{"id":1127,"date":"2010-03-22T15:44:30","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T15:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/?page_id=1127"},"modified":"2011-03-04T03:41:09","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T03:41:09","slug":"turbosquid-primer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mrbluesummers.com\/1127\/3d-tutorials\/turbosquid-primer-2","title":{"rendered":"Turbosquid Primer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this extended tutorial, I’ll be showing you how to earn passive income through Turbosquid<\/a> (or any content syndication platform).\u00a0 Uploading your content for sale has many benefits.\u00a0 The most obvious is that it can earn you extra money on the side.\u00a0 While it won’t be very much early on, if you upload a lot of quality content you’ll start earning a respectable monthly sum.\u00a0 Besides that, you also get your name into the industry and it’s another good reason to practice and hone your skills.<\/p>\n

\"If<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Posting<\/a><\/p>\n

We<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Part<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 1 | Understanding what Turbosquid is- and what it isn't<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For those who aren’t familiar with Turbosquid, it’s a platform where studios and artists go to take shortcuts in their work.\u00a0 Suppose that it takes 4 hours to make a good vending machine prop for a level in a video game.\u00a0 If your designer costs $25\/hour, then it starts making more sense to buy the object online at $39.99 and get it instantly than to build it from scratch for $100 and four hours.<\/p>\n

However, Turbosquid has its share of problems:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. People often get the wrong idea about how much work it takes to make money through selling content,<\/li>\n
  2. building content isn’t easy, and<\/li>\n
  3. too many artists don’t prepare good product pages once they’ve painstakingly created a product.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This tutorial will guide you through these three major sticking points.\u00a0 I’ll start off by guiding you into the right mindset for uploading content.\u00a0 Then I’ll give you a walk-through of how I built a cellular phone for my portfolio.\u00a0 Finally, I’ll show you how I created the Turbosquid product page for it; including some tips on how you can maximize your revenue by making your product most visible to the right people.<\/p>\n

    Setting Expectations<\/h5>\n

    The first thing you need to check before you even think of uploading something is about whether it’s actually saleable.\u00a0 There are a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t<\/em> make your content available for sale:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. You don’t own the intellectual property,<\/li>\n
    2. No one would buy a product for that level of quality, or<\/li>\n
    3. The work product was too specific<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Allow me to elaborate before I’ve completely crushed your ambition.\u00a0 First, make double sure that you have the rights to make money with the content you created (or are about to create).\u00a0 If the work was done for a client, get written consent.\u00a0 If it’s identical to a real-life product or prototype, make sure you’ve incorporated sufficient originality.\u00a0 While I’m not telling you to do anything illegal, it’s always a good idea to see what everyone else is doing.\u00a0 For example, Apple will not track you down for building and selling a 3d model of the iPhone (partly evidenced by the sheer number of them already uploaded for sale).\u00a0 On the other hand, you’d be in a world of hurt of you build and sell a textured\/rigged model of Wall-E<\/a> from the Pixar movie.\u00a0 In part, you can tell because no one else has this posted for sale, but also because Wall-e was originally a 3d model and if Pixar wanted it sold, they would have posted it for sale.\u00a0 Next, do a reality check and make sure you’ve made something that’s useful to someone.\u00a0 An intricately detailed model of an off-brand laptop from 1992 is not going to sell as well as a low-poly American Humvee<\/a>.\u00a0 Similarly, you shouldn’t be wasting your time uploading a sphere on a cylinder and calling it a tree<\/a>.\u00a0 That’s as close to a sin as you can get.<\/p>\n

      The Worst Part of All<\/h5>\n

      Now that we’ve gotten the basics out of the way, allow me to make something as clear as possible.\u00a0 You will not get rich immediately using Turbosquid<\/strong>.\u00a0 Say it out loud if necessary.\u00a0 It’s a fact, and if you do <\/em>get rich, then send me an e-mail<\/a> because you belong with the other Gods of our field (like Vitaly Bulgarov<\/a>, Grant Warwick<\/a>, and Ben Mathis<\/a> to name a few).<\/p>\n

      The Money is There for the Taking<\/h5>\n

      Now that I’ve successfully crushed your spirit\u00a0 remember that just because you can’t buy a diamond-encrusted swimming pool, doesn’t\u00a0 mean you won’t make anything at all.\u00a0 There are many artists who make a respectable living building and uploading content to Turbosquid.\u00a0 I haven’t become a millionaire yet, but I have<\/em> made enough money on Turbosquid to buy a Nintendo DS, a few airplane tickets to visit the family, and a several cases of beer.\u00a0 This extra cash has the wonderful tendency to sneak up on you- suddenly there’s extra cash in your account that wasn’t there before.\u00a0 And when you bring a case of beer that you bought with surprise money, you’re the toast of the party and you feel twice as good about it.<\/p>\n

