I'm an illustrator with a specialty in drawing detailed backgrounds and some experience doing graphic design, web design, and 3d rendering. And recently I finished building my first setup from scratch—overlay, alerts, BRB video, banner, everything except the Spotify widget (and panels, which I haven't done yet)—to start doing art streams later this month.

It's intentionally minimalist, and even then was one of the most challenging projects I've taken on in years, but now that it's done, I feel like I've learned enough that I could definitely do some more flowery and decorative ones. And I'd be really interested in trying VTuber backgrounds and other assets too. That market is aturated with AI images, but I wonder if that itself creates a niche for ones that are actually painted.

My main sticking point is, would it be worth starting projects that might take dozens of hours for... the same amount of dollars? When anyone can just whip up something simple on Canva or buy a cheap pack on Etsy, can they really fetch much? Or could it still at least be worth trying as a side gig?

Also, my biggest weak point is that I don't know After Effects or motion graphics, just some video editing. So I can't do slick animated transitions or many overlay animations more complicated than atmospheric and scrolling elements. I'd like to learn, or maybe even pay an animator to work with on it, though.