Blender. Well, I’ve been dunno, a lot of years, at 5 game companies. They never complained bout quality, never got fired, and often saw salary increases. A lot of resistance to tools which weren’t Max or Maya, yep. The main message is, I could do all what the other staff members did. And count on that Blender covers quite a larger area, as is not only for modeling, but has equivalent usefulness in modeling.
Now I work as a designer for regular companies needs, not games anymore, and often use Blender for stuff which gets published in a way or another (certainly not logos).
If the question is if the tool is capable, yep it is. More adequate for some niches than others, tho. If it is if you will be able, nobody can tell. In 3D is becoming very important some traditional art base, but imo is no totally needed if are able to output sth that doesn’t show big errors. A lot of 3d artists do fail in just human proportions, for example. Despite being absolutely perfect in 3d tech. And capability to “view” in 3D. That is a bit more related to prsonal limits, but imo, anyone can end up doing 3d, professionally. Can be a kick ass one or not, but…
Extrude
my comment was more about the straight 3D CG industry and not niche markets.
It all really depends on what one need and for certain aspects Blender can be
all you need.
I was more coming from the CG in film studios were our graduates go to, to design
firms which are bigger.
If you go to Nickelodeon I think they rather look funny at you when you approach them
as a Blender evangelist. If you go the Bissell, Herman Miller, or the render department in
Whirlpool they will also give you that funny look.
If you go a small studio where is no big requirement, more flexibility to try something new,
a smaller team, or not such an established focus on need on certain 3d tools and out put quality
you can come with what ever can do the job.
I find it however very important to pull that tooth few new people who see Blender as the
future weapon which will replace Maya. Following that idea is lost time.
Blender allready helped me to produce small ads, no big thing yet for two reasons:
- I’m limited in my skills
- I’m limited in my market shares
