Follow the link above to access the links to the first group of 10 or so models.
You will see a section on the left side navigation panel that will say "3D Models (Download Link).
I’ve started gathering up models I’ve had sitting on my hard drive over the years. I’ve decided to start sharing them free of charge, with the community of developers. I will be adding in groups over the next few days, I do have quite a bit of city and roadside props to pull up and post. All models are in .OBJ format to ensure maximum portability to your 3D app, and each one has the UVs already laid out, feel free to tweak as you wish. Please use these models with or without credit to me, I am releasing them openly to the general public for unlimited commercial and non-commercial purposes.
It would be cool if you shot me an email some time to show me how a model has helped!
I’m not some corporation. I’m one guy putting in a good amount of work preparing models to give away for free! I want people to come by my Facebook and for it to end up being a huge repository of absolutely free models! I am not making money from any of it, and in return for hours of work into models all I ask is for a simple “like” on Facebook. Facebook is where I personally choose to keep my repository and the people I would like to potentially network with! I’m most definitely not a spammer and I will continue to update all my thread posts…I have to, I have many more free models to come! The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I feel like your just being a troll all alone in these forums. I’m sorry you feel like that and waste your energy.
Yep, I agree with JamesArndt. Dude thanks for providing these free models and yes your work is appreciated. Asking people to visit your facebook is imho a small price to pay for getting the models.
I added up some new free assets this morning…I thought I would share the tree models and textures with the community in here. They are generally mobile spec, but could be reduced most definitely. If you look into the assets you will see a new Pine Tree LOD set that I’ve put up as well. It actually consists of a LOD0 model (hero/closeup) and an LOD1 (far off on the mountain)…the LOD1 is really a side render of the LOD0 (rendered with alpha channel) and then that alpha texture applied to about 4-8 planes of geometry. It’s a neat technique and I used it on some of my work on the Wii with great results. These are 4 screens of some trees, but I uploaded other assets such as a Pine Tree and a neat looking Victorian type Lamppost model/texture. I hope folks enjoy!
As always follow the link to access the models: Redirecting...
I don’t get why people are giving free stuff, no offense JamesArndt. I mean giving stuff for free = wasting your time. But more important is that it lower all 3D market… Which really suxx. Now most of people expect to get free stuff on internet. They don’t even care looking for artist anymore and giving them real paid work => How can you expect artists to live from 3D then, means you too lol. All user that are downloading your contents will now never pay for it, because that’s what they expect now from you : free.
Even if they are very very cheap, 3D stuff should never be free…
Anyway, sorry about that trolling, it’s just something i can’t undersantd ^^. It’s like you are killing your own buisness…
There will always be free stuff. If you can’t compete with someone giving models away for free, then you need to up your game, and/or offer something they don’t.
There are free games, but people still pay for them. There are programmers willing to work for free, but people still pay me to work for them. You can eat out of a trash can for free, but it hasn’t put Taco Bell out of business yet. Why? Because we offer something they don’t. We’re either better, or more reliable, or faster, or more convenient, or we’re more tailored to your specific needs. If I couldn’t offer more than some kid willing to work for credit then I wouldn’t deserve to be paid for my work.
I haven’t looked at your portfolios, but you’re probably both underselling yourself. I also think you don’t have a clear picture on who your customers are. If your customers are people with utterly non-specific needs who will make use of whatever happens to be lying around for free, well those guys were never going to pay your rent in the first place. Serious professional clients have serious professional needs, and one of those needs is exclusivity. Legal protection and a contract proving who owns the work is another. Konami won’t be scuttling around grabbing tree meshes from Facebook to put in MGS5. Not that these aren’t damn nice tree models, but they just won’t. Stop worrying about competition from people like James who just want to produce some nice work and share it.
And start worrying about talented artists from Iran and India who can massively undercut you because of the exchange rates and favourable market conditions. (Joke)
The trees look great, James. Very good work and very generous of you to share them.
I too am a professional 3d artist and giving things away for free is far from a waste of his time. If he chooses to give his work away for no monetary gain what-so-ever then that’s his choice. How can his actions affect your work, that’s what makes no sense.
I have given stuff away on CG forums in the past and I did it because I love modelling and 3d work, I could have charged for it but I didn’t and that was MY choice.
You can’t accuse someone who does stuff like this for killing our way of living. There will always be work out there and people willing to pay for models and there will always be guys that release their work for free.
Well I don’t blame James for lowering the 3D market, that would be absurd.
Fact is, free stuff lower the value of 3D work, why? Because some people don’t accept to pay for 3d art now, not because a low budget, but because they don’t respect 3D art work. Giving some stuff away for free is not a problem, people could give some free stuff, and keep selling some others too. Trees provided by James seems to be a quality work, and it could get some money from thoses. Of corse he can give them for free too, but selling them at 1$ is like giving for free and it keep the value of his work.
