How To Make Money As An Artist in 2024: The Great Art-Job-Pocalypse!
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- In this video I'll be talking about how to make money as a digital artist (but I suppose this would still work for some traditional artists also) during the great Art Job Depression of 2024.
Forget about the 'how to get a job in the games industry' type scenario, the games industry is done for. Sure you might get a job, it's not impossible, but let's learn to survive so we're not entirely dependent on the games industry for art income.
So if you want to find out how to succeed on social media, make money across several different channels and then grow your art brand long term then watch this video!
Contents:
00:00 Overview/Index
01:55 Introduction/State of the Industry
07:25 Take control of your expenses in 2024
09:00 Section 1: Shorter Term Ideas
17:35 Section 2: Longer Term Ideas
23:48 Section 3: Social Media
36:08 Section 4: Final Thoughts and Ideas
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Music:
Tavorians
Garris L. R. Coleman
Reflected Light
Serge Pavkin
Deep Future Garage (Royalty Free Music)
Nver Avetyan
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i think on social media, the tips are good that are available on the internet, but what's most important i think is consistency. just post alot, and by alot i mean alot. people can make all sort of formulas for virality but the truth is no one knows, and generally people just post alot hoping one of the posts would blow up at some point.
yeah, there's a guy I've started to watch who isn't an artist but an entrepreneur (I briefly show a bit of him in thie video) and he talked about having a consultation with a social media guru who laughed at him posting about 8x per week. So he posted 80x per week and his growth went up ten fold. He was like, so if you wanna grow 10x faster, uplaod 10x as much, duh. And of course as artists we're wary of volume because it feels like a production line. But it's a pyramid, you go full force early, grind, and slowly over time you can pull back on that. And of course after a decent amount of time doing that, you can (especially as an artist showing art work) re-upload and re-purpose existing work. So it starts to sustain itself within a reasonable amount of time. Just avoid month long projects in the beginning.
Good stuff. Some thoughts.
If you're able to learn a little bit of programming, I think a lot of artists could create a visual novel game or something similar. I have a friend who went this route, and more people resonated w/ his visual novel project than with anything he was doing before that. (Granted, the AI apocalypse is coming for games soon as well. Such is life.) The general point I want to make about this is, people don't tend to care about 'art'. They care about the things that art is a part of, in this case a narrative where the art is a significant factor which brings the game to life but art is not the point in itself.
And I think it's good to keep this in mind more broadly. Artists might default to thinking we need to make a youtube channel (or whatever) about art, when there might be much more traction in combining artistic skills with other interests. For example, I would instantly follow a youtube channel where someone draws and talks about their knowledge of anything technical. Like if someone knows the details of vehicles, armor, architecture, machinery. The purpose of this hypothetical channel would be sharing knowledge/passion about some subject, and the art side is more for flavor and appeal. Anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there as another way of thinking about your skills. You don't have to be in the mindset, "I am an artist so what I offer is art." You can bring the artistic skill to the table as a major part of... whatever else you want to do, mixing your other interests and skills.
yes, this is a very good point indeed. Not sure if you've heard of Dave Rapoza? he was famous for excellent rendering skills, then one day he and his best friend came up with a graphic novel that was very simly drawn using flat colours and it became one of the biggest Kickstarters of its time. It was a comedy theme based around D&D culture (so not even a 'cool' arty graphic novel) And everyone said: well it's alright for you, you already had a big following. But his following didn't even like it, it got fame through going viral on imgur or something. And he realised that people just want to be entertained.
So I myself had the idea of getting into animated shorts (up to a few minutes long). Only thing is, CZcams pays you based on viewing hours I think. So even having a very popular channel might not make much money and then you'd have to rely or merch and maybe Patreon too. But yeah, big big solution for some artists.
@@AndyWalshYeah, I've followed Dave a looong time. That's a great example. Dave was talking about that DND graphic novel being turned into a TV show, though I think that's on pause right now.
Animation is very time consuming. But if you can make a series of animations that people watch one after the next, it might be worth it?
@@TINJ_ just viral stuff really. You have to do something that works in isolation and can go viral. There's a few channels with millions of subs doing this. But like I say, subs don't make income, watch time does. Or views, I'm not entirely sure which. Coz it's ad revenue, and if you have an ad per watch, I wonder if that makes much difference whether its one minute or half an hour.
