Released my first plugin, woohooo and thank you!

Photoshop
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Hi everyone -

Just excited to share… After many months and many many coffees, I just released my first plugin on the Plugin Marketplace!

3dmachine36
3dmachine361900×763 215 KB

It started with the video from @simonhenke on “Developing Your First UXP Plugin”. I got super excited, and happened to have been working on a ridiculously complex action that made a perfect jumping off point. (Thank you Simon!)

In any case, a HUGE THANK YOU to the community here. I’m more of a lurker than a poster, but have repeatedly gone through MANY of the threads here and cannot overstate how invaluable the conversations have been. @AnthonyK and @Velara chimed in when I hit a roadblock - still appreciative of that.

Here’s a trailer I put together for the plugin where you can see a little bit of it in action:

This Fastspring system is very funky and seems to have some reporting lag-time, but it’s looking like a decent little handful of sales so far.

10 Likes
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I follow TextureLabs on YT. It looks like you’d have a lot of stuff for plugins. I’m sure many people would like the convenience of having these things in a Photoshop panel. Good luck.

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Thanks very much, ya I think I’d enjoy making like 20 of these panels. I’m hoping we might see a few features in the future, like access to the clipboard - lot’s of possibilities.

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Nice one! :slight_smile: I’m always a fan of having such a preview right on the panel, especially when the function itself takes a moment to run :+1:

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Awesome, ya the preview was a little tricky to implement - there are 20 shape variations, each with 40 lighting possibilities. So rather than include 4000 sample images, the base shapes are on a large PNG in a grid, then the shadows lay on top with a transparent PNG in a grid. The different settings move the grids around to line up the right combo.
Anyways, thanks again Simon!

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LOL I’ve just happened to watch the video on YT and by chance checked the board here. Congrats, it looks very well made! :rocket: Given the exposure it’s been given I’m sure it’ll be well received.

Yep, FastSpring is… FastSpring, but after a while you get used to it :grin:

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@DavideBarranca your Things You Need To Know series is INCREDIBLY valuable - thank you and it’s cool to hear from you!

I am the classic “I am looking into UXP first, then I’ll try React… sometime in the future” guy mentioned on your site… But if the plugin gets a little traction, the plan is to approach the next one by going through your React learning path. Looking forward to it :smile:

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Great work mate, the plugin looks amazing! Love your YT tutorials! Always inspires me!

You’ve got a huge audience already so makes sense to sell on the marketplace. Keen to hear about your experience with that. I was wondering if you were going to enter the plugin space and or distribute on your website.

I went the do-it-yourself Shopify route https://vexus.digital/ but starting from 0 :rofl:

Great work again mate, and the trailer looks epic!

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Thanks so much Blaz, cool to hear from you - I saw your plugins when you shared the page! They look great, and a very nice job on the presentation.

In my experience so far, I’m thinking I made the wrong call on distributing through the marketplace. I think I underestimated just how inconvenient it is to have no metrics, contact with customers, or immediate access to change the listing. The one big selling point of the marketplace was that ease of installation. That direct line to purchase right through Creative Cloud is a pretty nice feature.

Question for you - are you using an installer when people purchase a plugin, or do you just guide people to install the CCX and grant proper permissions?

Thanks again for the reply - cheers!

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I tend to agree mate. When people like myself have little to no audience, I totally get that the marketplace is a no-brainer for sales, get access to a larger audience.

That said, being in the digital space and sold online before, I could see the downsides to this. My thought process was to sell on my own site, or on the Envato, creative marketplaces for even larger audiences.

Having 100% control on your own platform is always worth the investment in my eyes, however.
@Karmalakas and I had a good chat about this on another thread.

The reality is you could do both (suggest you also try experimenting with those other bigger marketplaces, I think you’ll get good results).

Re install, I took the approach from day one that installing locally won’t be an issue, and it hasn’t been. I point people to my install page How to install or update your plugin – Vexus Digital

If users were buying from my online store, in my eyes they felt comfortable enough to pay me money for a product, so accepting those install dialogues was no longer a hurdle and trust had been formed between my brand and the customer.

In your instance, that trust is even stronger. I 100% recommend you sell direct on your website given your audience and the trust you’ve built in the space over the years. Also means you can develop your own process for pushing out updates, collection emails, download stas, refunds, etc etc

Side note, I’ve poped you an email to your GMail from my Vexus email, so keep a lookout for that!
Thanks again!