The trap of freemium is already chewing hard on developers. I for one profoundly disagree with this approach. It hurts honest hard working people who at least have the decency to stay within the domain of games. To give away models - and I’ve said it before - just for another click on a fbook page is just …unprofessional behavior. It’s like giving away books ONLY IF people enter a comic book store.
As a developer myself I simply cannot understand why people who get the games from .99 to free still complain and want more (especially if the game is free). I mean, wtf? We’re not public servants. We work just as hard as anybody else. Why do people fall in their butt when free stuff is given away is beyond me. Of course there’s an overwhelming response to that, of course it is. Because it’s using a marketing technique that’s barely moral. It’s a trick. And I guess that part of the whole deal I cannot stand, it’s a trick to get people visit something they maybe don’t need, or already have.
The bottom line is, you are pretending to be a nice guy - and perhaps you are - by giving some art for free - ime not going into the quality of it, it’s not the issue here - when in fact, you force anybody who even wants to take a closer look to, well, pay you in a sense, a visit on facebook.
Perhaps there are people who cannot go to asset store (not that there are’t enough free models) and who disagree with me. A true gift, however, is that coming without a hidden price tag. Put them models in Asset store. They look ok. People will download and thank you.
I am not saying don’t do this anymore or anything, I am merely saying I disagree. Give stuff away for free as much as you want.
I’m not underselling myself I know exactly the value of my work.
But I was not talking about me or James particulary, i was talking generally about 3D market.
And i know there will always be ppl giving stuff for free, of course its artists’ choice to give or not their stuff lol…i just don’t get it. And as i said it’s my opinion.
But this is a general problem whiche takes place in others buisness also, not only 3D…
Its exactly that. If you have a good, decent job and your boss finds a dude who’s willing to work for free, whatever think will happen? Now, seriously.
The whole respect thing is nonsense. No such thing. Here’s how it goes: I need art. I have say 5 bucks. Well, I’ll get this stuff for free and save the 5 dollar bill to buy, I don’t know, pigeon food for my auntie.
Now, where’s the quality bar in all this? If your art budget is 5 dollars (you wont even spend) well, your game will look exactly like that - 5$ or less.
Now try to make a mark with such a game. While good work just stands there, artists turn to other jobs because of this nonsense.
I don’t think the free guys undercut anybody, frankly.
When you compare stuff that’s free with stuff that isn’t, there’s a reason. The stuff that actually makes significant money in the online markets is usually CG-quality material or specialty work, anyhow, like super-detailed models of cars.
For low-poly game art, where if you buy it and 10 other guys buy it, and they all make games with it, then their games all look the same. And then there is the complex pitfalls of who owns the IP.
You can give away spacecraft all day, and it won’t have any impact on the next AAA space game or the market for freelance artists to execute that stuff at all, basically. So I don’t understand why anybody would give a hoot about freebie stuff- it threatens nobody except for the people who try and charge money for utter junk, frankly.
You guys saying free stuff is bad are dumb. Seriously. You CAN’T compare FREE models with PAID ones. HEV, your stuff is AWESOME. There is NO way I can find free stuff as good as yours (or other pros).
If I had the money I wouldn’t be using free stuff (I actually can make my own models, its just an example) I would much rather pay a Professional to do it the way I want. But guess what! Not everybody can afford a Professional Artist. I certainly Can’t. Thats why I learnt to do it myself (wich I enjoy).
If someone is seriously willing to use models for their Paid Project. If they are serious they will PAY for quality stuff.
The people that gives aways models for free do it because:
They are not PROS, so they can’t really sell their stuff. (It’s just not as good)
LOVE modeling, they do it for fun. And ENJOY when someones likes it.
They don’t make Super PRO stuff for free. That would be ridiculus.
And most free models are quick to make, a Pro model can take days (even weeks or months).
I have gave lots of stuff for free when I used to Mod games. Because I enjoyed doing so. (And I can’t sell mods)
Why would I make models for fun, and then throw them away? I would rather have someone doing something usefull with them (If I can’t sell it).
Free stuff is good. It’s not gonna kill 3D Modeling business. Never.
Edit: Like complaining about Unity Free killing the Engine industry. Yeah… right…
thanks coin-god :), but this is not about my work.
Of course there are many assets that aren’t good enough to be sold, and i can understand that some ppl make modelling for fun and are happy if their work can be used in any projetc.
But there are also many good stuff that are given for free. You just have an exemple over there with Jame’s stuff. This is what i disagree with.
Buuuuut anyway it’s just my opinion, sorry to pollute your thread James, and well do what you want
I just used your work as an example HeV.
And even though James stuff isn’t bad, it’s still not the same as Paid work just for YOU. In wich you are free to tell the modeler what you exactly want.
And It isn’t nice to see the same assets on many games.
I know exactly the value of my work.