Working for peanuts: Fiverr

About a month ago, I joined the website Fiverr which allows you to buy or sell services for US$5. So since I'm out of employment and am struggling to get freelance projects, I thought I'd give it a go.

The way it works is you create a 'gig' in Fiverr and you do this by naming the gig and describe in detail what you are going to do for $5. Then you wait. Hopefully people will come across your gig by searching or browsing and actually buy something from you.

You can offer anything, from article writing to posing in a Santa's costume and singing Christmas songs to a friend or relative of yours. Since Architectural Visualisation is all I can do, I thought I'd offer something along those lines.

I discovered a rendering plug in for Sketchup which allows you to create photorealistic renderings of your Sketchup models. It also achieves it's worth by being simple so you don't have to spend months learning new software. I figured I could offer to sell renderings of Sketchup models that people provide. It isn't much work - all I would have to do is load the model and render. Simple.

Well, a month after joining, I've completed two jobs. One I felt was a bit pointless - the buyer simply wanted me to copy a photo, but in 3D. The other (which I finished today) I almost screwed up because I didn't realise the guy had left instructions for me. I assumed Fiverr was going to drop an email if the buyer responded with instructions, but it seems like they didn't. So the poor guy waited three days while I was oblivious. Luckily, I indicated in my gig that I should be allowed 5 days to complete the job. This is mostly to cover my own back in case I somehow get loaded with work or something goes horribly wrong. Like my house catches fire and my computer is destroyed, etc.

And then I've had three enquiries that came to nothing. Actually, make that four. One came requesting models and renderings of socks, of all the things on planet earth and they were apparently in a rush. Since socks aren't my forte and I refuse to be caught up in rush jobs, having learned my lesson in Hong Kong, I turned that one down.

The thing with these clients is that they not only misunderstood the intention of my gig, but they appear to want a lot of work to be done for peanuts. Either that, or they don't realise how much work is actually involved in what they ask. The three enquiries that came to nothing wanted me to build something from a plan or an image and create a rendered image with it. The guy I just finished working for probably at least understood to some extent what is involved in my gig, but I had to draw up the model in 3D anyway since all he could give me was the front elevation of the house (he had apparently misplaced his 3D model and other important files...).

With the three enquiries that came to nothing, I made it clear that they needed to pay more (order another gig) if they did not have their own Sketchup model and wanted me to build one for them. I also named a few terms and conditions of my own that they needed to be aware of before work went ahead. Other than that, I was willing to do whatever they wanted.

I heard nothing from them since.

So for the job I just finished today, I screwed the T&Cs, requesting the extra pay and just did the work for $4 ($1 of the total $5 is actually pocketed by Fiverr).

I suppose I'll have to do this from now on. While the pay isn't great, it's obvious some of these people are looking for a cheap lunch, whether they are cash strapped companies looking to outsource on the cheap or bored housewives with nothing better to do. Still, I would at least be getting some exposure (provided I did well) and if I was really serious about starting up, I can't afford to be picky about pricing, etc.

That said, many sellers are requesting multiple gigs for jobs that they feel are worth more than $5 and they are pretty successful too. I was simply following suit. I've tried a few of these sellers myself and I've had no qualms about paying more for work that appears to be way beyond $5. But then, it's maybe because I understand what goes into making a 3D model, having worked in a similar industry for four years.

But that said, I also understand the wanting to get away with paying next to nothing for a service. I have that temptation myself, but it's also worth keeping in mind that sometimes you really do get what you pay for. I paid $5 for a 3D model that was shoddily made and I requested a refund straight away. A professional quality model might cost you in the region of $80 or more and in Arch viz, most professionals are hesitant to charge less than $25 per hour.

As for my latest job, well... somehow it kinda feels good to be working again, despite dreams of being financially independent and not having to move a mouse around for pay. Surprisingly, it has taken me only 8 hours to complete the job. 6 if you don't count the rendering times. 5.5, if you don't count time spent washing up and making coffee. Far less than the 5 days that I quoted in my gig. I guess the rule of thumb is to model only what you can see, whereas one personal project took weeks because I was concerned about all the niggly details and I was looking to sell the model on Turbosquid and other places.

Well, here are the results:

There's room for improvement, but I did this quickly (for me, anyway) and I didn't bother to sweat the really small details. But then, I can only really go on whatever information I was given. The grass looks a bit too uniform and unnatural, but I've never really figured how to make good looking grass without crashing the system. I think in the future, I'll probably be better served trying to fake it in GIMP instead. It's worked in the past when I was still an obedient employee.

Hopefully, I've done well enough to earn some favourable feedback. The first guy I worked for left one message with, literally, a few words in order to get me started and then I never heard from him again, despite submitting my work.

I think it'll be a good thing if I get a steady stream of business from Fiverr. If I can get 10 good reviews, then I can start adding extras to my gig and charge more for my services. So, with that in mind, if anyone reading this wants some work done that's similar to the above or if they have a 3D model built in Sketchup they would like me to render, then feel free to visit my gig.

Or better yet, if you have money to burn, go here instead...

Christmas Decorations - LED lights

So it's almost that time of the year again. Christmas is coming and all the stores around the UK have already put up the decorations. It's all commercially driven, of course. Most households won't put up their decorations until well into December. Still, it's a good time as any to shop around for Christmas decorations before all the festivities are well under way.