      The Plan<\/h4>\n

      Let’s get started.\u00a0 On the surface, the roadmap is very simple:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Build Content<\/li>\n
      2. Upload Content<\/li>\n
      3. …<\/li>\n
      4. Profit<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Unfortunately, the execution of these steps can be difficult. The best way to approach Turbosquid is with content already prepared, or with another purpose in mind.\u00a0 In all honesty, I’m doing this cellular phone project primarily for my portfolio, then for this article, and then finally for Turbosquid revenue.\u00a0 If you approach a project with the sole intention of posting it to Turbosquid, you won’t make enough money to justify the work and you’ll feel frustrated and disappointed.\u00a0 It’s just like a relationship- it’s hard to make love work when you walk in expecting love.\u00a0 Meet someone wanting friendship, and let it go from there.<\/p>\n

        Thus, if you already have content ready for posting, you can jump ahead to the later steps.\u00a0 For those of you walking in without any existing work, let’s take this one piece at a time.
        \nTake a look at the list below, where I’ve broken out the entire process into 5 steps:<\/p>\n

        5 Steps to Turbosquid Revenue<\/h5>\n
          \n
        1. Decide what to build<\/li>\n
        2. Build that content<\/li>\n
        3. Package the content<\/li>\n
        4. Build a Turbosquid product<\/li>\n
        5. Lather, rinse, repeat<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          I’ll be addressing each of these steps to show you (as literally as possible) how to earn passive income through Turbosquid.<\/p>\n

          Decide What to Build<\/h4>\n

          Before we get too far into this section remember that if you’ve already created the content, there’s virtually no harm in just uploading it. Unless it’s really ghastly work<\/a>, you’ll always make a dollar or two if you price it right. If this is the case, skip ahead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

          If you’re just starting out, try browsing around Turbosquid for obscure objects like specific props, animals, or plants. Virtually every category of content has been heavily fleshed out, and it’s easy to feel like you’ll be buried in it all. But don’t worry- good content rises to the top, so if you’ve produced a quality product at a reasonable price, it will <\/em>get noticed. Remember, too, that you’re looking for both a product and a price range. We’ll be building a cellular phone in the next section, and there are hundreds of them on Turbosquid. However, at this price range and quality level, there are only about a dozen of them- which will give me a good shot at making a few dollars.<\/p>\n

          Bonus Points<\/strong>
          \nI heard from a reliable source that if you really want to impress a buyer (i.e. for repeat business), start off right by setting the units and sizing of your scene to something realistic. Use imperial units (feet or inches) or metric units (centimeters or meters)- never generic units. Also, make sure your numbers are realistic- nothing gets buyers aggravated more than having to rescale assets from 1.2 million generic units to a more reasonable 30 meters. Getting this really wrong can mean returns, and getting this perfectly right builds your reputation as a talented, detail-oriented seller!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

          Another good place to start is Onno Van-Braam’s website, the-blueprints.com<\/a>. Pick a blueprint of something you like (a tank, a PSP, or human ribcage) and build it according to the blueprints. The best part of this is that it’s free! You get excellent practice working like this, too.<\/p>\n

          I’m starting off with some photographic blueprints from Onno’s site. You can download it here<\/a>, though you might want to pick a different blueprint and try to personalize the project a little bit. Just right-click the image, and save it to a folder. We’ll bring it into 3dsMax and use it as our guide. You should already be familiar with setting up blueprints in 3dsMax<\/a>, so I won’t go into that. I prefer to make instances of my object and use a static viewport rather than create several blueprint planes and manipulate a single object.<\/p>\n

          \"Getting<\/a><\/p>\n

          Starting off right means positioning the photographic blueprints.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          The image below shows some of my initial steps in creating the cell phone. I’ve started by adding some tessellation and getting the profile of the phone started.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Starting on the phone by modeling its profile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          The phone has these silver ridges along the sides. They’re going to be hard to get textured, but that’s not a problem right now. I’ve added some edges to help follow those contours.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Adding some edges along the perimeter of the phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          In the image below, I’m using 3dsMax’s chamfer tool to get some extra edges to create depth in the phone. I’ve also added some edges along the corners to start smoothing things out. I’m anticipating adding geometry for the screen and the plug, but not for the phone’s buttons. We’ll have to do that with a heavy bump map.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          The edges are chamfered, and the phone is taking on some depth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          The next step is to keep adding geometry and moving things around. The image below shows my progress at 430 triangles, in part because I’ve started using the symmetry modifier. You can also see the new geometry around the screen that will eventually be extruded inward.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          The symmetry modifier makes modeling easier- use it whenever possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          In the image below you can see that we’re very close to the final geometry for the front and back. Notice that I’m completing all of my edge loops to prevent 5-sided polygons (finishing them into polar coordinates, but we do what we have to). I’m sticking to box modeling as much as possible to prevent holes.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          The front, back, and profile of the phone are getting close to complete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          All that’s left in terms of modeling is the top and bottom. The top was easy because the geometry of the phone just curves in a smooth transition from back to front. The bottom, however, has a microphone and charging jack. The mic will have to be bump-mapped, but the charging plug is pretty noticeable. I’ll add some geometry there.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          We've got great geometry on the bottom, so adding cuts for the plug should be no problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          It looks like I’m pretty much done with the modeling portion. Aside from a few minor touch-ups during the smoothing groups and UVW phases, there isn’t much more work to be done on this model.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          After a little more mesh refinement, it looks like we're nearly done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          The next step was to begin cleaning up the model in preparation for a Game-Ready Submission<\/a>. For starters, we need to make sure that there aren’t any holes or n-sided polygons. Checking for holes is easy- just go into your border select mode, and hit Select All. If nothing is selected, there are no holes. Otherwise, you’ll need to double-check your mesh flow.<\/p>\n

