NoneCG tells their story and gives away 4 of their amazing 3D models!

NoneCG is a team of talented designers from Japan and Spain. They mostly design computer graphics designs, but are looking into 3D printing too now. NoneCG think that a computer is an amazing tool in the hands of talented artists, but in the end it is just a tool. They claim that great models can be produced with much simpler tools depending solely on the skills and masterly of the designer. They are now releasing 4 models free exclusively for CGTrader community! Check them out here: Animated Bat, NYC Block Set, Adult Male Arms and Hands, NYC Block 6 Unity.

Tell us about yourself - what do you do, where are you based?

NoneCG is a 4 people team working as 3D content producers. We are primarily based in Galicia (Spain) and Yokohama (Japan).

How did you get started in 3D modeling?

NoneCG was founded in 2004 after years of working in production at several companies in different industries related to computer-generated visuals. As founder I had a background in both video game and publishing industries, but most recently in film and TV at Next Limit and TVE, the main Spanish public TV channel. From the somewhat frustrating experiences in these production areas emerged a goal to provide top quality content that is ready for production at competitive prices, but always following the Fair Business policies.

Do you design for CG, 3D Printing or both? Why? Which are your favorite design concepts to work on?

As our background comes primarily from the Visual FX for film & TV and video game industries, our products were designed with the CG industry in mind. Working in these production environments made us aware of the need of quality CG content, because due to fast production and short deadlines it is usually very difficult or even impossible to focus on quality for every asset involved.

Humans, Animals, Architecture Exteriors, Space and Unity models have been our primary areas to date, but we are developing some new ideas for 3D printing, too. We reckon this is an interesting new market, but we would like to approach it from an original design perspective.

Why do you sell 3D models online?

A lot of 3D artists today are suffering the "digital era pilgrimage", where they are forced to move to different countries every few years following the workload offered by the studios that move depending on the tax rebates offered by each country/city. This way of life usually pays off when you are young and have a hunger for working in a corporate environment where you can meet a lot of people, make contacts and fill your resume, but it becomes less and less attractive over the years when you plan for stability or family. Selling 3D content online allowed us to avoid pressure from artificial deadlines, bad management and gave us artistic, financial and personal freedom.

It has its downsides, too. Sometimes you can easily find yourself a bit disconnected from the benefits that physical presence offers, but luckily enough we live in a world where digital technology already revolutionized the way most people communicate.

How did you discover CGTrader?

We've been working in the 3D content industry for more than a decade now, and thus we have a long experience in almost all the CG 3D marketplaces that are online.Without a doubt, CGTrader has always been the marketplace that adopted the policies and business model that we see as the most ideal for all the parts involved: the content creator, the distributor and the customer.

I know this is a sensitive issue, but we must openly say that the CG 3D content industry is represented in two very different ways of doing business right now:

• The old business model represented by many marketplaces that offer a few differences over the same policies: minimizing the role and presence of the real content creators, imposing strict rules and trying to strip them of certain artistic and marketing independency, and usually acting as a "human firewall" between them and the final customers, all to benefit the middleman to an unfair degree.
• On the other hand, the new model established by CGTrader empowers the real content creators, giving us all sorts of freedom regarding our products and images, and encouraging communication with customers and fellow creators. Plus giving much higher royalties, instantly paid, much better support, publishing system, etc. and on top of that CGTrader has been the fastest growing marketplace.

During all these years we always felt that most marketplaces favored a kind of chaos and unfair competition between sellers because they were profiting a lot from that lack of understanding and cooperation between content creators. We at NoneCG think that at CGTrader, sellers and users benefit from the exact opposite policy, and that is a much better way of thinking about the future.

Did you have any interesting stories as a result of your presence on CGTrader? Maybe it let you earn a nice income stream, meet interesting people, or land new clients?

Whereas most companies and big CG marketplaces are more focused on quantity, our goal has always been the quality and good service. We see ourselves more as artists or artisans than businessmen, and therefore we care a lot and put extra effort in the quality of our models, which even after all these years we find uncomfortable to label as just "products".

Customer support is an area where CGTrader stands above the competition. We've grown very disappointed about the current support systems offered by most companies that promise 24/7 help and support, and when customers get in contact regarding any issue all they get is a robotic "I will create a Support Ticket for you and talk to my supervisor" standard answer, followed by the replies days or weeks later from people that clearly do not have proper knowledge about the products they are selling. The bid system for products has been a good and original addition that seems to be working well. It is another step in the right direction of providing a more fluent dialogue between the producer and the customer.

We usually answer within an hour and always follow up customers' experiences with our models to ensure they get the best possible support. Our average response time in CGTrader is 0.4h, and that's an undeniable fact that is hardly possible to match elsewhere.

Some marketplaces and resellers still try to prevent any kind of customer/producer communication in a desperate attempt to hold them both as "hostages" in their outdated middleman business models, but CGTrader has realized nobody can provide better support than the developers themselves and therefore directed their strength to other more productive areas.

Our models and scenes have been used by various types of customers: from big to small studios working in Film, TV, Videogames and Advertising (Sony, US Army, Boeing, to name a few off the top of my head) to freelancers and even hobbyists. We keep in contact with many of them to constantly improve our products and services, and ensure they fulfill the different needs of every customer with their particular goals.

Who are the most inspiring 3D designers in the world for you?

This is more a matter of personal opinion and taste, and there are many talented CG 3D artists with incredibly inspiring works for everyone like Steven Stahlberg, Marek Denko, Stefan Morrell, ... , but I would like to specifically mention the work of Jorge Seva (aka Alex Roman) for the positive artistic influence his "The Third and the Seventh" work made in the ArchViz industry.

A computer is an amazing tool in the hands of talented artists, but just a tool. There are a lot of artists that produced similar items using much simpler tools that I feel they need to be mentioned, too.

Although I always was passionate about the designs of H.R. Giger and consider the Alien "the Mona Lisa of dark design". I think Syd Mead may be the most inspiring designer in the recent decades. Admiring his works you can clearly see the influence he made in numerous different designs that nowadays we take for granted. The futuristic viewpoint of Syd Mead showed us the realistic future that we can compare with the talented visions of the classics like Jules Verne, and that's something you can say for a very few key people.