Please reanimate by giving free scripting something in return like ability to get paid scripts via ES.
I get wanting to get some money for the time you take to create a script, but I miss the days of everyone not trying to make a money for every thing.
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I noticed that too. Ig we are at a point again where people try to squeeze out every bit of money…
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I share this. I think it’s a combination of cultural shift as well as popularity of the media.
When enough people use and develop for a “thing” as a hobby or interest, someone will see a profit motive. While I’m absolutely in favor of creators and makers getting fairly compensated for their time and experience (I’m an independent worker and on commission myself), there comes a point when it looks more like a hustle than a hobby. I know, I took my hobbies and made them my hustle (would only recommend if asked on 4 of 7 days/week) - it’s rewarding in a way but holy hell does it suck the fun out of things sometimes… I haven’t been to a “____fest” where I wasn’t working, for 20 years…at least I’ve helped a fuckton of folks have a great time.
But vibes don’t pay bills, and costs for tech products have skyrocketed. New script tools seem to use ever-piggy GPUs and system requirements, and video compilers/makers often pay for content they’re using. 8-12 hours to script 5-20 minute videos, is billable time for sure.
All that said… after some time browsing around, it becomes pretty clear who is pricing to recoup costs, and who is pricing to make profit. I sense a quality difference too - it seems like some profit-motivated scripts are either churned out with the frequency of a full-time job or AI-gen with minimal adjustment, and feel that way, very little difference between scripts, repetitive elements - does it “do the job”? Yeah, sure, I guess.
Seems like the “hobby” scripts have more care and an element of user-enjoyment at the core. Like, the maker created it because they wanted to enjoy it. There’s more attention to quality… but this consumes a ton of time, which these days, sure as hell isn’t free.
Gig working, side-hustles, grinding - all part of a capitalist culture, symptoms of humans trying to survive. Far be it from me to cast a judgement on folks trying to survive - if you’re someone who watches a fair bit of porn and has a hobby in these devices and scripts, why not turn some of that time into production, for yourself or others?
regarding profit motivated scripting … The blacklist/blocking and filter functions on the site are helpful, but they sure don’t increase the number of “hobby scripts” posted with reasonable cost or free-taste.
Like everything eventually in capitalist hellscapes, at some point everything you like will cost you money.
edit, shoutout to @zetox, they’re fuckin crushing it.
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This would be more like trading services, since no money actually has to change hands. Its theoretically doable if people just gift free memberships on patreon from one scripter to another. But that would have to be up to each individual paid scripter on whether or not they’d be ok giving up some profit to fellow scripters.
Edit: You would also have to determine who deserves it/has earned it. Cause you wouldn’t hand out an archive of a bunch of scripts to someone who just posts one script for access.
I understand some of the logic, in exchange for making scripts free for everyone you wouldn’t be making money that would theoretically go towards buying scripts or a membership.
For me personally, everything I’ve made is free and I don’t expect anything for it. Yeah, it’d be nice, but I’m not expecting or asking for anything.
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You don’t have to paywall everything to get support. I post all my scripts free and people support me because they like what I’m making. Supporters get early access to WIPs and unfinished stuff before public release, but nothing is ever locked. That’s the model I’d rather operate on.
The paywall-everything approach became so common that it created cover for people churning out low-effort stuff at the same price point as genuinely handcrafted work. Now it’s hard to tell them apart before you’ve already paid, and I think that’s where most of the frustration comes from.
Scripts made because someone wanted to enjoy them just feel different from scripts made to hit a release cadence. Keeping it free keeps me making what I actually want to make instead of what’s safe to charge for, and I think that comes through. People can feel it even if they can’t articulate why, and that’s what gets them to support me voluntarily. That’s been my experience, anyway…
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I feel pretty strongly about releasing free works as well, but i’ve also dumped a few hundred hours into this hobby and when I think about that time investment it only makes sense for people to want monetary value for it. I can only do a practice what you preach approach, best way to make change is to be the change.
That being said I know Vlad talked about a site implemented paid scripts system and the community voted on a shared compensation approach so I believe it’s in the works. I actually messaged them awhile back wanting to donate scripts to help support the site and they said they were trying to adopt some kind of creator compensation approach but weren’t ready just yet.
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I have seen this sentiment a few times.
I agree with most people’s assessment that, any given hobby can only last so long before the time invested only makes sense if it’s returning some form of monetary gain.
The numbers show that free scripts has gone up but has remained within a range, though recently has dipped.
Paid scripts have continued to rise:
I think this sentiment comes from the noticeable dip in free and spike in paid.
It should be also noted that free scripts has always and still outnumbers the paid scripts.
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Without any statistics, aren’t a lot of the free scripts made for shorter content (around 5 min), and aren’t quite a lot for animated content as well? I also believe most full length VR content is paid nowadays.
Personally, I hardly script anymore and the shift toward paid scripts for VR content is a major reason for that (not the only one though). I simply don’t want to compete and hurt paid script sales by releasing a free script for the same new video release a couple of days later.
Cudos to people like @bumdude that still release a lot of free quality VR scripts!
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There’s also the fact that if its paid scripts, people have an extrinsic reason to pump out scripts.
