How many of you earn a buck with C3D?

Just wundering: how many of you earn a buck with C3D? Like professionally? All you forum members are using C3D for fun/exitement/learning/teaching or whatever reason?
 
I don't think you will get as many answers from people who use c3d professionally. Not that they don't exist, but some of them don't comment here very much. Another thing is that at least some use Cheetah for rather a narrow kind of work, like modeling and texturing only and later use the model in unreal or so. One of the professionals has some pictures in the gallery here. He creates Characters and images for children's books, for which Cheetah is more than enough.

Second: some people do use different software, one for this, one for that. What can be done in Cheetah is done here, some other stuff in other software suited better for that. So while they earn money with Cheetah, they wouldn't without the other software they have in use.

Third: Cheetah is good software, very stable, in some parts really a work of genius. I admire Martin for this. In the end, though, Cheetah isn't really aimed at the professional market. Too much "can't do". For example the lack of SSS means you can forget rendering some things realistically, which shouldn't be a (big) problem in Archviz.

Fourth: Some professionals point out that they can't use blender professionally without paying for additional plug-ins which sometimes can't be used anymore in the next blender update.

Sixth: It's actually not important if others make a buck or two with Cheetah. It's the question if you can in your intended line of work. That's important in several ways.

Let's be honest, you can't compete with the top archviz professionals. In another forum some complained (I don't even know if they belong to that top) that the field changed very much for them in the last few years and they don't have any projects anymore that don't need billions (!) of polygons. Obviously such things are out of reach for you.

You can't compete with some of the cheaper firms who deliver shitty quality but cheap (they let work some underpaid 3d professionals in India or so for them).

So you have to find your niche, where you certainly produce better quality than that which comes out of any CAD-Solution. But you can be cheaper than the top notch firms. Is there a market? I think so, but I don't know that much about that field, so my opinion is to take with a grain of salt. Can you do it with C3d? Maybe. One of Cheetah's shortcomings is: no fur, meaning in your case: no easy grass.

One of the specialized archviz-renderers is Lumion. There you just load the CAD-Model (or 3d model from other software), use some materials, props and so on and render. The quality is really, really high. See: Lumion in your language.

Do you have a chance to get into archviz? It's possible. You already know someone who maybe is willing to help you and maybe can introduce you to some architects. Look at websites from architects, and if you can reach the same level of quality, they may be your future customers.

For the first step at least Cheetah suffices: Learning.

I think that in this field Cheetah shouldn't be bad, and in the end, you could come up with some renders that really shine (you have to wait forever till it's rendered, though). But first you have to reach that level yourself, and then look for the software you really need. This could be Cheetah, maybe Blender or Lumion, who knows, probably rather a combination of different tools. But I believe that Cheetah can be better than what we have seen here until now (for me some shortcomings just put it out of competition, but I'm not into archviz).

But whatever you do, you have to be competent in your field, meaning you have to understand it, be able to model fast and learn as much about it as you can, meaning not just the technical or artistic aspects but as much as you can about architecture itself. A book or two will help. So an architect can talk to you in his language.

(and sometimes it's astonishing with what people can get away with and get paid for it because they know how to sell their stuff. Something I'm rather not that good).
 
* Some (fairly old) random stuff from my dusty archives. Those were models for academic / didactic / web purposes.
* I don´t greatly care for realism, which, presumably, will be mandatory in your projects for the short term.
* I think that Cheetah 3D is capable of most things you require for arch viz at the envisaged level of business enterprise. As Hasdrubal points out above, certain functions which are currently missing (sub-surface scattering, volumetrics, et al) are not in the tool box for arch modelling, anyway.
ArtNouveau_VIE.jpg

HmBalkon_VIE.jpg
KamSteinhof_OWagner.jpg
StCharles_VIE.jpg
StMichaelis_Hamburg.jpg
Villa_Müllerova.jpg

* I have also been involved (for many years by now) in providing analytical models on the structure of the Sagrada Familia for an architectural faculty. This nicely covers a whack of the €s expended on my annual business plus holiday in Barcelona.
Screenshot 2020-11-05 at 18.11.36.png
 
I use Cheetah as one of the tools in my toolbox that I use to earn a living. I wouldn't put my 3D work up again many heavily CGi focused professionals but C3D meets my requirements most of the time. I have however, wished for volumetrics a few times (I was forced to use Blender for one project requiring an object made of clouds), and SSS many other times too.

--shift studio.
 
Lumion looks like nice software, but it's Windows only and very expensive.

It wasn't a software recommendation but an example of the quality you have to reach. Some 1700 Euros isn't that much for an architect. With Lumion he can render out such things himself quite easily. Where a graphic designer should be better is simply composition, color, details to create a better image in the end. But Charless will have to deliver something in that league.

(In the future, though, it's well possible that he will use something like that or even Lumion)
 
I work in computer graphics and UI frameworks for automotive embedded systems. There is a portfolio on my website with examples. On a side note, all the newer images on my blog that aren't photos or vector graphics on my website are also made with Cheetah 3D.

Professionally, I use Cheetah 3D for a variety of things:

• Preparation of simple "3D" models to be used in embedded UIs (most of them are actually 2D, with the vertex positions directly mapping to screen coordinates and the third dimension reserved for some arbitrary vertex property that's messed with in the shader.
• Prototyping shaders and composing directly on models.
• Hand-scribbling on textures to mark UV spaces and spaces in texture atlases using an iPad Pro and cheetah 3D's excellent texture painting. (Later these textures will be edited in Affinity Photo or Photoshop)
• Sometimes car instrument clusters have 3D vehicle visualizations for parking and driver assistance. Stuff like this is very similar to game workflows (UV unwrapping etc.).
• Pre-rendering stuff for UIs (or preparing stuff that's then rendered in a different renderer).
• Modifying models for UX visualization in VR
• Creating technical drawings and animations to illustrate things (e.g. documentation or patents)
• Viewing and manipulating CAD data of vehicle interiors to understand occlusion, reflection, reachability etc.

