You’ll probably notice numerous similarities between your current workflow and the StemCell workflow. In fact, nearly all of the rules are based around industry-wide best practices. Our goal was to keep things as simple as possible while maintaining a consistent and flexible specification. Sure, there may be some new concepts here, but we were careful to create a non-proprietary workflow that would continue to work well into the future.

At first glance, it’s easy to think that the material limitations of StemCell may significantly reduce the types of content you can create. But in actuality, it opens an entirely new way of focusing on specific content types by limiting the scope of the world we live in. As most creative professionals know, having limitations is a very good thing. Limitations help creatives focus on project specifics, giving them more time time to spend on craft instead of wasting time on experimentation. That’s not to say that the list of content you can create for StemCell is small, it’s not at all. There are still countless objects that can be created as StemCells, but let’s try to stay focused on what’s desireable.

Scene Props

3D can be a very empty place, which is why scene & character props are so important. When environment or ArchViz artists are putting a scene together, they simply don’t have time to build all the props.

Kits

When a designer is exploring ideas, many times it’s great to have a kit of parts and pieces that can help them quickly visualize their concepts instead of spending valuable time modeling

Customers usually buy models from TurboSquid for two specific reasons… 1) it’s cheaper to buy than to make themselves and 2) it’s much, much faster. But in many cases, customers need models that fit within the specifics of their project. This usually means that they’re more interested in models that appear to be more common than highly stylized models. When we look at content that sells well over and over again, we realize the criteria for that content usually falls within three buckets:

Complex Objects

Objects that would be far too difficult and time consuming to create from scratch.

Common & Iconic Objects

When a designer is exploring ideas, many times it’s great to have a kit of parts and pieces that can help them quickly visualize their concepts instead of spending valuable time modeling

Let’s try to focus even more. Knowing now what we just learned, let’s look at content categories for models on TurboSquid.

Note that this graph is for all models on TurboSquid, regardless of specification or quality. StemCell is an entirely new specification that opens up the opportunity to sell content that is even more useful to both existing customers as well as an entirely new set of customers. So filling in even some of the more oversaturated categories can be worth your effort. So what should you consider making?

Science & Medical

This category which includes everything from gross anatomy to molecules has continued to grow steadily in popularity while still having a low level of competition. One section within this category that continues to grow in popularity is space content which can include everything from spacecraft to asteroids.

Nature

This is always a popular category that easily spans the needs of multiple industries. Trees and animals always do exceptionally well, but for StemCell, environmental elements such as rocks and natural debris can be extremely desirable and have a long shelf life.

Furniture & Interior

Even more popular than nature, furniture and interior props are in high demand for multiple industries but competition is high. Now that VR and AR are such hot technologies, think about creating more common and iconic objects instead of high-end or luxury objects.

Choosing the right type of content to make is only the first step into making great content that sells time and time again. Perhaps more importantly is how well you make that content and ultimately how you present it.

Art Direction

Easily overlooked by many 3D artists, art direction should play a major role in your creation process. While creating, take a moment from time to time to step back and scrutinize your work. If something isn’t right, fix it then. Never wait until the end when it’s too late to change things.

Model Quality

Rushing to the goal doesn’t always make you a winner. Be mindful of the quality of your models throughout the creation process. If you get to a point where even you no longer want to deal with the issues in your scene, imagine how your customer will feel.

Formats &Conversions

TurboSquid knows how difficult and tedious conversions can be. We perform hundreds of conversion per month. Which is why StemCell is so important. Automatic conversion will allow you to focus on creating instead of mastering the art of conversions.

Like any great product for sale, you should think of it holistically from beginning to end and continue to improve that product as time goes by. This helps to build customer loyalty and trust, and ensures that they always return to look for your models first.