So I'm a long time coder and also an artist. How do I hook up with an artist to realize their vision like this? Where do artists look for coders?
@@kikijewell2967 you're gonna struggle because, it's like, imagine if an artist came to you and said: I have a vision for a game, will you code it for free and we'll go in 50/50? chances are you'd not be very interested. So if I were you I'd learn the basics of art so you can make your game with placeholder art, if you have any funds then pay someone to chip in here and there with parts of the presentation that would really make a big visual difference, let's say the main character, and then present and pitch the idea to artists you come across so that when they see it, they go: wow, this actually looks cool and might sell well.
Build a following on social media with all your progress. Giving that your very best big smile and personality to draw people in. Post progress on Linkedin, network there and with each vlog post say: so, day bla and I'm still looking for an artist to partner with, so if you think that's you, dm me on my bla bla account.
Before too long you'll be hit up without having to reach out directly :)
It's wildly depressing when the advice is to do all the things all the time everywhere, which include becoming a youtuber (a career people can't reliably do on its own) and a social media viral influencer (ditto). And of course, to do bloody NFTs.
For most people this is not viable and I think you understand that, which is why you sound so desperate in this video.
Employment is being done away with, and we're told we can make it by doing all these improbable things. And that we'll be better for it, because we won't depend on just one source of income.
Man, I'd been a freelancer for 10 years and only recently got a full time job. I LOVE IT. It's so, so much better than the constant dread and instability of freelance.
I do not want to be constantly trying to promote myself and sell people prints, get likes and shares and all that.
I don't blame you for trying to cope with things, but I also doubt this is going to actually save many artists.
The reason I made this is not because I think we'll be fine if we just take to social media. I made it for those who have invested years into their art and are facing the prospect of getting work in a grocery store and are wondering if there's any hope at all for them given the impossibilty of getting an industry job (myself included). But go ahead and take that from them.
When your job is taken by AI in a few years, you better have a backup plan.
@@AndyWalsh Well, whatever hope there is will sadly be unmatched by future reality for most people. I get the reasoning, but it's not realistic. And I get the personal dig, we're all upset. But believe me - I am fully getting ready to do something entirely different, whatever it ends up being. Supermarket ahoy, I'll be there. Because there's no way I'll go back to freelancing or god forbid - heinous shit like NFTs.
The future is bleak, but I think it's more realistic to be preparing oneself for the supermarket, rather than this cope.
@@AndyWalsh And to be clear - I'm not mad at you at all. I'm mad at AI and those who push it, because it is destroying people's livelihoods and pushing them into bad attempts to deal with the situation. When I talk about how great having a job is - that's aimed at the companies who make having a job less possible, and only for fewer people. All because of greed.
I don't think you're bad for making the video or anything like that, I just fear it's not really gonna work for most artists.
@@JanPospisilArt appreciate the clarification. Yeah, we're all mad at AI and much it's gonna destroy. And hey, not just artists, everyone will get it. It'll 100% destroy society (if for no other reason than the destuction of around 40% of ALL jobs as forecast by one study). But I would say that the majority of artists won't make it anyway, regardless of AI or industry patterns. Some just don't have the work ethic and then blame external factors. Some can't admit their works is shit and they need to actually study. I see it all the time with people asking me for advice and I'm like, dude, your work is nowhere near good enough, get back to work. And they're like, well I think it is. Screw you.
But for the ones who can grind (for a limited time) they can eventually be able to at least sustain themselves in doing what they love AND it's direct-to-audience. So it won't feel soulless like having a job/working for a client almost always does.
awesome vid! will think of trying some of this ones! But i do think that still will be industry work for some
Very insightful & popped up on my FYP in time 💐🕊️👌✨
This is great, thank you! Selling on Artstation and other digital art marketplaces has worked out pretty well in my experience. Can confirms its tied pretty closely to being consistent with social media. Which can be a bit of a struggle admittedly. My question now is, if artists are increasingly unable to find work, who is going to buy the models, brushes, and asset packs? I agree its a great time to break out of making art just to satisfy the requirements section of a job post. Tricky but exciting times :)
Thank you. This is inspiring and illuminates some interesting ways to approach all of this.
