That’s hilarious, you don’t want to Derail the post? That is LITERALLY all you have done. You think you’ve offered advice but it’s the most obvious flipping advice you can offer. You’re a unwelcome agitator who keep other developers down and offers nothing to the actual community other than cynicism. You sir, are a disreputable individual. And I’ve seen your work, I looked it up after like 3 posts from you. I’m not impressed.
P.S. What do you get out of complaining about the quality of the photos? Or any of this? I’ve already admitted that the quality could be improved and that better photos are incoming, yet you still just harp on the same tune again and again… I think if you were a professional at the level you claim to be A, you would work in the entertainment industry which you most certainly do not. or B, you would have given me thoughtful and detailed explanations of not just ‘needing better photo references’ but exactly which lighting and angles to shoot from to the get maximum impact out of each shot. YOU didn’t do that, because I don’t think you have those answers. You’re not actually interested in helping, you just wanted to troll my post because you felt like my work wasn’t strong enough to get me paid. You are impolite.
Although I admit that star wars speeder on your linked in looks pretty fly Zachary.
I like the idea a lot, I would look at this type of service for Backer rewards for Kickstarter (May not be viable with pledge vs cost). However, at this time I agree with Darth, Pictures don’t make the product very inviting right now (My opinion).
Plus it seems it’s easy to ‘ruffle your feathers’ with constructive criticism to the point where you’re swearing, boasting to have more industry experience and, calling someone a ‘creaton’. I imagine you’re quite volatile to work with. Non the less I hope to see more sculptures and pictures, there is no denying there is a place in the market for this.
Conkerballs, Thanks for the advice honestly, I am volatile. I’m an artist. And it’s occurred to me that I would be judged negatively by my reactions here. But It took a lot of pushing to get this far, cussing wasn’t my first goto. I knew after just a few posts from this guy that I wouldn’t be getting any actual work from this site at this time. But dudes a troll and I wont back down from a troll. I don’t act like this in a professional setting (and as far as i’m concerned this stopped being a professional setting like 20 messages ago) and to anyone interested in enlisting my services I can give a list of people I’ve freelanced for in the past who they can contact.
Another thing about these sculptures you should know about, for something like a backer reward is that if I send you the clay version, you can have a cast made of it, and pour as many as you would need for your backers. So Having 1:1 sculptures made for every investor is unlikely, but having wax castings made for all supporters over $50 is a lot more reasonable. You could even go to bronze for your highest supporters.
Frankly at this point im just hoping enough people read up just for the drama of the back and fourth and someone is like, hey yeah, i could use this service. So because of darths incessant trolling, I changed my advertisment structure from well spoken salesman to “any publicity is good publicity” drama queen.
I visited this thread before all the drama, and I am an indie dev with an interest in a sculpt of my main character, but I came to the same conclusion darth did all on my own. As an indie developer my budget is precious, before I spend a dime I have to be sure the quality is top and at a reasonable price. I understand “gotta pay rent” and there’s no doubt in my mind that you have skills that would allow you to do so, but your presentation doesn’t offer me, a potential client, proof of what you claim. In a digital world, where anyone can claim to be anything, I need proof before I will risk my money. Invest the 20 hours dude, show off, put your best foot forward, impress potential clients. Don’t put up a piece that you admit could use more work and ask me to use my imagination on what it could be. I think your idea is great and you’d probably find lots of interest; your presentation is flawed for the online market. I like the current images, as WIP proof, but a polished finished product is what I expected to find at the end of your reel and it’s not there yet.
The folks here see lots of flawed pitches on the freelance board, folks like darth are trying to help you succeed based on their experience seeing threads that fail, and threads that succeed. Never take feedback as an attack, the chaps around here are typically quite helpful and even if the advice is unsolicited, it can help you achieve your goal. 
Good Luck, and I’m following this thread, I’d be interested in seeing any progress that develops!
Dark Rider, Thanks for this advice.
I guess before I say anything I should explain a lot more. I did say it could use 20 more hours, but you would never see the difference. that work is around 250 hours. At 220 hour I told myself, just 20 more hours and this thing will be good to go. A work is NEVER finished. No matter how many hours I put in, it will still benefit from more. I may do the two solvent passes on it to smooth out some of the flaws in the clay but that piece is complete. My problem was, that the dude should leave feedback in private messages instead of back and forth messaging over 3 days, whether he like t admit it or not, he’s in a leadership position. And his word carries more weight than yours or mine. When he says ‘this isn’t good enough’ that affects me. Not just my aggravation level but the clientele I could appeal to. It was inappropriate and I understand that he meant it and most of you took it as helpful critique, but this is not the page for critique, if I wanted advice I know where to go to get it.
since im posting again anyway, I figure I’ll just throw this out there also roberthoole.weebly.com
This is an interesting idea, but darthviper107’s feedback is spot on. Presentation and the the quality and quantity of work in a portfolio is pretty important, especially if you’re targeting indie developers with limited budgets. Here’s an article I wrote on how to build and design a portfolio to maximize opportunities for paid work that you might find helpful:
Thank you,
I will read this now, but again I want to iterate, I knew these images were poor quality, but I decided to jump the gun and see if I could get any attention. Which apparently I have.
Update: I read it and found much I can improve on, thanks again!
Okay people! I have done as you’ve asked:
Cleaned up and better photos taken!
https://i.imgflip.com/rgr7k.gifvia Imgflip GIF Maker
Do you have any understanding of how difficult it is to “Ctrl + Z” with clay???
I didn’t just hold shift to smooth this lady out. I hope you enjoy my tears people.
