Can someone explain to me how a “Photobox” — which in these cases is really just a 10 second job on Fusion — can get hundreds of downloads and prints in barely a week, while I spend days designing things, printing prototypes, taking good photos and videos, making animated thumbnails, and writing lots of documentation for models that most of the time go completely (and I mean COMPLETELY) unnoticed?
I’m not crying here. Most of what I design is something I kinda needed to print anyway. That’s what gives me the inspiration, rather than contests.
But I genuinely would like to know if I’m doing something wrong or if I’m missing steps when releasing new models.
I can accept that what I believed was a good idea, isn’t really as good as I thought (or even bad).
Or maybe the product I made isn’t really something people need that much.
But there are three photoboxes on the trending page of the photography contest. Not even assemblies, just three merged parallelepipeds printed as they are (which is… so inconvenient).
How is it even possible that 500+ people are printing or considering to print a 300g/5h shelled not-collapsable half-cube of their print volume:
But literally no one even dares to open a model that tooks days for me to design, in their slicer?
Again, not crying. I’m quite new to the game, I’m still learning about modelling, slicing and sharing my work.
I’m just trying to understand what I could do better.
I don’t think it’s a popularity thing.
I don’t think it’s because those models are participating in a contest.
I don’t think it’s because people needed a photobox more than a shoe stand.
I think it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to predict which items will connect with users and which ones won’t. I think your attitude is a good in that you are designing things that you’d want anyway - that way you’re still benefiting.
The time investment matters very much to us designers since we can put a great deal of care into a project. However, for users, I don’t think our time investment really factors in to their decisions - they individually connect with something or not.
Because so many new models are posted every day, they can become ‘buried’ quickly. It can help to identify if there’s a group that might be interested in your model and share it with them - whether that’s on a Discord, Facebook group, Reddit etc.
Personally , i wouldnt worry about it and just keep doing whats best for you, unless you are just trying to impress. i spend a month or so going through 0 day uploads for my benefit , you may find its the same across the board , most users are doing it for themselves , while some are doing it for monetary gain ,
while some are more curious has to how they get so many downloads
I have a feeling that the destiny of a model is decided within the first couple of hours (maybe even less) though, and it’s all about going on the trending page.
I feel like if you miss the train, it’s death.
I didn’t consider sharing the model “outside” indeed. Discord/telegram groups and social is a good tip, although I’m not sure I wanna do that kind of activity (this is not a job for me in the end).
I wonder if you guys make a community post when releasing new stuff, and you think they helps.
Being a contest entry makes a huge difference to a model, especially if added early. The contest models are, above all, more visible. And then you have a greater chance that someone will like it.
This is actually quite true
EDIT: Oh, and one more thing:
Maybe people who are downloading the photobox now need it because they are seeing it for the first time? I know that there are already many such models here, but these people saw it now because it’s trending (and they haven’t seen it before because they weren’t looking for it).
ive started posting to makerworld community after printing and rating, add it as a request to a description, you need to edit in makerworld if you rate via studio
I feel your frustration! I think participating in a contest is a good way to increase exposure because a lot of people will check it out and eventually see your model. Then they might check out your other models, and now those not in a contest get some exposure. Otherwise, you just rely on tags and luck.
i think the same way you do…sometimes there are models that go viral for i don’t know what reason and i earn a lot of points in a very short time. other times models in which you have invested a lot of time arouse 1/100 of the interest i would expect. sometimes they remain “dormant” for a long time and then they start earning points, slowly but steadily. in the end i think that as a “hobbyist” luck plays a big role in success in the medium/short term. for me who am bad at making guides, photos, promotion (no i don’t intend to waste time on instagram/discord/reddit…i already have a job) i prefer to do what i want because i want it. the results come anyway…maybe you won’t make a salary but in my case a year of staying on makerworld, starting from 0 (I mean never had a 3d printer before…I got an a1 mini in June 2024) led me to place results in 3 contests, take home an h2d, the second ams is coming along with a few hundred euros of filament, and I withdrew about 800 dollars in cash from exclusive points to change the laptop on which I work with fusion. not to mention that on another platform I continuously withdrew filament and took home a resin printer and another filament printer. I also tried to “ride” the trends and participate in every contest but it forced me to design things I had no interest in and in the end it was becoming frustrating. if one wants to keep 3d printing as a hobby and not as a job so for me it is better to forget about the points for the moment and focus on what interests them and improve their design skills, participate in competitions only if there is something that stimulates the mind for out-of-the-box solutions and wait…at least from my experience, consistency on makerworld pays off
Because different things appeal to different people, a photobox is a pretty common item that people might need either for printing or taking pictures of their other products to sell elsewhere, if a product fills a need it gets downloaded, i could spend days modelling something that nobody really needs or wants or i could design a super basic thing that people might actually use and they will download it
Ignoring the pi case that went viral my more downloaded models are just small functional things like business card holders etc
to Shaq981 I would suspect that once someone designs something and makes it available, there will be copycats. Interested parties will start downloading and the number of downloads will start accumulating and my guess is that the early bird gets the worm, and once in a while the second mouse gets the cheese.
There is a good chance that many are disappointed with the first one on the block and wish they would have gotten something better but don’t know where to look. I have made some pretty neat items and have never shared them with anyone, not because I am selfish, its that I have a hard time with the details of uploading. Keep up the good work and don’t get discouraged.
Don’t focus on what others are doing. Ask any artist in any other type of medium; it’s the best way to get discouraged.
This does not mean neglecting to look at other art as inspiration is important; however it does mean you shouldn’t get hung up on the success of others.
Time, dedication and practice. Time, dedication, practice. Time, dedication, practice.
Those are the things you need to succeed when working on creative pursuits.
