Advice on hiring freelancers

News & General Discussion
1

Hey everyone. I am a devoted coder, who after more than a year of work in my current project, is about to go look for an illustrator to replace my programmer art; for something pretty to look at. I am self funded and expect to pay for said art, with my hard earned day job money. This is obviously not inconsequential, but it is something I am prepared to do, as my commitment to the project is quite high.

So what I am looking for here and maybe you guys can help me with, is tips, tricks, warnings, anything really; to help me contract freelancers to draw said art for me. What I am most worried about is commitment and copyright issues, when dealing with freelancers, outside of platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.

For example here on the forums or on Devianart, I will probably find one or more persons available for the work and with the budget I need, but I have no known way to officialize the transaction. This is of course beneficial not only to me, but also for the artist, who will have additional assurances; that I will come through on the payment.

Should I only look for freelancers on those platforms or should I use some other means of officializing the transaction? Is this more like overkill and not really needed? Is there something easy to use, for both parties to avoid such problems? Maybe like a contract kit or something, I don’t know.

In any case, any tip you can give me in the subject, will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

2

Straight from the mouth of FZD. Here’s how you want to do this.

  1. Do they have a portfolio? Is it filled with their best work or a random compilation of crap? How do they present themselves?
  2. Do they know how a “production pipeline” works? Do you?
  3. Do they understand how to bang out like 50 roughs, and start the refining process to find exactely what you’re looking for?
  4. Do they take criticism well? Do they understand that they are being PAID to work?
  5. Try their work ethic with a small, cheap piece. See if they understand these things, and make sure they are a team player.

Furthermore, are they consistent, and do they have a strong understanding of the fundamentals:

  • Perspective
  • Tone
  • Color Theory
  • Lines

I suggest you go to this YouTube, and get an idea of what a professional production artist looks like before hiring:

3

Oh, and art is not some mystical magical muse fueled thing. It CAN be, but not for what you’re buying. Don’t get locked down with an artist that only produces excuses on time. Make sure they are consistent and on-time. It’s a job like any other.

4

You should provide some references of the kind of style you are looking for. Also you should think about what your budget is and what exactly you want for that. You might for example get better quality work for the same price when you hire a more experienced artist and agree to give him/her 100% free reign, compared to hiring a less experienced artist and you “being a difficult client with strong but poorly communicated opinions” (not saying you are, just an example for a scenario that leads to worse price/performance ratios). Also deadlines are important and are usually factored into the price to a degree.

5

These are just my opinions based on my experiences working with freelancers.

Avoid sites like Freelancer, Upwork, and especially Fiverr. (Again just my opinion.) Spammers will suck up your time like you won’t believe. Consider Unity Connect or Commercial: Job Seeking or Job Offering instead. They tend to strip the chaff and also connect you with people familiar with Unity’s art requirements and workflow. I primarily find artists based on their portfolios and other clients’ testimonials.

Start small, but big enough to make it worthwhile for a freelancer. This lets you build confidence in an artist while reducing your risk. A reasonable small task might be two 2D character spritesheets, or three concept art sketches, or a single 3D model. If it works out, you can hire the freelancer for more work. After you’ve established a good relationship, you can consider negotiating rates for bigger jobs. Put yourself in the freelancer’s shoes when negotiating rates; resentful artists don’t deliver quality work.

Accept that some jobs will be a complete loss. Odds are that this will be because the artist simply doesn’t deliver (or only strings you along with excuses) at the very beginning of the relationship. But it can even happen later on, for example if the artist has a major unexpected life change. You can reduce the loss by starting with small jobs, but it’s just an inevitable part of working with other people. When it happens, don’t overreact and let it distort your future interactions.

I’m not a lawyer, but you can usually be informal with legal agreements. Just get these things in writing:

  • Licensing: for example, you retain exclusive ownership, but the artist is allowed to include the work in portfolios.

  • Payment terms: for example, 25% at start, 25% after rough drafts are approved, balance on final delivery. Also specify who covers transaction fees incurred by whatever service you use (e.g., PayPal).

  • Delivery schedule: concrete dates. Be willing to adjust a little, but don’t let the artist string you along either. Be as clear as you can with the deliverables. For example:

  • March 1: Initial payment.

  • March 7: Artist delivers rough sketches of X, Y, and Z (provide detailed specs).

  • March 10: You provide feedback and second payment, with option to terminate job.

  • March 17: Artist delivers first production drafts of X, Y, and Z.

  • March 20: You provide feedback.

  • March 27: Artist provides (watermarked?) deliverables of X, Y, and Z for approval.

  • March 30: You approve, send final payment, and artist delivers. Or you request revisions.

  • April 3: (If revisions required) Artist provides final deliverables. You pay.

Side note: If you get to see the art come together from the rough sketches, you’ll have more confidence that they’re original works and not plagiarized.

Finally, go with your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, walk away, even if you’ve already invested some funds. It’s better than turning it into a money pit.

