A question for 2D artists

Do you charge depending on image resolution?

For instance, would you charge 4 times the amount for a 2048x2048 digital painting than a 1024x1024 as it’s 4 times larger?

No.

A higher resolution image can require more work detailing so I would say it entirely depends on the client and brief. If you are simply upsampling an image to be bigger then no lol. Base your pricing on how much time you think you’ll need to complete a work (and how much you think a client has to spend), not how big an image is!

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If you’re doing pixel art I imagine it would be something like four times as much, no? But if you’re painting it’s going to be the detail level that counts, not how much distance your wrist clocked up making it. I’m not a 2D artist, but this would make sense to me.

That would be size. Size or scope is specific to the nature of the work. Resolution is a technical specification that varies based on other factors. That would be like determining a price based on whether it is a png or jpeg. You wouldn’t charge the same for a 1024 concept painting of a sword as you would a 1024 pixel art piece depicting an army of unique soldiers.

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Yeah come to think of it I was making the assumption that higher resolution pixel art equates to more detail, which is not necessarily true.

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As with most creative endeavors, you charge based on work done. There are no material costs, so what you are actually selling is your time.

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thats not really accurate since you still need to pay for hardware, software, rent, electricity and sometimes even licenses for font, stockimages etc

That stuff is mostly a fixed thing though, not something that scales with the project

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fonts and stock photos do though…

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As said, those are fixed, not material. There is no cost difference if you are delivering 1k pixels or 4K pixels.

Sure, but that wasn’t the question. If the question was “should I charge more if I have to buy a specific font for the project?” The answer would be yes. (Assuming it was discussed with the client first).

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Yeah but that’s irrelevant for the resolution. Like you don’t need a pro tier font for 4k :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s pretty darn close. In any operation on a developed country, skilled labour will be the most significant cost by a long shot.

Contrast it to construction or manufacturing where the biggest cost can be the raw materials. Wages are often insignificant.

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Particularly true in games. In a game with a multimillion dollar development budget, that is pretty much all labor. (And possibly beer) hardware and software costs are often trivial.

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Here’s a conundrum, what would you charge for vector art? ∞

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Same as raster art. The quote from an artist is based on time estimate. Style, type, resolution, scale, is all irrelevant minus the extra time it will take to develop a 4k texture beyond how long it will take to develop a 128x128 texture. It’s all about time.
Vector - Raster - there isn’t any difference, unless you are better at raster graphics and the client specifically requests vector art. That would most likely increase the quote because vector might take you longer to complete than raster.

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