Opportunities For Texture Creators.

Hi Guys.

I am currently contracting a number of texture sites and artists from "outside" of Second Life and wondered if there may be a few people here who might be interested.
I do not want to post too much information here as I am unsure whether I would be breaking the forums TOS or accused of spamming.

But we are contracted currently with Ambientlight, Textureworks,Jaguarwoman.com, 3D Render and are in negotations with other "big" texture houses which I would prefer not to disclose here until its official.

If any of you are interested and would like to see the full letter and a copy of the contract which details sales figures, potential market and the benefits of joining our business which has 160,000 repeat customers please feel free to drop me a line at liz_gallagher2006@yahoo.com

Many Thanks for your attention.

Actually Stevie, we have been trading for 4 years in Second Life recruiting arists from in world alone.
But we have advanced to the degree now I feel confident in approaching outside texture houses and artists.
SL is becoming more and more well known for its potential but like most things it pays to be there at the beggining and we was.
We have a solid customer base of 160,000 repeat customers who depend on us for their content creation within SL both personally and commercially.
FF textures only play about 10 - 15% of our stock.

Had a good response from here and I am glad we found some "gems" who have so much raw talent but need help in terms of SL and the kind of textures a typical SL customer would purchase.

Quote
roseenglish wrote: Why dont " you " create a site?

Well, it wouldn't be a bad idea if you were established enough to hit the ground running with a substantial texture pack library, had the traffic, and could unite an army of texture authors behind it.....like you, FF, Spiral Graphics, etc.....

Quote
roseenglish wrote: Its a tough competition though, what with TS, Renderosity CP and I beleieve some 3D program have started their own site now too.

Another reason why it would be hard for an individual to break into it without the substantial resources of these other established sites.....but FF is certainly in an excellent position to do it.....and they have a nice little army of authors who would love to be making money off of their work here.....while helping the success of this program.....

Quote
roseenglish wrote: FF already have traffic so it would be easier for them.

Exactly!!! It doesn't make any sense at all for FF to sit on the sidelines when their program and authors are creating alot of the textures that are being sold at all these other sites. That money could be kept here and used to benefit both authors and FF.....as well as used to create an open-ended incentive program that would bring in constant droves of new authors and revitalize existing authors who have become very skilled with the program.....

FF is also thinking about new EULA restrictions that will allow authors to protect straight texture results from being resold in texture packs at all these other sites without their permission or some kind of agreement. The new EULA restrictions will help authors feel a little better about submitting their textures here.....but really isn't going to amount to squat without giving authors the means to take advantage of their newly tangible result copyrights "here". Thus, authors will end up not submitting their texture filters here and leaving to take better advantage of their work at other sites.....which is already happening.....

Quote
roseenglish wrote: Now we are contracted or about to be to quite a number of outside texture houses I feel its a good move to take this next step.

It is a good move.....

Quote
roseenglish wrote: If there are enough people here interested we could add a Filter Forge section but to be honest it would be best if they were displayed wiith other textures.

There probably are authors here who would be interested in it.....but I think it would be quite a task to unite most of the "FF-Faithful Core Constituancy" here.....and I can imagine that FF wouldn't want that happening because it would mean that authors would be withholding their texture filters and not submitting them here.....so I would think that it would be a conflict of interest to FF.....

Personally, I haven't submitted any of my own texture filters to the FF library because I don't want them being resold in texture packs at other sites. There is currently no way to protect them.....and even if there is protection provided by the new EULA, I still don't want to waste any of my time policing sites and trying to protect them.....

I now have at least a couple hundred unsubmitted texture filters that are unique to anything in the FF library.....more than enough to start my own texture pack business.....but I make alot more money using them in my art and achitectural renderings than I ever could by using them to sell texture packs.....

I would consider submitting them at FF if they decided to implement some kind of royalty-based 50/50 texture pack program.....by which I could diffuse resellers at other sites because the texture packs from my filters would already be offered here.....make some pocket change.....and most importantly, contribute to the success of this program.....all at the same time.....

Not to sound greedy.....but it is in my own best self-interests to see this program continue to grow and be enhanced.....with features and filters.....that I can use to advance my own work.....

Since my texture pack ideas seem to be falling on deaf ears here the only other way I can help is to use my high usage reward points to give away copies of the program to potential contributors.....

Anywho.....I can't make a move unless my "partners in crime" here are in full agreement with it..... LOL....

I strongly disagree. The filter forge developers would be fools to implement any sort of texture pack program. It's a rubbish idea and destroys some of the greatest features of filterforge. People don't pay $99 for a basic version of filterforge so they can then be nickel and dime'd to death to get certain filters or textures. The single greatest appeal for this program for those users is that they have a library of free filters they can use.

