Forum: Freestuff


Subject: FYI: ShareCG and associated sites closing down

pjz99 opened this issue on Mar 28, 2025 ยท 12 posts


LapinDeFer posted Sat, 12 April 2025 at 2:10 AM

The point was made elsewhere that the scope for 3D is shrinking because of AI and the increased cost of soft- and hardware. That this in turn reflects a hardware change as well, to tablets and smartphones. And that the loss of ShareCG is not a single event.

I agree that the global 3D community as we have known it in the last 25 years is indeed changing and shrinking in the face of AI.  And some software packages are getting to be very expensive with subscription based payment. But there are still affordable solutions, which can produce good and sometimes really great pictures. Blender, Poser, DAZ Studio are examples (The Oscar winner FLOW was made in Blender). There are also low price modelling software out there. And the thrill and joy of creating a model or a picture from vertices and polygons remain. 

The money flow is also changing I guess.  Disappearing platforms, like ShareCG, leaves fewer outlets and we may have to rely on Renderosity and networks of linked sites. Personally I find Renderosity a solid source for resources but we still need others.

For my  part, I do not see 'everyman 3D'  disappear. One of the reasons are people like elleque, odf, 3Dream and many others, who produce and share amazing quality, like elleques beaded necklaces and outfits for LH2. I use stuff from them all and try to give credit when I do. (It would be nice if the Renderosity gallery gave the possibility to credit freebies when posting, but that is another story)

So I cross my fingers that the talented creators continue and remain an incorrigible optimist for the continued existence of  accessible tools for the 3D community.