That's very interesting, your insistence on paying attention to data points aka what people want and doubling down on it. Then branching out to what resonates more to you once you build a following. I've seen this with CZcamsrs. It's all tied somehow, marketing and all. Thank you for making this video! Learned a lot
cool, glad you liked it! Start mainstream then do your own thing. This is the model that film-makers adopt in their career paths. Usually.
This is worth watching over and over again.
yes, please do, it'll help my youTube view hours :D
But really, many thanks and glad it helped!
Great video bro!
Thanks bud!
I was told that AAA companies only hire specialists instead of generalists, while AA or indie studios hire the generalists. The question I have is, should I be well-rounded with things like environments, characters, props etc or focus on one thing?
well, question for you though is, having watched the video, are you sure you want to get into this as a job-seeker? what are your expectations going forward, are you a beginner or?
Following on from your previous video, you mentioned that the bar has been lifted and that versatility is a vital quality to demonstrate in a portfolio. A quick Google search reveals a plethora of opportunities available for game artists. Is this a combination of entry-level artists finding it difficult to break into the industry? Or are prominent artists unwilling to take a significant wage drop and work on smaller projects?
From my experience, graduates with mostly 3D experience are still landing positions within the industry.
I guess I'm mainly talking about the concept art scenario. I mean, given the mass layoffs, I'm sure it's affecting thing across the board, but for concept art it's close to impossible to get a job.
@@AndyWalsh there do appear to be many concept art or games art positions available at the moment. Perhaps artists will become more technicians with the ability to switch it up between both 2D and 3D applications. 3D may be the way forward.
@@RobertDempster32 you mean moving from concept art to environment artist/prop artist? I would say that most artists would rather not do that. I just checked on Linkedin and you're not wrong. One of the reasons for my massive skepticism is because I saw this one guy post a screenshot of his research on Linkedin that showed a total of 40 jobs in the UK for concept art. I just checked now and there are in fact over one thousand results for jobs posted in the last month in the UK. Really don't know how that makes sense.
Edit: actually, the majority of those results have nothing to do with concept art. So I need to figure out how to find the real number.
15:45 as a coder and python developer, former Pixar employee and artist, how do I connect with artists to make Blender addons?
Thing is, I've been out of the industry for over 20 years. So partnering with a current artist would be a great partnership for us both.
I'm also a very good and patient teacher, and would happily tutor artists in coding.
How do I market this?
Where do I connect with artists?
its all going to shit man, truly a sad time to be in the art industry.
yeah man, but hence why we're going to get the fuck out of it!
@@AndyWalsh i could never break in to the industry in the first place so now it seems like it may never happen sadly.
@@ArtofTYZR ah fuck 'em. Your goal should be to grow and get better. There's no room for mediocrity in any part of the art world. There's just too many artists. So either way you HAVE to get good. So just focus on that. But... the big difference is, the industry wants you to be techically good, and fast, and multi-ddisciplined. The art-consuming world just wants to feel strong emotions. It's actually way easier and more fulfilling to do that.
Great advice but I personal feel selling photopacks, 3D models is slowly becoming outdated. Yes its a good source of income but lets look at how easily they get pirated online. Not to mention the plethora of AI reference image packs that have been flooding the Artstation market place, so for newer artist if they want to get into that side of things to create passive income its really difficult, as they would not be seen, like its already difficult to find Artstation stores of well known artists. And not to mention the whole prompt to 3D models algorithms that are being developed.
Personally I am seeing many artists making X amount of money a month or annual videos online, and it all screams like a marketing or advertising video for their own products, this video was good and better, a lot of advice!!
But I would also add that people should know how to invest stocks, bonds, learn how to trade to make some passive income through other means as well, and make the art you want to make on the side.
"I like what I create enough for other people to see it, them liking it comes afterwards" - Rick Ruben. I think this quote was perfectly seen in the development of "Stardew Valley" by Eric Barone.
Let's address each of these:
1. I can still make a reasonable side-income from tutorials. You only get pirated when you're super famous and so can afford to take the 5% hit of piracy.
2. I just looked up reference photos on ArtStation for mountains, landscapes, animals, couldn't find any AI.
3. Prompt to 3D is pure pure dogshit. We're years away from that being useful in terms of getting rid of buying 3d models. And then probably even more years away in terms of when that geometry isn't all fucked up and messy.