Funny you should mention photo boxes. I happen to have created probably the most downloaded one. Out of all of things I have made, it has become my most successful model. It was one of the first things I designed and did not expect it to gain much interest, but I figured I made it I might as well upload it. There are many copies and imitations out there now, including the one you posted.
Unlike many of the other ones out there, mine is at least a true “cyclorama” style with curves instead of corners to create an infinite backdrop. I once worked for a local news affiliate and they had a studio-sized cyclorama which game me the idea. I was always tempted to bring in a skateboard and ride the curves!
Oh I’ve seen this one actually; I like that its curved. As do many! A lot of people seem to forget that 3d printers tend to not do best at sharp corners and so its always good to add fillets which is likely why it achieved success; it reduced the chances of issues during printing.
I´ve started to experiment with the release of the model, because i feel the same as you. If you miss the start and do not get over a certain threshold - the model is basically dead. It´s not that that my life depends on it - i would have designed the model anyways, because I only design what I need. But it´s nice to see that other people also like it right? It´s always exiting to wait for the first reviews. And sometimes you get overwhelmed - but sometimes it´s like, is it so bad? Bad timing?
I´ve tried posting them to Facebook Groups, Discord, Instagram - but what can i say. My friend’s Real-life friends are impressed. But it has no effect, at, all.
Example 1:
I am not in the vase-game, but i was tinkering a lot with this specific model, probably because it´s all spacings are calculated and it´s fully parametric. Everything needed to match up perfectly to have this perfectly aligned shape.
Beauty shots, Discord, Community Post, YouTube, Instagram. Everything that could be done, I’ve done it. I managed to gather 33 Makes until now, while I´ve printed around 50 myself for friends and family, they liked it. Somehow no one on Maker World . It did not Pick-up on the start and got nowhere since then.
Example 2:
Some of you may know, i like organization so boxes are obviously important to me, and I also have some in my designs and even more in fusion .
One of my earlier models is quite successful it’s this one, i really still like it and print it regularly:
So, it recently got an update; to now fully support the parametric model builder, it was quite a lot of work, lots of talks with my colleagues and was testing my math knowledge once again and driving me nuts.
Again, I did the whole preparation stuff, discord, YouTube, Community Post, etc.
The community post was the most devastating to me, I was really happy about the update and invested more time than I would ever acknowledge. And received a single like. That´s crazy as I have round 6.3k followers. So how do i reach them? The model itself has 5.5k likes and around 12.3k collects.
A single like on the community post seems like it reaching no one.
This time i´ve invited the unoffical model posting makerworld_ account as collab partner. And and i was surprised about the reach. Since my last reel had reached around 300 people, this one reached 4.1k! Thats huge for my little social media presence.
But in total, it had no effect at all - means the conversions are the same as before, and aside from me now knowing a bit more about video cutting and social media - it changed nothing .
Example 3:
I´ve designed some trash bins, only did some photos and pushed it out was it was again built out of nesessity and i just wanted to share it. Did the usual posting, but not a huge effort. And we got trending, and i was like huh.
Conclusions:
I fully agree, when the model does not hit trending in the first 7 days it will have a hard time in the long run.
The community tab is more or less dead in terms on conversions
Your followers are a nice number, but there is no way to contact them
Updating a model has no impact
Social media is a nice play but also has little impact (if you have little followers as me, can’t judge for others.) Only friends and family will order things.
Discord has little to no impact (at least the official one)
Maybe i am just trash and should stick to programming .
Contests seem to make a certain category more desirable
You need to be lucky, have the right model at the right time
Constant OnePage Seo helps a bit.
I am also clueless.
If you read this, cheers, if it hepls someone or atleast gave some insights, cheers cheers!
Edit: I recently started collecting more data about usage and performance of my models. I am specificly interrested in at what times the downloads and prints happen. Will let you know once I have figured more out a usage pattern.
Makerworld’s userbase skews younger and less skilled than other repositories because of how Bambu Lab markets their printers. That explains a lot of what doesn’t make sense with how things work on MW.
I am also struggling with this. As I understand followers do not get informed when a new model is uploaded. Things like community and social media does next to nothing. And every 5 minutes a ton of new models.
There is so much noise on Makerworld with bad models, I downloaded a coaster as a quick birthday present to print and I ended up changing all kinds of settings to get a good print.
Also a new trend seems to be Warhammer 40K models, you see minis, ruins and all kinds of stuff. This stuff is mostly stolen from other sources and meant to be printed on a SLA printer, but it is uploaded here a lot and makes the front page every single time.
And then there are AI models, they seem to be dominating nowadays. Look at this account : Slevin | Published - MakerWorld
Even the avatar is AI, ai generated and models are colored in Bambu studio (not a very good job either), a gimmick milked and repeated to farm points.
But héh, that is what people seem to want… little cats and dolls that make no sense.
It appears you need to go on the trend wagon, with stuff like knitted animals, layered sculptures, urban figurines and stuff like that to be successful. And use AI for it so it does not take to much time to make. I can’t blame them, but it is annoying as hell and leaves no room for niche stuff to be shown.
Yes, with printing going mainstream you are going to end up dealing with the normie crowd, and they just want little toys and cute things they can give to kids etc
It use to be you’d spend months even years, and a lot of money developing a product. When ever one of mine flops (about 85%) I just think, well a least I didn’t have to sell my kidney and just move on to the next. I still feel it though, even more when I look at the trending page.
If you’re not getting views, improve your photography. I’m only 3 months into this so still learning, but my stuff gets a lot of views just not translating to downloads, I do understand why though, so I’ve start to put draft profiles to speed up printing times so people to test without wasting a bunch of filament.
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