          Checking for ambiguous polygons is a little more difficult. Eye-balling it will work for simple objects but it can get tedious very quickly. Consider using the following script to select non-quad polygons (only works on Editable Poly objects):<\/p>\n

          face_selection = #{}
          \nbase_obj = $.baseobject
          \nnum_faces = polyop.getNumFaces base_obj<\/p>\n

          for f = 1 to num_faces do
          \n(
          \nnum_face_verts = polyop.getFaceDeg base_obj f
          \nif num_face_verts != 4 do face_selection[f] = true
          \n)<\/p>\n

          polyop.setFaceSelection base_obj face_selection
          \nmax modify mode
          \nmodPanel.setCurrentObject base_obj
          \nsubobjectlevel = 4<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

          Below, you’ll see that I have a few triangles, but only one 5-sided polygon. Guess I didn’t close that loop yet- it’s a good thing we checked!<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Here you can see my 3 and 5-sided polygons. Only the 5-sided ones must be changed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          Now that the model’s geometry is compliant, we need to make it quality compliant. I’ve stripped away all smoothing groups in the object and started adding them back one at a time. The different smoothing groups in 3dsMax help create artificial creases similar to what you might see in a mesh-smoothed object. This carries over to the video game engine, so good smoothing groups is one of the many things you’ll need to include in the model.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Building up smoothing groups can be hard, but yields excellent results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          Below you can see a render of the completed smoothing groups. Doesn’t it look super?<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Clean smoothing groups makes the object look more detailed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          The next step is one of the most arduous in all of 3d graphics; UVW mapping. While the phone’s model is quite simple, the UVWs are pretty complex. We have orthogonal shots of the phone, but because it’s so clean, we’ll have to work with a number of techniques to get it to look right. For starters, I’ve gone into Adobe Photoshop and combined the various parts of the blueprint into a tight texture map. The only tools used here were layers and the clone tool.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          The various parts of the blueprint were stitched together so that I only have to create 2 UVW clusters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          Below, you can see that I’m getting started with setting the UVWs of the phone. I selected the front face (buttons) and the bottom, and used a planar mapping. The manipulation needed here was getting the bottom of the object (where the plug is) properly mapped. On the other hand, the back, sides, and top were remarkably easy. I only laid out half of the phone. Since the phone was created using a symmetry modifier, and the texture was symmetrical as well it was a quick process.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Starting with the basics- a planar mapping.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          During the next few stages, I worked with both the UVWs and the diffuse map of the phone. The key was to get a blend between changes in the UVW mapping and changes in the diffuse map’s layout.<\/p>\n

          Whenever possible, try to duplicate UVW coordinates (though it’ll ruin texture baking so be careful). In this case, I detached the geometry, applied a symmetry modifier, and attached and welded the objects back together. Then I just pulled the two symmetrical UVW clusters apart and positioned them so that they were back to normal. No overlapping UVWs, and the job was done in half as long!<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Move and space, move and space. That's what UVWs are about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          After a few hours, I had my phone complete. The UVWs were how I wanted them, and the diffuse map was complete.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          Finished Diffuse map and UVW mapping. Looking good, Hollywood!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          Unfortunately, the material isn’t complete without a bump map and specular map. These two can be quickly generated from Adobe Photoshop. I used several Photoshop filters as part of this process, so I won’t go into the details. Suffice it to say that I made heavy use of the skills I talked about in my Photoshop Skills Monday Movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          When properly handled, a diffuse map can yield bump and specular maps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          And that’s the rundown. Below you’ll find the completed object after a quick render in 3dsMax. While it’s a little unrealistic to take a render, I’m hoping to include both renders and OpenGL screenshots in order to appeal to multiple audiences. We’ll talk more about that when we’re putting together the Turbosquid product page.<\/p>\n

          \"Caption\"<\/a><\/p>\n

          A quick test render using the materials I created for the phone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

          Package the Content<\/h4>\n

          The hardest part is out of the way, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Now we have to export and convert our product into as many formats as possible in order to make it easy for our customers to use it. Delete all of your peripheral objects like blueprints, helper shapes, etc. Sometimes users like to merge .max files together, and the last thing you want is to clutter up their scene with modeling slag. Don’t forget to put the object at the origin, collapse it to an editable mesh, and apply a Reset xForms modifier<\/a>. If you’re exporting to an object format (like .3ds), make sure you’re exporting only the object<\/em>. Below is a quick list we’ll be using:<\/p>\n

          Textures<\/strong><\/p>\n