Finally finally :), despite the negative warnings above, remember that artists, like you, are mainly in this for the love of game development. Generally speaking, your artist(s) want you to succeed. If any issues arise, it likely isn’t because they’re trying to screw you over, but because they misjudged the work or otherwise hit an unexpected hurdle. You’ll have to use your best judgment in each case to decide whether (and how) to work it out with them.

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6

I think the other commenters have already given you great advice, so I’m only going to add one thing.

For payment, I personally like the “paying in milestones” route the most. As in, don’t pay someone per hour or day, but pay for what the artist actually produced. That way, no one can string you along weeks upon weeks with nothing to show for (unfortunately, you see posts like that pop up every once in a while) and the artist knows exactly what to expect from you.

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7

Good advice. I think from the artists I know almost none go to places where people post job offers.

https://www.artstation.com/ might be a good place to look for artists. If they are available for freelance work, they should have a “hire me” button on their profile.

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8

I just wanted to add one thing regarding milestones. It’s sometimes hard to agree on what constitutes a correction (e.g., shorten the character’s fingers) versus a wholesale redo (e.g., change this thin, slimy green orc into a muscular, furry brown orc with four arms). Negotiating these decisions with the artist is more of a social art than a science. By starting small with an artist, you get to learn the artist’s tolerances and expectations.

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9

You’re completely right about that. And yeah, another reason to start small, like you said.

10

Thanks you guys for all the advice and tips, you have really eased much of my fears and obviously expanded greatly my knowledge on the subject. Based on what you suggested, I will then try to do the following:

  • Avoid freelancing sites, as they are more of a waste of time

  • Start with a small job (just a dozen icons in my case)

  • Provide detailed requirements and some form of reference

  • Negotiate licensing details and concrete dates on deliverables

  • Use a payment through milestones system

  • Get a clear sense of what an acceptable correction/modification means to the artist

Thanks again for the help!

11

Don’t hire someone with no social media presence and history.

People with a public presence, reputation and following are more likely to perform, in order to generate more verifiable evidence of their talent.

People with no social media are suspicious and abnormal. Fake portfolios/scams are a thing, and a social media account with good, believable activity is hard to fake.

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12

I disagree with that statement wholeheartedly. Many highly qualified, super creative, and talented craftspeople have no social media presence at all. They avoid it as either being a distraction from the real work that needs to be done or as something that saps their creativity and diverts it into a filtered bubble of conformity, as it’s meant to do, by the corporations who spend their money making it so. The more of a social media presence someone has, the more I think their talent lies in “crafting a social media presence”, rather than doing the work I’d want to hire them for.

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13

That’s a fair point, but at the level of expertise we seem to be talking about I think it’s important to see history and evidence that they’re not fake when hiring strangers.

If they had a reputation, or were recommended by a trusted source then I would agree with you, it wouldn’t be necessary.

14

I don’t want to derail or anything, but this is a disturbing (and kind of sad) statement. That is all.

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15

Speaking as a suspicious and abnormal person (although one of these days I’ll actually remember to fire up the Pixel Crushers twitter account), you can also check non-general audience sources such as TIGsource, Unity Connect, and the Unity forums. As long as you can get some kind of feedback on a potential freelancer, such as testimonials, from reasonably-verifiable third parties, I think that’s sufficient.

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16

Lol! Let me rephrase for those being triggered by a lack of reasonable interpretation.

Internet based “professionals” with no verifiable reputation and historical presence on internet based platforms are suspicious and abnormal.

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17

I think where we’re being “triggered” (I hate that word) is your use of the phrase “social media” instead of “internet”. Social media is a particular kind of demon: an addictive, conformity filtered, ultimately destructive use of the Internet.

If you’re doing business on the web, then yeah, you should have a web presence. Having a social media presence is a totally different thing.

Ahem…

And now, back to the regularly scheduled topic, at least for me.

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18

I see. I suppose in my mind basically everything on the internet is social at this point in time, even more “professional” platforms like artstation and linkedin which both encourage interconnectivity and social interaction with your professional peers so there isn’t much of a distinction to me; hence the verbiage and the idea that if some stranger can’t produce history or reputation on those platforms then I see it as a risk not worth taking.

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19

Not only do I find this highly offensive, it’s also straight up bad advice in my opinion. Some of the best and most professional artists are almost like ghosts on the internet. Some don’t update their website in years. You know why? Because they don’t need to. Way over 90% of requests that artists get over their online presences are “low quality”, meaning they don’t result in a decently paid job. 99% of my job acquisition as a freelance artist is done in real life. My colleague and I keep our clients and potential new clients updated on what we do with printed portfolios. As long as an artist has a track record of published professional work, all the social media and web presence fluff is meaningless.

100% agree!

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20

So basically because they already have a reputation, in which case I already explained this doesn’t apply.

Man, people really get their jimmies all rustled over this stuff.