[TheGapBetweenMerlons]

Just to clarify: I have no relationship with this site, not as owner/manager, artist (I can only wish that my 3D-fu was so good), or affiliate. I'm an early adopter, that's all.

PixelSquid is a new stock image site from the people behind TurboSquid, offering perfectly-isolated images that -- in many cases -- can be rotated by you to get the angle you want. TurboSquid has offered 3D models for a long time, but you needed to know how to use them (and have the right software) to be able to build images (e.g., for book covers). The way PixelSquid works, you don't need that knowledge or software, you download the finalized images. For any image that has a 360-degree preview, you can rotate the subject however you want.

For example, check out this wine barrel, and make sure that you let the page finish loading: https://www.pixelsquid.com/stock-image/old-wine-barrel-873164973436572755?image=I15 Once all of the progress indicators are done, click on the barrel itself and move your mouse to rotate it. I think it's really cool!

For people who sign on now, you'll get a $50 credit that expires at the end of the month. Like many stock image sites, the "extended license" is probably best suited to book covers, but apparently those are on sale during this intro period, so you can stretch your $50 credit even further.

 

[ML-Larson]

Oh my god, this is amazing. I have no use for this for covers, but I have needed something like this for my artwork for years. And they have free images. Not many, but enough to get me to go back when I'm on my PC.

 

[The 13th Doctor]

Thanks, Crenel. Have bookmarked the site. Looks interesting.

 

[TheGapBetweenMerlons]

I just wish it had been available earlier.  I want to make use of my free credits, so I'm looking at downloading some images for future cover designs (or redesigns) that I have in mind, even though I may not get around to using them for several months.

 

[77071]

Whoa!  That could be quite useful.  If a person knew what they were doing...

 

[[email protected]]

Was excited until I looked around. The license agreements are some of the worst in the business for the price. You also really need to know your stock art rules since they don't mark editorial images very clearly. I had to hunt for it when I saw a name brand on full display, something that's a major no-no for cover images. Most sites list it in red right under the image. It's kind of a big deal. Some sites don't accept images with brands displayed at all.

Pretty cool you can spin the image to any side or direction you need though. Not sure that's worth 10x the cost at a tenth of the reprint numbers.

It will be interesting to see what they change the longer they are in business. Hopefully some of these things will be worked out. Or, it's very likely, the site stay the same as it just isn't tailored toward the book cover market.

 

[Quiss]

Awesome. Now if they only had spaceships...

 

[TheGapBetweenMerlons]

Was excited until I looked around. The license agreements are some of the worst in the business for the price. You also really need to know your stock art rules since they don't mark editorial images very clearly.

That's a good point about flagging images for editorial use. Hopefully they can find a way to communicate that better. I might send them some feedback about it, since they are looking for input from users.

For the license agreements, is it just the number of copies for the price, or did you notice something particularly bad in the fine print?

Not sure that's worth 10x the cost at a tenth of the reprint numbers.

I was curious about this comment, so I compared it to Shutterstock (one of the microstock sites where I do have images available for licensing). To try for an apples-to-apples comparison, I...

• used regular (non-sale) prices
• used the no-subscription option on Shutterstock since PixelSquid doesn't offer a subscription option
• assumed buying the minimum-allowed quantity to avoid scaled-pricing complexity

	Shutterstock	PixelSquid
Standard license cost:	$14.50 *	$10.00
Standard license copies:	250,000	50,000
Standard license cost/copy:	$0.000058	$0.001
Extended license cost:	$99.50 *	$50.00
Extended license copies:	Unlimited	Unlimited
Extended license cost/copy:	N/A	N/A

* You can't buy just one image on Shutterstock, you must buy at least two. This table assumes you have reason to buy two and can split the cost. If you only need one, then double all costs in the Shutterstock column.

For limited print runs, Shutterstock is the winner in price per copy, and what qualifies as "limited" is much higher on Shutterstock than PixelSquid. For unlimited print runs, PixelSquid is the clear winner in price.

Until the end of this month, PixelSquid wins hands-down on price since the extended license is less than Shutterstock's limited-run license.

 

[TheGapBetweenMerlons]

Awesome. Now if they only had spaceships...

I thought I saw one or two... not sure. Anyway, if you have (and know how to use) 3D modeling software, there are definitely spaceships on TurboSquid. That was where I picked up the spacecraft on the cover of my collection of science fiction short stories. I'm a little weak (understatement) in the know-how-to-use department, though!

 

[Wansit]

This is great for cover artists! Thank you 

Just to be clear - do they down in PNG format?

 

[TheGapBetweenMerlons]

Just to be clear - do they down in PNG format?

I'm not sure if all images are available in PNG, but the ones I looked at offered PNG and other formats. On each image's page, the "Product Information" box lists the formats (which I guess implies that some might not be available in PNG).

 

[TheGapBetweenMerlons]

They posted a neat tutorial that shows there's more to their PSD files than just a photo:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/24766539/Paint-It-Black-Stock-Image-Editing-in-Mere-Minutes

In a nutshell, in the PSD file there's a folder of selection areas making it trivial to select specific parts of the image, which can then be used to modify how the image looks without the errors and/or time cost of creating your own selections.