I view withholding filters as some sort of bargaining chip a bit childish. If you're hoarding your filters, go ahead and continue to do so, but don't complain here that you aren't getting handouts in terms of website development and texture royalties. You've likely already gotten upwards of $400 dollars in charity when you factor the cost of the professional version and its future upgrades, if you want more money then go ahead take the time and effort to do a website yourself.

I'd venture that most people submit filters here in the hopes of getting a free program or upgrade. Those of you that stuck around beyond 5 HU points are an awesome bunch because you are donating your time and efforts to the community, helping a great program and company. But you shouldn't expect any favors from filterforge because of your charity they haven't asked you to stick around and they have no responsibility to do anything more.

roseenglish, I apologize for hijacking your thread with this, but I've been getting frustrated with this "doomsday" talk that seems to keep popping up. It's like the stock market: the more everyone continues saying there's a lack of good filters being released the more everyone will start believing it. I find trying to rally everyone into "boycotting" filter submissions extraordinarily against the march of progress and flying in the face of a good-hearted contribution based community.

StevieJ,

With regards to "feature destroyed" what I am referring to is the ability to render things from filterforge and be worry free about the way it is used. When you change the EULA and begin putting restrictions on the filters or textures on this site it drastically lowers the appeal to an interested customer. I wouldn't have given filterforge a second thought if I had to pay for textures from it or to fret about licensing issues with everything I generated.

Quote
I would consider submitting them at FF if they decided to implement some kind of royalty-based 50/50 texture pack program.....

This is the sort of stuff that scares me Stevo! I've seen others (see the link below for another example) state similar things- that they are considering withholding filters until a resolution is found. I understand the issues some are having with fellow forgers including the renders in texturepacks, but I don't think that Filter Forge Inc. has the responsibility to protect copyright in these cases. It's like telling Adobe to manage copyrights for everything with Photoshop. Everyone that tics the box and agrees when submitting a filter is made fully aware of the consequences of that choice.

Quote
Anywho.....I can't make a move unless my "partners in crime" here are in full agreement with it..... Wink Big grin LOL....

Smiley faces aside, I interpreted this as a call to join some sort of protesting club, I know it's probably a joke but it still raises concerns in my mind.

I'm aware of the proposed EULA changes and have already posted my thoughts against the matter. My Post Here. Proposed here is the key word. Vlad himself made sure to reiterate that these changes have not been implemented. (And wisely so, since changing EULA's midstream is generally frowned upon)

About the anonymous poster: Why would anyone would care about you putting your name in the filter titles; all that matters are the terms in the keywords box, even if the name isn't that great filters can still be found easily.

We're both in the same boat here Stevie, we both want to help Filterforge because we both realize the great software and community that it is. I really do believe though that changing the tried and true manner of things here isn't a wise choice and could end up hurting the sales and opinion of the company.

*DING DING!! - ROUND 2!*

Seriously guys. I can see both sides here.
As a purchaser of FF the earlier version I am happy with but V2 which will not allow me to sell anything I create using the filters is of no interest.

It depends on FF target market.

If their customers are interested in creation for personal art reasons with no intent of commercial plans then V2 is perfect and they "may" get better filters to work with.
How ever if you create art for commercial projects, V2 is next to useless.

I guess FF are making 2 versions for each of their customer types.

My concern would be the V1's filter options would dwindle away as filter creators choose to create only for the V2 because they resent ( and have every right to ) others gaining financially from their work.

I personally am happy to buy a commercial license from filter authors but my feeling is they either do or don’t want their filters used for commercial purposes regardless of any offers of financial compensation
I won’t be buying v2 because I am a commercial artist.

And I do not know the % of “commercial to personal" users of FF.

Just my 2 cents and what do know?? Haven’t even made a filter!

Quote

StevieJ wrote: but as you know, I would like to see FF "take the bull by the horns", set up a program here, keep the money here, build a texture pack "shopping mall" all under one roof that is rivalled by no other, and take all those texture pack customers who are dispersed throughout all those other sites and bring them (and their money) here.....to the further benefit of FF and its' authors......

Why dont you write to them Stevie.
Or call them?
Its what I had to do with texture websites. If I wanted someone to take me seriously I have to approach it seriously.
You don't need a "gang" of you to aproach them, FF are business people if they see the idea is a lucrative one and something that would motivate the authors then at the very least they can thank you at the best they can ask you to organise it.

YOU take the bull by the horns! lol