BlendedSkies is a new stock image site that offers tracked footage, 360 degree panoramas and backplates for Blender.
Sam Schad writes:
BlendedSkies.com, a new site being offered to the Blender community, opens today.
Last year, after getting up to speed on creating 360º HDR Panoramas, we began to get pretty excited about using what we had created in the new (at that time) Blender Tracker. It didn't take long to realize that there wasn't much around the Web where a 3D user could go to get a full set of imagery taken at a single location. And certainly nothing geared towards Blender users.
Since March, we've been working on a new site, BlendedSkies.com, that provides matched sets of panoramas, tracked footage, and backplates. Each set is grouped based upon the original location, much like you would find being done in large production houses.
We're glad to have the website up and running, and in at a state where users will be able to purchase our media at very competitive prices. Certainly there is more to do- but for the moment, we're pretty thrilled to make this available exclusively to the Blender community. Enjoy!
Sincerely-
- The Blended Skies TeamP.S.- as an opening day promotion, we're offering lifetime memberships to the first five users spending $10 or more.
22 Comments
Thanks but we prefer cgtextures dot com for our backdrops and they're all free!
We ? Im sure the textures are worth the money. (cant understand why people tent to speak for others )
Blow us pyrit. By the term "we", I meant our 2 Blender artists here at the office, not EVERYONE else like you, your brother, sister, aunt, etc.. Sheesh, did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed or what?
Keep it civil please. I wonder who got up on the wrong side of the bed here though.
Aww, I've got thick skin. Besides: I love CGTextures. I couldn't work without them, and it's a great deal. There are only so many hours in the day, and when time is short, they're the go-to guys.
Continuing to rely on what this community creates is one of the reasons I'm so excited about the Blender Network. Give us all a chance to create (and share) even more- and maybe even earn something for our hard work. Way to go Bart; can't wait to see it.
Thanks for the well wishes and for a great first week, everyone!
Haha, thanks! I'm in crunch-time now, getting some GREAT feedback from our test group and working live a slave to get everything ready for SIGGRAPH ;-)
Sometime ago, cgtextures.com has moved all its sky textures to http://www.cgskies.com and they are no longer free for commercial projects. Each of them now cost $30, I believe.
Huh! Funny! They got a reclame on many open source sites and made sky textures non-free :) What a shame ) I can't believe that it's so hard to shoot more textures and sell 'em for nice prices instead of this frustration. My wish now is to make panorama sky pics by myself... And it will be looking as I wish it to be (sometimes depends on nature and weather of course :D)
Yeah but now they are in full HDR, have been cleaned, cropped and enhanced to be worth the money they are.
The site is well set up and a breeze to browse (there's also trial downloads you can see if each sky is suitable to your scene before buying the full resolution)
Plus if you had a paid membership to CGTextures before the change (to download more than 15mb) you can still have access to them.
amazing
Good luck with the site :-)
It is really hard to find decent 360 sky textures for free or a good price . I dont event know how to create one , So that said I wish you guys good sales . They are indeed priced well .
Good luck with this site! I hope you grow to become the next big deal in the Blender community.
coolll,,,,
I checked out the site. It looks nice, but when I tried to download a free sample it required me to enter my address and telephone number as well as my email address. I don't mind the email part, but there is no reason to require that other information. I backed out of the site at that point. You guys need to rectify that. Most people I know won't want to give up that information.
Terra-
Good suggestion; you're correct. Not much point in asking for phone. I think it can be removed from my end- but at one point I tried to make a purchase through Paypal and it insisted on it (as I recall). But then you can choose not to share it with BlendedSkies.
Address requirement should also be removed since you are not physically shipping anything.
Very neat! Good luck. I know as a spoiled human being I want it all handed to me for free. I think with blender's history of open source and community support you are going to get a lot of push back. But that's to be expected. You are entitled to be paid for your work. Produce a quality product, provide a great customer experience, and this could explode into something awesome. I wish you the best of luck!
I just paid $60 for a rigging training dvd .........I see nothing wrong with paying for blender resources once they are useful....I think that people are a little spoiled because blender and most of the resources around it are free.....but a lot of the training and other stuff blender pros ask to be paid for are well worth the money.......IMO
Don't forget these nice sky textures...
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?224065-New-High-resolution-sky-pack-for-Blender
Thanks 0ptikz
i noticed that when the title of the clip or panorama is too long...the stars jump to the next line as in the backyard clip......i guess that must be fixed... beside that.. the site is clean and clear to use.... didn't get to buy the freebies yet (i don't wanna add my personal info.. giggles).. now... about the contents... yess.. is exactly what is needed..... maybe adding more beaches, landscapes and skyes could be great.. but it will be on time... i hope.... great job on both.. site and contents .... thanks
Akiara-
Thanks for the suggestion. Still having various formatting issues with the site. But (at least for now- functional!