When I started working in automotive I was a Maya geek, but a member of my team mentioned Cheetah 3D and it quickly became my new favorite. Maya is built on huge ancient frameworks. Every interaction is slow and it still doesn't support retina displays. Maya is also insanely buggy, keeps crashing and some features are just plain broken.

Moving to Cheetah 3D was a revelation. My workflows got sped up tremendously and it's very fast in regards of the things that really matter.

In the last years I still used Maya, mostly for Python automation. I also used Blender for things like baking maps that Cheetah 3D doesn't support. (Please, add support for baking normal maps! :D).

But Cheetah 3D is my 95% 3D package and yes, I use it professionally.
 
My primary use of Cheetah 3D, since discovering it 10 years ago, has been for professional use.
The first project was modeling replicas of my client's products in C3D, and importing them into Unity 3D for interactive demos.
I chose C3D for its simple user interface.

I find the C3D forum to very informative and friendly, so I'll post non-work related images. I enjoy doing small fun personal projects so that I can improve my skills and understanding of C3D.
 
I'm one who uses C3D to earn a living, and have been for quite a few years. I'm not on the forum a lot any more, because most of what I do is repetitive, so not having to learn new techniques very often. This forum is fantastic, though, with all of the very helpful people here!
 
I have used C3D to earn a buck (beyond the money I make from Learn 3D) but as my seniority increases, my specialization has likewise increased to the point where I only get to use C3D for side projects.

I managed a project with insane deadlines years ago where the artist did fantastic work in Maya, but the client needed last minute re-renders and I could not reach the artist. So I re-rendered everything (both the changed and unchanged scenes and animations in C3D) in a matter of hours, the results were just as nice as the Maya renders, and everyone was happy.

The product was absolutely awful.
 
I have used C3D to earn a buck (beyond the money I make from Learn 3D) but as my seniority increases, my specialization has likewise increased to the point where I only get to use C3D for side projects.

I managed a project with insane deadlines years ago where the artist did fantastic work in Maya, but the client needed last minute re-renders and I could not reach the artist. So I re-rendered everything (both the changed and unchanged scenes and animations in C3D) in a matter of hours, the results were just as nice as the Maya renders, and everyone was happy.

The product was absolutely awful.
Your mean is maya awful ?
 
Just seen this post as was searching for a way to animate hand writing (seen a great post about animating a vine so useful).

I have used Cheetah for commercial projects for about 6 years starting with simple site plans and mock ups for events spaces and 3D model concepts of temporary buildings for everts. If anyone visited Summer By The River / Bar By The River at The Scoop by London Bridge in 2018 and 2019 and saw the large bar complex and video screen housing, the original concepts were designed in Cheetah 3D, animated walkthrough and layout were approved before the architects came on board.

I also use it for TV title design and virtual sets for TV shows shot on green screen with two TV shows going out per week using Cheetah 3D virtual sets (that are customised for each episode).. Also for adverts memes / social media graphics, Am just designing a new set for a new TV show that goes out in June. Have designed an event space for a Fashion Catwalk Show for an event in London this September.

As someone not trained in 3D but working on micro budgets for TV production and design, Cheetahs gentle learning curve and logical workflow has been brilliant. When I started trying to learn it for fun only, I never thought I would use it for commercial work, When asked I always recommend Cheetah to anyone starting out or on a budget as you can create some amazing professional results.

I've attached some concept mockups that were made for the London Bridge project plus a couple of YT videos of the 2019 event so you can see what it looked like in real life plus an example recent TV show.

None of my work in going to be PIXAR quality but it's perfectly ok for the use it's being put to taking into account how little time is allowed for each project when having to do filming / editing graphic design etc. as well.

Hope this may inspire somebody to use Cheetah 3D for real world work.

Recent TV Show example

Bar By The River / Summer By The River
 

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Just seen this post as was searching for a way to animate hand writing (seen a great post about animating a vine so useful).

I have used Cheetah for commercial projects for about 6 years starting with simple site plans and mock ups for events spaces and 3D model concepts of temporary buildings for everts. If anyone visited Summer By The River / Bar By The River at The Scoop by London Bridge in 2018 and 2019 and saw the large bar complex and video screen housing, the original concepts were designed in Cheetah 3D, animated walkthrough and layout were approved before the architects came on board.

I also use it for TV title design and virtual sets for TV shows shot on green screen with two TV shows going out per week using Cheetah 3D virtual sets (that are customised for each episode).. Also for adverts memes / social media graphics, Am just designing a new set for a new TV show that goes out in June. Have designed an event space for a Fashion Catwalk Show for an event in London this September.

As someone not trained in 3D but working on micro budgets for TV production and design, Cheetahs gentle learning curve and logical workflow has been brilliant. When I started trying to learn it for fun only, I never thought I would use it for commercial work, When asked I always recommend Cheetah to anyone starting out or on a budget as you can create some amazing professional results.

I've attached some concept mockups that were made for the London Bridge project plus a couple of YT videos of the 2019 event so you can see what it looked like in real life plus an example recent TV show.

None of my work in going to be PIXAR quality but it's perfectly ok for the use it's being put to taking into account how little time is allowed for each project when having to do filming / editing graphic design etc. as well.

Hope this may inspire somebody to use Cheetah 3D for real world work.

Recent TV Show example

Bar By The River / Summer By The River
Wow those are great! Thanks for sharing. I do some freelance work and sometimes use C3d to help with that. There was one guy I designed a bunch of trade show booths for, and was able to show the design better in 3d.
 
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