TurboSquid closed a major deal with Autodesk Seek® a few weeks ago that we can finally announce. We’re excited about this for several reasons. Firstly, it shows the continued trust that Autodesk places in TurboSquid and our leadership in building this industry.
Secondly, it places TurboSquid in the best position to reach the massive number of CAD users coming into the graphics markets and further augments our existing relationships within their Media & Entertaiment group. As a 3D artist in the animation world, I used to personally just deal with pictures and animations for clients. I had no idea what CAD really did, or how that industry connected to ours in more than a superficial way. A decade and some gray hairs later, I’ve learned that the CAD users outnumber 3D artists (what I would have called “us” previously) by an order of magnitude at the minimum. I’ve heard estimates (from non-Autodesk sources) that the number of users in this space is twenty times greater. The good thing for us is that they want imagery. CAD users can now render high quality images in Revit, and they are only going to want more models and resources in the future, from furniture to people to buildings to trees.
Lastly, Autodesk is making a significant effort to build content solutions of various types for their users. They have an entire group and large team, Autodesk Seek, that’s focused on this aspect of 3D. For the part of their effort that involves users selling content, it’s all coming exclusively from TurboSquid’s membership and infrastructure. This is a huge victory for our community and will put our sellers and their work directly in front of those who need their content the most.
There are a lot of great things happening in the 3D industry right now, most recently 3D going natively into Google’s chrome browser and home television sets supporting 3D viewing. The fact that CAD users are getting a taste for imagery and getting closer to “our” world will only open more doors and possibilities for everyone who has content for sale through TurboSquid.