I have absolutely zero extrinsic reasons to pump out scripts. I just do them when I feel like it or if there’s something going on. Don’t gotta worry about tips, ads, clicks etc etc.
I’ve honestly got a massive backlog of scripts to sort through that I’ve barely even watched/used. There’s plenty of scripts and videos Ive downloaded that I probably like but don’t care for enough to take up space so I’ve just been clearing that out and not worrying about buying more.
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It all comes down to value.
I’d rather pay for a good script than build one myself. I script a lot for my own use and sometimes (if I finish the entire video), I post my work for free. But I know how much time these creators spend building the scripts and, to me, a couple bucks is worth it since it saves me a lot of time and effort. I still tend to modify paid and free scripts to my personal liking, but at worst, I’m only spending a couple hours scripting every week or so, instead of 20-40+ hours on just one video.
There are still some exceptionally talented scripters who post their work for free. Though I wouldn’t mind if they ended up charging for their work either, I’d just be more selective about which script/video I’d buy, which ends up saving hard drive space.
I do like the practice of including a free sample of a script, especially from someone I’ve never purchased from. At least you see if the creator has some skill before paying for the full script.
Lastly, @sentinel reminded me about @bumdude’s continued awesomeness and I’m sending that guy a tip for his consistently excellent, and free, scripts.
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personal opinion, but I get the feeling the media being scripted in paid just isnt good enough to be scripted for free. The ones that are good enough usually do get scripted for free, especially if it’s by a big name animator. When something new by theobrobine, vicineko, etc. drops, it gets a free script almost instantly.
On the flip side, there’s less incentive to script something and charge for it when someone’s already posted a free script for it. It might be the case that free scripters are* trying to be considerate of paid scripters, but I doubt it.
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As a long time lurker I’ve subscribed to some patreons and some random persons (french?) payment platform. But I found it convoluted, and turned out a bit disappointed with the hassle vs. browsing the free scripts. + the “motivation” of consuming the content we’re adressing can vary.
I feel its a bit like gaben said about piracy: people are willing to pay for good services, if the availability is there, and the transaction is as hassle free as possible.
I assume that a sales + transaction platform is far out of the scope, but a standardized trusted platform would make me a lot more spontanious with my wallet for a tantelizing script
Yeah recency def plays a big part in what gets scripted. I’ve got a handful of stuff from popular creators that got skipped over because theyre old, or they weren’t widely available around release.
Scripters already have a backlog and they can only parse through so much new content. So there’s just stuff they haven’t seen or fell through the cracks. And even if they see it, if its not to their taste they’ll pass on it.
I’ve dug up a bunch of old videos I liked and thrown them at @Anifs since they actively take suggestions on their discord and some make it through and some don’t. So I just toss them back in the vault till I find someone else to throw them at or decide to just work on some myself.
Just adding my two cents: As others have pointed out, the decline in free scripts is likely just a symptom of a growing community where some degree of commercialization is inevitable.
That said, it’s not just the volume dropping — the average quality of free scripts feels like it’s slipping too(aside from the veterans who’ve always been putting out solid work). A lot of what’s coming out lately feels rushed, and I think that tracks with more people entering the space to monetize rather than because they had something they wanted to make. I’m not knocking anyone’s hustle, and I genuinely appreciate creators who still share free work alongside their paid stuff. But the shift in motivation is hard to miss.
Full disclosure: I’m still pretty new here — only published two free scripts so far, and I’ll probably explore the Paid route myself at some point, so I’m definitely not trying to speak from a high horse.
But I really resonated with what @lamp said. Deep down, I still hold onto that old-school internet spirit of sharing. In a perfect world, I’d love for creators to be able to freely swap works with each other — a genuine creator-to-creator exchange with no paywall between us. I know that probably doesn’t scale in today’s landscape, but it’s still what feels right to me. 
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Yes I also see the statistics not showing what really happens. A lot of one minute animation scripts that hold the numbers high. A full 30-40 minute quality frame by frame script is rare. Its a bit of a downward spiral.
I can only speak from my side. I dont like the traceable transaction and loosing anonymity for a hobby that is not really like playing chess. So I dont sell and dont buy scripts. At the moment there is so few free good scripts that I withhold about 50 hours of scripting. I use the scripts to traid them for paid scripts. I even offer them my scripts to sell them for their own in return if they want. As I have made a name I get them for free sometimes if I post a small review, sometimes I edit the script to give something back to them. But some scripters dont even answer to my proposal that script is then inaccessible to me.
We need a trading system that does not involve money and still connects to the paid scripts. Not an easy task. I tried a method to script a request of mine to free up the script but that did not really work. Only few scripts were unlocked.
So from my side ES gets more and more unattractive.
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We need more scripters I will be trying to make some scripts
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also based on your tags you could have a bunch of free scripts hidden from you so there might be more than you think
AI is getting close to get most of flat and VR videos a script.
Maybe next month
I would love for that to be true. Experience has however shown me this is rarely the case. Now I cant say that SLR A.I. scripts are still like this but certainly the A.I scripts elsewhere are still very poor. It’s not like you can get a refund if the A.I. script sucks.
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