PSD file for Clothing Creators
I am thinking of publishing a file or a set of files that contain tools for Clothing Designers to use in making our precious SL clothes.
The file would contain:
20 fabric pattern layers - brocade, animal, plaid etc...
3 gloss highlite layers - Latex, Silk, and Satin
3 Shadow layers - Soft, velvet, and hard lighting
Several PSD pattern setsTutorials on how to easily change the color of your item (without using color selection and destroying the original image). A hint would be that I use adjustment layers in conjunction with layer comps and styles.
Please answer the poll and let me know what a good price for you would be.
**This information isn't something that I can just give away - a lot of it I had to learn through various means in the Print, Animation and Design industry. So I am talking about knowledge that one gets in 10 years of doing Graphic Design.
Personally, if your talking purchase price in Lindens, 2,500 to 5,000 L$. AvPainter is 2,495 L$ and seems like a reasonable investment at that pricepoint; the kind of pack you're describing would probably need to be similarly priced.
Because this is going to appeal most to people who are not yet content creators, they likely don't have much in-world income to use to purchase such an item. Pricing it too high will mean they almost certainly have to purchase Lindens for something that many of them will use once, and then realize that its too much work to make good product.
I don't agree with that. AvPainter is a very rudimentary software package and what I am offering is basically tools within photoshop that would enable creators to enhance their final output - stuff that I have been noticing people want and need but no one has made (like shadows, shinyness, patterns that are seamless on the AV etc.).
Honestly - this idea that because it is on SL means that it is only worth pennies on the dollar has got to stop. Tell me what is the difference between a PSD for SL and PSD for Graphic Design? Nothing - it takes the same amount of work and skill. I am not looking to rip people off and I certainly don't intend on giving away something that has a lot of worth - hence the poll. However I may give out a scaled down version for people to try. You do realize that L$2,295 isn't even $10? If people want to create clothing and sell it - they are going to have to invest a lot more than just $10 to do it right. Also if I sell these items the person buying them will more than recoup their cost in time saved and sales made.
I see your perspective, and yes, I am aware that 2,495 L$ is just under USD 10, about $9.70 when I last bought Lindens.
I suppose it depends on who you're trying to sell the product to, really. If your focus is on current content creators who are already doing a decent job selling things in SL, and want to ramp up their sales, then the prices you have suggested don't seem too unreasonable, especially for the less inclusive package. However, from what I have seen in the texture forums and on blogs, I wonder how many of there are that want to purchase pre-made textures rather than make their own.
If, on the other hand, you want to sell to the new designer - of which I am one - then I think your suggested prices are more than the market will bear. These are just the sort of people who could profit most from tutorials and pre-made textures, but they have no idea if they will be successful in selling the clothes they make in SL. You are asking them to risk anywhere from $20.00 to $100.00 dollars to purchase this package - in perspective, that's anywhere from a tank of gas, to a month and a half of groceries for a college student like me - on something that may not profit them, and which they may abandon long before it pays for itself.
I'm not trying to imply that your work is cheap; far from it. I think the idea is a sound one as well. To me this isn't about things in SL being only worth pennies on the dollar - I don't think that's necessarily true. To me its about economics and target audiences. And hell, I could be way wrong. I just know for me, at your current suggested prices this appealing sounding product is out of the reach of my budget, and I don't think I'm alone in that.
"...which they may abandon" This is why I am charging for the file (which isn't even out yet). If you are serious about this then you will realize that some initial investment in time and money will be required. You don't have to buy anything - if no one purchases the files then that is fine, but I think that those who are serious about it and look to make money will. I have spent almost as much as I have made doing clothing designs and it is well worth it.
Albeit - I will put smaller more affordable files out there and free PSD styles, brushes and such but these will not contain the same or as much as the purchase item.
I am sorry you feel this way and I wish that it were different but I need to eat too...
Good luck in your endeavors and I hope that you make it big-time in SL.
I'd love to know if you have decided to move forward with this project? I'm in the process of learning how to adapt my current Photoshop skills to clothing design and this package seems like something that would really help make the learning curve easier.
If it were priced between 5 and 10k (L$) I'd snap it right up. I'd consider it at a higher price point because I really understand what it is that you are offering, just don't price it much higher and then cut the price if you only sell a few. I'd hate to pick it up for over $50 US and then see others getting it for much less a few months later...
I would gladly pay over L$15,000. In fact, I would buy it immediately for that price. As someone who has experience in photoshop, but not experience designing clothes, this is exactly the kind of file I would need to start creating.
If youre trying to expect a profit from a single sale of this then thats really unreasonable. Try focussing on LESS lindens equates to MORE masses wanting to BUY from you instead of saying to themselves...."Thats too much!" and passing you on- I make avatars and accessories in world and I charge PENNIES compared to the rl 3d per hour that I charge for my 15 years of exp. Why? Because its NOT the same as rl, Im profitting off the masses. Not the individual. You might want to consider that in your pricing.
I agree with anonymous. I would gladly pay 5,000 L for it. but I would not be able to afford to buy the L to pay much more than that. The fact remains that to the majority of residents, SL is NOT RL.
You would bring in more money in the long run by giving it an affordable price, making it more appealing to more people. Most people who would actually want, and benifit from, such a product ( like myself *DROOLS*) just cant afford a whole lot of RL cash, and As Diricial said, those who are already doing a decent job making and selling clothing would probably prefer making their own as opposed to buying premade templates. Its not about that things in SL are worth pennies on the dollar.. but the fact is SL is not RL. Not many people will risk more than 10-20 US$ on a product in SL. Charge high and you might sell a few, charge around 5k L$ and you could sell a whole lot more, and the more you sell the more money you make.
In secondlife, the work that goes into creating any product only has to be done once. then when someone comes and clicks that buy button.. they are instantaneously sent a copy... in RL products and services are not so easily duplicated with a single click.
a clothing manufactuer for instance cant just magically duplicate an item of clothing an infinate amount of times to sell to the public.. he has to go through the whole process for each piece. now granted a lot of clothig is done by machine in mass quanties.. but still.. each piece requires the suppises and recourses to make..even if a machine can make 100 at a time, its still not the same.
the same for the fashion designer.. or a web designer.. who use photoshop and the tools you use, they cant sell the exact same piece of work to an infinate amount of clients. some joe blow isnt going to want his website or whatever to be the same thing the previous guy had.
Its not that the work you put into what your offering.. its just that in SL you do the work one time, sell many copies. Unlike in RL where you have to put the same work into each individual piece of work.
It sounds like a great package for people like me, who have started making SL clothing but are taking 'forever' to learn some of the more intricate details. But . . . there are a lot of great clothing designers in SL who are struggling to make a tidy profit. I think buying your package would help me cut corners in my learning process but I don't think it would necessarily help me sell more clothes or clothing at a higher price. So, as much as I would love this package, if you make it, I wouldn't be prepared to pay more than 5,000 L$. I can understand the amount of work you would have to put into it, and obviously you want that hard work rewarded, but making a profit from clothing in SL is something that only a few of the top designers aspire to, and I don't imagine that buying this package would put me in that league. To me, making SL clothing is a labour of love, it's not a lucrative business.