Those photos are much better
Much better I like it!
And thanks, I will definitely read it, too.
At least if you get a model 3d printed, you know what the cost will be and it wont be as heavy so postage will be about 1 tenth of the price and if its plastic theres alot more chance of it not getting broken. If you were a well known sculptor then maybe people would pay the extra cost, but you said you completed 2 out of 12 classes, the more detailed photos actually make that alot more apparent
when you do turntabeling, use a tripod for the cam.
I totally disagree with your statement. There is a huge difference between a 3d printed plastic thing or a hand-made sculpture. I would rather pay a lot more for a nice looking, hand drawn picture created by a no name artist than printing out a cheap poster. If you knew something about art, you would realize that something which is hand-made is much more interesting then something which is created by a computer.
If I artistically create a character etc in 3d software, I would want it exactly the way I created it, thats my opinion, probably most people would as well, i dont want to pay extra for his artistic interperatation of my art, we are all entitled to our opinions, thats what art is really but as you said I know nothing about art…if he was doing this for free then that would be pretty artistic
Okay, you are right, to say that you know nothing about art was a bit too harsh (I’m sorry about that). Everybody has a different perspective on art and thats good. But I think that it’s still wrong to compare a hand-made sculpture with a 3d printed figurine. For me a hand-made sculpture is something expensive and really special. You are going to order one if you want to celebrate a special character or something else in your game. 3d printed figurines are somethings you are going to buy because you want to print more then one character. Of course you could hand paint the 3d printed figurine to make it more special but than its going to be expensive again.
Im sure some people would prefer a clay sculpture, it seems logical though that if someone has created an artistic form in a 3d program they will probably want it to be exactly the same as what they created, which 3d printing provides pretty cheaply these days…If he was offering this service so he could learn and just charging postage and materials(would still cost alot) it would probably be more appropriate, imagine if I posted my first attempts at 3d modeling and tried to charge money for my services, I would be utterly savaged on the forums and probably rightly so
The great thing is that he gets to see peoples different opinions on the matter and thats only going to make him better informed if he wants to blend and old time art form with a new technically based one
Okay Lots of stuff was said here so I’m not going to bother quoting anyone.
First I’m in 2 out of 12 semesters at a computer graphics school, and please understand that the further into school I get the higher my rates get. There are only a total of two clay sculpture classes, and right as I’ve finished the most important of those semesters is the time when my sculpting will be the strongest. Thats right now. I already use zBrush, but the idea behind these classes were to make you a monster at zbrush cause if you can do this and make it look good without hotkeys and Ctrl + Z, then when you actually get into zbrush you’ll dominate. So I’m 2 semesters in, but not at an all sculpting school.
Someone said “maybe if I was a famous sculptor”, manfriend, if I was a famous sculptor you’d be paying me $5,000 for a REPRINT and would never be allowed to reproduce it yourself. And I wouldn’t be rattling my change cup in a video game engine forum.
Someone said “In 3D printing at least you’ll know how much you’ll pay”. For reals? Of course I’m going to tell you how much you’ll pay. It’s not like ‘surprise, sell your car!’.
Now comparing it to 3D printing. Boo you straight trippin. If you asked me to recreate what you see in the photo’s for you, depending on the complexity of the attire, if it has horns/scales/whatever, I would charge between $1,000 - $1,500. Plus the cost of supplies which is around $100. If you think you can get a 25" machete WITH BASE 3D printed for that amount, then I implore you, please send me some of what you’re smoking, my dispensaries don’t carry anything that strong. Unless you own a 3D printer, and the ONLY 3d printer that can do something to this detail and smoothness is the formlabs 1+ which is like $3,000. And it’ll be like putting together a jigsaw puzzle because the printing size is pretty small, good luck mounting it if it’s in an action poze.
With the 3D printer, you take on the same cost every time you print out a new one also. So if you want one for your mom and each member of your team and your top contributors, well bye bye money. With my clay you can pay someone $800 to make a cast of it and pour it in wax or resin, which are so cheap they might as well be free, or even metal! Let’s see you 3D print some metal Bruh.
For shipping I’m going to create you a sturdy box out of wood to prevent any shift/breaking, and I’m going to use fishing wire to secure the limbs, but when you do receive it, you skype me to see if the damage sucks. and if it has some ripping in the clay… well its clay… I can help you fix it over skype. You don’t have to be able to sculpt the way I sculpt to repair a stress line.
The turntable, I do have a tripod but I am the poor. So I pawned my camera that can attach to it. I’m trying to make some cash over the break and if I make enough I’ll buy a new camera, for now, HDR settings on my cellphone will have to suffice.
You may know how to sculpt characters, you may not, you may know as much or more about proportions anatomy and creating a dynamic pose as me, or you may not, but if you are superman with a 3D printer and all of the patience to do this, to this level, in 3D printing, go for it I’d like to see the result. But, If you can’t keep up with me in these skills. If you don’t have the patience to do it yourself. If you want a novelty you can look back on for years to come. Commission me. I’m cheaper than 3D printing. I’m more skilled than some other digital character sculptures and I’m passionate about what I do.
[Drops mic]
Despite your points being right about a Cast being more cost effective. You can indeed 3D print metal. You can 3D print Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Steel, Sandstone, Porcelain, all with different smoothing finishes… The list goes on! Needless to say its expensive. Not as cost effective as your solution.
I hope you get orders or the motivation/funds to do more work.
You seem really low on funds based on your earlier comment
Why don’t you offer one of the services you have used for commercial games to build up funds to inject more money into this?