You can easily just lose money or break even or make very little doing stocks. I tried putting my savings into an investment account and only lost money. And it takes money to make money.
If you had to draw the conclusion that there's no future/money in art, it would be better to simply start a business or get into marketing etc.
@@AndyWalsh Sure I agree with some of the point, but about the prompt to 3D, when bit companies are investing a lot of money into that tech I don't think its going take years for it come, sure it would not be used for production like Rigged or animation, but quick assets that's needed to populate the scene. Please look at the TurboSquid AI 3D generator.
And fine I've not been on Artstation marketplace for a long time and they've added an AI filter now which wasn't there before, but my point remains, there are many people doing it, and finding some newer artist selling photopacks becomes hard.
And as you said yourself, once they get famous it gets pirated, so wouldn't that be a vicious cycle? Like I personally support artists by buying their Add ons, 3D assets and ref packs.
Also for trading, you need to test the waters first before you go all in, just like art fundamentals we need to gain that inital practice, even I've lost some money in the beginning but once you read books on how to do it, reading the charts, candlestick, understanding different types of trading to long term investing, you can make a good living, I supported my business and family through that during the pandemic, even was able to pay salaries for artist to work on my short film through that, and the animated short film is my Art that I eventually plan on releasing this year.
And I am not saying there's no money in art, but I see other avenues to make money too, marketing has a lot of money in it as well, doing storyboards for advertisements.
I am not trying to argue here haha just stating my points, a friendly dialogue if you may :).
@AndyWalsh Okay so I agree with a few points you made but
1- lets say an artist makes a video tutorial, it gets bought by a bunch and he or she or they make a good living on the side but once it gets popular it ends up on CG peers or somewhere? would you not call that a vicious cycle? Like I still buy the tutorials of the artists when I like what they're teaching and if it's new, but there are still countless younger artists who rely on CG peers and torrents. I get it you can take the 5% hit but if someone new wants to make a tutorial wouldn't they have to go through the filter of Algorithms? I know you gave your points on how to break it.
2- I just checked artstation marketplace, and I noticed that they've added AI filter now on it which wasn't there months back but doesn't the marketplace also work on an algorithmic way that when an artist is famous or how much their product gets sold?
3- From what I've read and seen there's a lot of money being poured into the prompt to 3D LLMs, and look at what turbosquid is already promising after being acquired by Shuterstock and partnering up with Nvidia. Sure the 3D models wont be useful for animation purposes but it can be used to populate a scene to create some concept prototypes.
4- Losing and making money via trading with stocks and bonds is bound to happen, one shouldn't put all their money in one go, testing out the waters is important, , learning how to trade is just like learning art fundamentals, understanding different types of trading aka intraday, technical, fundamental trading, etc. I was happy and made enough to support myself and my family during the pandemic doing that, but sure I lost a bit in the beginning while testing out the waters, but I was eventually able to fund my animated short film through that, pay artist salaries and stuff. I personally think its a good skill to learn. I made money through stocks from almost nothing to support other artists and grow my artistic projects.
And isn't everything a business? if we want to make money through art, are we not talking in business ideas on how to sell? I am not saying there's no future / money in art, what I am saying there needs to be a unique aspect to why someone wants buy an art work in in the first place what's the novelty in it. The way you made it sound in the last sentence it feel like you don't think marketing doesn't use art, storyboards, marketing illustrators, graphic designers, etc.
I am not trying to argue, but having a friendly dialogue on what else can be done apart from selling the same usual things like tutorials, photopacks, etc. because I am reading other people down the comments say art industry is a scam, and even in your previous older video you mentioned as a reply to someone - 'well, we CAN still do the art, but we'll be quickly forced to sell it in the form of timelapse paintins for youtube/insta/tiktok and have a patreon etc. The odd thing though is that we'll all be teaching each other, so that we can teach each other and everyone will be making tutorials so that you can get popular for making tutorials. Weird.' when this happens what will be the novelty/uniqueness?
from 3:56 to 7:06 the voice sound disappears
damn, thanks for sharing. I had a little copyright issue and I think YT silenced it. I'll see if I can fix.
Art industry is a scum.
one whole scum!
I think you'll find that there's no such thing as the art industry. That's like saying the money industry.