Hasta La Ideas

Everything you see above is fake, i.e. a rendering. And they’re all for sale. They’re images from CG Trader, an online 3D model store where designers can post their virtual models for sale to consumers. The interesting thing about them is their business model: With the traditional ID royalty model you would receive a tiny royalty percentage on say, a chair produced by a major manufacturer, but these guys pay out well over 90% after the math is done. Their pricing model allows the seller to take in 100% of their sale price, then pay a small fee (from $2 to $50, depending on your sale price) to essentially re-stock your model for sale, as if it were finite, physical merchandise going back onto a store shelf.

Whether or not you’re looking to buy or sell a 3D model, they’ve posted a sort of visual quiz to test what a bunch of you pride yourself on: The ability to distinguish a rendering from a photograph. How good do you think you are? Which of the following came out of a camera lens, and which from a mouse?

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