I love putting up the Christmas decorations, particularly the incandescent fairy lights. To me, nothing screams Christmas like a string of multicoloured bulbs.

Other family members aren't quite so keen on it. I guess it's more to do with their upbringing - they don't identify with Christmas as I have growing up. They are even less keen this year because of the rising cost of electricity. Coupled with the poor economic climate, it's more important than ever to find ways of saving money.

Pretty on the eye. Not good for the wallet...

Fortunately, saving money doesn't necessarily leaving out the lights altogether. I did a bit of online shopping and came across this website: http://www.lights4fun.co.uk. It's a family run business that specialises in lighting for all occasions.

The Christmas lights they sell are all LED. The thing with LEDs are you can apparently save up to 90% on your bills. Specifically, the equation goes something like this: 10 LEDs = 1 incandescent bulb. Since I want to save a bit of money over Christmas, I thought it might be worthwhile to try them out. There was a bit of a clearance sale going on, so I bought a few.

LEDs never really did it for me in the past. I don't think they really captured the spirit of Christmas the way old fashioned incandescent bulbs did. Maybe they were too white. Maybe the colours aren't quite the same. Whatever it was, I just preferred the incandescent bulbs.

Having opened and tried out the lights when I received it, however, I was quite impressed. They now have LED lights in 'warm white' and for me, these look the best out of the bundle. The coloured lights didn't seem all that at first glance, but having hung them up just to see what they would look like, they looked pretty good. They're brighter than my old set of lights, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So does this spell the end of the incandescent lights? I still see them being sold in places like Amazon, but having a brief scan on the web, it seems that most Christmas light vendors now favour LED lights - Lights4Fun even go as far as saying this is what they specialise in. I guess it means that incandescent lights are being phased out gradually, if not all at once.

I grew up with the incandescent lights, so it'll be a shame to see them go. But I guess we have to move on with the times, particularly since the LEDs are more energy efficient, last longer and are better for the environment.

Lights out. Let's do more for the environment and save money.

Selling 3D models: my first sale

Because I'm out of work, I'm currently thinking of ways I can earn income online, but most of the options I've looked at either don't earn you that much or turn out to be a complete waste of time. Others have some potential, but a lot of effort has to go in to make it work - sell your work online.

I worked as a 3D artist in Hong Kong and I threw something together during my spare time. Something I made using nothing more than a set of software tools that either cost very little (compared to high end tools like Maya, et al.) or nothing at all. Specifically, I use Sketchup and SU Podium, the latter being a rendering engine for the former and is capable of photo realistic renderings while being very easy to learn and use.

In fact, it's so easy that I wonder why I ever had to bother using 3DS Max for work like this, but I suppose it'll come down to how versatile the tools are and while SU Podium is easy to use, it likely lacks many of the more advanced features of Max that give users better control over what they are doing.

Anyway, I spent more time refining the 3D model I made so that I could throw it up at The3DStudio.com and various other places that sell 3D models for you and give you a cut of the profit.

That was two months ago. Recently, I had an email from Creative Crash (of all places) announcing that one of my models have sold. Good news, but ultimately nothing to get that excited about since I managed to make a record breaking $31.90 by selling stuff online. In two months. And making it available on more than one website.

I think it isn't helped that the product I submitted was a 3D model of a house and architecture in general don't sell that well as 3D models. Oh, well. It's something and it's probably worth adding to it from time to time. Plus, the beauty is that I was at least able to use a free program like Sketchup to create something that I can sell online.

LFC out of the Europa League???

So LFC are defeated by Anzhi 1-0, a reverse of the scoreline at Anfield. To be fair, LFC played alright, but Coates made a mistake in defence, allowing Traore to race clear with the ball and lift one over Jones for the only goal of the game.

But anyway, most LFC supporters appear to think that the media has an agenda against their beloved club. I guess it's not difficult to see why. Just take a look at this.

Okay, so maybe the beeb are anti-Liverpool and want them to be kicked out of the competition, but isn't this out of order??? And Anzhi are clearly cheating. Just because they are rich, it doesn't give them the right to field two teams in the same competition!

LFC stays at Anfield

It's old news, now, but it was announced that Liverpool Football Club won't be going anywhere and are going to redevelop the old stadium by increasing it's current capacity to 60,000 seats. As a supporter of LFC, I think this is good news, if only for the reason that this is LFC's 'spiritual home' and the history surrounding the stadium. The prospect of moving to a new ground just didn't feel right and a ground share with Everton was a big no-no. I had initially feared that it wouldn't be possible since it meant they would have to demolish the streets around it, but it seems like a solution has been found.

Well done to those involved. Unlike the previous owners, they were mindful of what the fans thought in a situation like this. It will also make more financial sense in the long run.

Of course, it's not yet set in stone since there are still obstacles that might prevent it from getting the go ahead, but hopefully these will be ironed out in due course.

As for what happened on the pitch, Swansea proves that they were the better team in the Capital One Cup against Liverpool and the latter was at home. It was almost too easy for them, especially the first half. LFC had no cutting edge and playing Joe Cole and Yesil meant they might as well have been playing with nine men. The latter can be excused since he's young and has simply proved here he isn't ready, but we all know that Cole has overstayed his welcome a long time ago.

The big guns, Gerrard, Suarez and Sterling were thrown in the second half on to no avail. Not ideal, since they really should be rested and losing just makes it worse. Now they will have to recover again quickly for Sunday.