While you may not have heard much about PixelSquid lately, we’ve been hard at work on something new and exciting.
Today, we are releasing our latest developments for PixelSquid.com. Our team has been hard at work creating a plug-in for Photoshop that makes PixelSquid content even more accessible to 2D designers. We will be promoting this to the Photoshop community and the press next week, during the Adobe MAX conference. While it will be live on the site for the next few days, you and other existing users will have access to download the plug-in to see it in action. Every artist that has published content to PixelSquid will be contacted individually to discuss the impact, however details are included below regarding the changes that have happened and that are forthcoming.
We’ve included a peek at what the Photoshop plug-in can do in the short video below. You also have access to download and install it from PixelSquid.com.
With the release of this plug-in, there are other changes to the content focus.
When PixelSquid was first announced, amassing imagery to show as both shots and spinners was a focus. We have learned a great deal from the users that have downloaded content, and we’ve seen what works best within the plug-in. As a result, products that do not work within the new plug-in have been removed from the site, among other changes, in an effort to provide the best user experience.
The following are the changes to PixelSquid you should expect to see:
- Only Iconic Spinner Images
The products that have been taken offline have mostly been meta products and shots. Any content that you may have loaded that has been removed is still available for you to view on your My Products page. This content will remain there for approximately one month, and will then be removed. Content that remains online has been deemed “Iconic content” by our Production team. As mentioned, most meta products have been removed. Shot content that contains a spinner remain live however, any shots related to the product have been hidden.
- No More Object Library Access to the Object Library will be removed. As its purpose was to provide content in an effort to make meta products, it is no longer needed. We will, however, be removing some of the restrictions on the material library and tools to make them more useful for PixelSquid and TurboSquid artists.
- Shots Are Gone For those that published products containing both shots and a spinner, the shots for that content will be now be hidden. For content that contained shots only, if the subject of the content matches the standard of “iconic” as determined by our Production team, you will be individually contacted to discuss converting the content into a spinner. While the ability to create shots still exists within the publishing pipeline, it will soon be removed from the site. Any shot content that has been submitted may be removed from our review queue, if it does not fit the “iconic” criteria.
- Selling All Angles of an Object
There was a great deal of confusion by early PixelSquid users regarding the pay-per-downloaded angle of a single object. Within this new release, the download of multiple angles of a single product by a single user will now count as one (1) download. Due to this change, downloads will be counted differently on your artist dashboard.
- Free for All
In an effort to gain traction and garner interest for the changes to the site and new plug-in, all content will be free for all users. We will continue to distribute download payments using the same prorated method.
For feedback or questions regarding these changes, we have created a forum thread to answer questions you might have.