Hi there! I write today to ask you something that has been nagging me: the process of hiring a character/environment artist.
I’m planning on hiring someone to design a couple of characters for my game, but I’m not sure what is the typical process to pay them. Should I ask him to design something based on guidelines and pay him/her even if the result is not exactly what I wanted? or should I only pay if the result its what I want and ask for redraws until I get what I want?
On a related topic: do you know any good side to find good and relatively cheap concept artist aside from the Unity’s forums?
How you go about the process is between you and the artist. More info/ reference materials on what you want the better for the artist. I personally when working with clients ask tons of questions and ask for any reference materials on styles they have been considering. More info I can obtain results in less revisions. I personally allow about 3-4 revisions at most depending on the scope of the project. Additional revisions beyond my allowance costs extras for an set price agreed to by both the client and I before taking on the project.
You could check out Elance.com or microlancer.com for freelancers. Else try posting in the job section on the forum here.
Things like Deviant art and poly accounts to show they have some fanbase around their art is good. An art test might be necessary if they can’t provide that.
I recently hired an artist on polycount to do the cover of my friends first book. I posted in the freelance jobs section and got 5 or 6 responses, checked out his portfolio and negotiated terms. it was pretty easy and he’s doing great work.
Write a contract. It doesn’t have to be fancy and doesn’t have to be full of legal jargon. Just write down what you’re hiring them for and a detailed description of the job and your agreed upon terms. Revisions are of course an essential part of the contract, and they protect both parties. Typically in my freelance design work I include two rounds of revisions, then specify additional work at an hourly rate.
Also make sure to hash out payment terms ahead of time so nobody is in the dark (contract!). It’s fairly typical for an artist to request half the total fee up front, and the other half on completion. Sometimes this is divided into thirds, or specified per step. the details don’t really matter, you and the artist can decide what’s best for your project. What does matter is that it is written in a contract and both parties agree to it.
Aside from deviantart.com, you can also check out conceptart.org, and cghub.com. Plenty of hungry artists at those sites looking for opportunities. You could also check out cgsociety.org, though this is geared really toward professional working artists.
Ok, this is how I do it for 2D graphics. You could probably do something similar for 3D.
You organise the work in stages and if you’re happy the artist gets paid after each time deliver something for a stage.
1.You come up with a list of the all the different assets you want and a moodboard of similar graphics that you like
2 The artist agrees that they can do that number of assets for the price and comes back with their own development and suggestions for additional moodboard graphics
3. You choose 2 or 3 graphics from the combined moodboards to be the style that you want to go in.
4. The artist creates around 3 different variations of a single graphic in different styles for you to choose from.
5. You choose a style from one of the 3
6. The artist then draws up around a third of the assets that you need.
7. You put them into the game and see how it goes. You feedback any changes that may need to be made based on this.
8. The artist may amend the assets completed so far and then completes the rest of the assets and delivers them
9. You put them all into the game and show it to the artist. Together you agree on any further small graphical tweaks that need doing.
This might sound complicated and if you just want a couple of models it might be overkill, but the main idea is to keep the communication between you and artist going so that you get a chance to evolve the style so you get something you want but they don’t have to keep remaking assets.
If you’re familiar with agile approaches to software engineering its a bit similar.
Contract and revisions…
How do you define revisions? This seems so abstract and subjective… Let’s take this hypothetical situation. I have the first version of a concept of a pirate, and I want him to look more “happy”. The artist adds a smile in 2 minutes and sends me the result. Yeah, the pirate has a smile now, but he still doesn’t look happy. Does that count as a revision? How do I tell him that this doesn’t count as a revision and I still need him to look happy?
Some artists will provide this automatically for you but this is something you should put as something you want up front in the initial agreement: the character designs plus an expression sheet to the design you choose. I personally when I have to concept something for work provide as many designs as I can for the client. Revisions to me are when the client wants to make major modifications such as taking elements from design A,C, F , and G to make a new design.
Before you hire 2d artist, make sure your GDD (Game Design Document), Quests, Layout, References for as many scenes as possible, is complete first. Otherwise, you will waste your time and money with uhh, artist has no idea what you are trying to tell him and what he should draw.
Do small arts test. If someone takes 2 weeks to make simple drawing, it’s time to move on.
Solid answers, I agree with supplying the artist with as much reference, and details as possible. The details can be a written description of what you want your character to look like. Usually there will be a few revisions, at least 2 so be prepared for that in your contract. Once the artist is working and providing Works In Progress be sure to give lots of input so the artist has an even clearer direction.
You need to specify character customisations upfront. Sad face, happy face, grin face, and which models will have facial expressions. A good source of facial expressions is memes.
You need to tell all different kinds of character customisations, character features that model will have.
You need to tell what customisations are intentionally invisible. Rings, vests, undergarments, the artists should be notified that rings are invisible and inventory only 2D item.
I’m not talking about giving a character several expressions. I’m talking about the feel the image has, and what if I don’t like the feel and I want the artist to recreate a part of the image.
it depends on how detailed you want it to be and how much time you want to take.
usually, the first few sketches are drafts to get the feel of the location, characters (npcs, enemies and player models), various 3D models you need.
that’s where all the references, quest information and GDD come in.
it depends what style, what kind of game, what kind of terrain, what kind of mood you are going to portray in the environment. sombre scene? fun scene? action packed scene?
having non-judgemental, non-discriminatory and valuing each concept art for what it shows. we’ve seen many iterations where the rejected concept art became accepted art, things that look good on 2d don’t translate well when it looks in 3D.
we have senior artists here with more than 10+ years of experience.
for 2D concept art, they must be in black white 2d concept artwork. for colours, the lead artist will define colour sets for uniform colours. Thus, the same scene will be painted with different colour swatches to get the ‘mood’ or ‘scene ambience’.
I was asking about revisions and how to define the amount of additional work after which the artist might start charging additional fees.
As a more abstract example: The artist sends me his first results. I think that the piece needs specific changes, I name those changes, but the next iteration still doesn’t suit me. How many times am I allowed to ask for changes to the artwork before the artist starts asking for additional fees?
It depends on how the contract was worded and what kind of quality.
Did you get your GDD (Game Design Document), Quests, Layout, References for as many scenes as possible, done first? That would 99% resolve almost all ambiguities the first time.
Did you try to talk to the artist via Skype or voice to clarify? if the artist is deaf, did you turn on your webcam to let him lip-read when you talk?
How many times am I allowed.
it depends on contract and how much effort to change. if the artist is to the dot, keeps accurate time-billing, he will keep a start/stop time in seconds and then you pay according to how much time he has taken. if you are paying per picture, you should at least do an arts test to ensure that person can actually do job and intentionally make 2 revisions, to see his attitude.
if you don’t have contract, don’t have GDD upfront, don’t have artist who keeps accurate time billing, artist does not have good attitude, has almost no 2D artwork on his portfolio, you know what you are in for
