I'll show you how much I earn from commissions, without wrapping it up (blank eyes).

*This post is a continuation of "Dai bi ga ten"exhibition Photo Album

I have been working so much in my room that I don't get to talk to many people, so I joined the drinking party that had been planned for the day before so that I could talk to many people.

┃Modelers should get out and interact to some extent

I like the fact that exhibitions like this not only showcase works, but also allow for a lot of interaction.

I have been thinking recently that it is better to have a loose connection with other modelers, since it is not possible to live only by making works (this is quite important).

You can learn a lot of things that you don't know, and conversely, there are many things that you can share with others... If you haven't done such things before, it might be a good idea to give it a try.

To be honest, I'm not very good at socializing myself, but even so, it's a good stimulus or motivator since there are not many people nearby with whom I can share common interests.

┃A year in which I realized that it is usually tough to live only commissions, and difficult without the support of Fantia and Patreon

It was something I was struggling with quite a bit, and I mentioned it in X because it's the end of the year, but I've made ends meet this year almost entirely on commissions.

For commissions alone, you only had a little over 2 million yen in sales（around 13,700 usd）(There are certain work-in-progress items that cannot be recorded as sales, to be exact.) .

As for jobs, there were about 10. I know you must have thought it was not much, but I can't take on many commissions because of the videos and articles I write...

There have been offers to do commercial coloring, but because of confidentiality agreements, we are not allowed to reveal anything about our work to the outside world. That's why I haven't accepted the jobs.

I am the type of person who likes to publish videos, articles, and other things...Sales on the video side were roughly 710,000 yen (4,870 usd) from January to early December.There were three videos that could not be monetized because they had too much skin color area, and for those, I was producing videos at 0 yen per hour.

To be exact, there were two cases of non-compliance with advertisements by youtube and two cases of revenue stripping due to copyright claims by BGM copyright fraud organizations.

BGM copyright fraud organizations suck, so I have recently stopped adding BGM to my videos.

I am in a tough situation because I have only received sample production fees from dealers.

Now that there is an aspect of promotion, I may have to pass on the cost of production in the future.

Maybe Raiko's videos don't get ads either, and the revenue is 0 yen. ”Why don't you upload any videos at all?” It's because they are not profitable. It would be more profitable if I used the editing time to work on behalf of the commissions, sad to say...

Looking at this, I can see that I am living in extreme poverty, but fortunately, I have the support of many people at Fantia and Patreon, so my annual income is about the same as the starting salary of a new graduate salaryman.

However, what is less is still less... Without going into any more details, I will just say the result is an annual income of 4 million yen (27,400 usd ) after deducting expenses.

I am usually worried about my future just by this figure. After further taxes are deducted from here, my take-home pay will be less than 3.5 million yen (24,000 usd).

I'll show you, the real working poor...!

┃I was trying to make up the revenue, but I was riding into the fire

The most difficult part of the commission is that it is difficult to leverage the production.

In the case of prototype production, once a piece is made, it can be sold over and over again until the demand is exhausted, allowing for a certain amount of leverage. (This does not take into account the price increase of resin, reproduction costs, event participation costs, etc.)

If you do well, you should be able to break even and make a large positive profit.

But with a commissions, once you make it, that's it, and there's nothing you can do about it. You earn income only once. That's the biggest weak point of commissions.

So, in my case, I try to get a little leverage by making videos and articles, but the more I do it, the more I lose money. My time is being drained away for free...! I can't stand it.

It is seriously hard, so when I think of ways to improve profitability, I still feel I have no choice but to raise the production fee. The current production fee is based on an hourly rate, so we may raise it by 1,000 to 1,500 yen starting next year.

If I get paid for the production of the video itself, people might say, ”Then we don't need the video. We could consider the option of making it membership-only, but then it would not be a promotion. So raising the commissions fee may be the safest way to drop it...

If I don't get any more orders from anyone because of this price increase, I think it would be better to spend more time doing work unrelated to modeling or to practice to sculpt to make more money in the future.

I think it would be easier to live by making prototypes than by coloring, in terms of income. In any case, the current jobs will remain the same, but I will be raising the price of new jobs starting next year.

If you have a main job, you should not change to a commissions job. It will make your life difficult.

It is safest and most secure to take the form of a side job if you want to do it. Also, please note that it is not necessarily better to work as a maker colorist than a commission artist. I am sure you will learn more about that in time...