So my game is getting to the point where I am going to start needing character models soon. My simple question is how much I should expect to pay (textured and 5-8 animations) per character?
I don’t have much money (practically at minimum wage right now), and it’s mainly planned for mobile and desktop, so I’m only looking for low-mid poly characters. Any idea how much something like that would generally be freelanced?
EDIT: I would be paying a one time fee, not royalties.
If you really want to do serious game development I suggest finding a modeler/animator that can team up with you to develop the game. As for the prices, it really depends on what it is. If it is super detailed and somebody spent a long time then some people may charge $15-20 for it. There are some really good free ones as well. But normally anywhere from $5-25 should be what you find. The Unity Asset store is a great place. Find ones that suite your needs and or get one that is similar to what you want and modify it to your needs.
Those numbers are quite low if you want your own character. If you want your own character you would hire a freelance artist and pay either hourly or for the finished product. Expect to pay either $15+ an hour, with quite a few hours going into a decent model. You could also pay for a finished product and expect to pay $200+. Each artist has his or her own rates and preferred payment method. Look around LFW and send a private message to one of the artists there.
Super detailed and spent a long time on it, but they only charge $20? Not likely.
As rab said, $20/hour is much more likely, if you’re wanting actual quality, game-ready assets. Depending on the model (is it a crate or a rigged character/creature?) it will be anywhere from a couple hundred dollars (USD) to over $1000.
If you’re just looking for temporary, placeholder assets, you can grab plenty of free ones in the asset store, turbosquid, etc. But you’ll pay for quality in the end.
If you’re operating on a low budget, consider buying non-custom models. There are various models and packages in the Asset Store and on other sites that are more cost effective than buying exclusive custom models. You may not be able to get exactly what you want, but “close” is good until you start making money from some games and have a budget to work with for future products.
Actually its not oing like that. If you are making a serious game you need a concept artist which will define the look of your game play or the game idea. Then you will need a modeler. Which is doing sculpting then converting to lowpoly and texturing of course. Then if he is good enough at it he will rig and animate it. So i mean its a 4 different section. Its hard to find a good freelancer who good with all of them. Even for low price. If you belive in your game spend some money or find a sponsor. Otherwise dont go for unique models. Use asset store for visual content.
Regards, Jum.
If it’s a custom model made for one person only, it will be much more expensive, a “super detailed” model would be charged at about $15-$20 an hour for how long it took to make. While the same kind of model if being sold to multiple people on a 3d store, may be $15-$20 a person because multiple people can essentially share the cost.
Most of the people corrected Human’s pricing. A lot of factors go into the pricing of models but if you are looking for professional quality work then expect to pay around $200+ unless you are getting a special rate due to a long term commitment. That being said, it also depends on the custom model. If it is something that a concept artist had drawn and I couldn’t use one of my existing base meshes to expedite the process, then it is going to cost more since I have to dump more hours into the creation of the model. But if it was just a variation of humanistic proportions, then I could finish it in a much more timely fashion giving you a cheaper price.
These type of things make it hard to give you a “ball park price” but I just wanted to throw that out there for you to consider when asking an artist to do work for you. If the price seems high but the concept is truly unique, then it is probably due to the amount of custom work that is going to be involved.
PS: You can find people doing stuff for very cheap, but usually the quality or technical aspects of the work are also cheaply done. Thus causing issues and people feeling “cheated”. So make sure to do your homework before taking the lowest cost.
-Dane
If you need HQ model done by a professional artist, you can expect to pay $500 each model. I’m atalking about Pro models. Or you can try to find at asset store some nice models. There you can find a pro model for a small price since the selling focus is quantity.
When buying a character model for a high price, check the topology, see if the joints are modeled to allow for bending of them. You may not be a 3D artist but if you can’t tell a good model from a bad one, how can you stock yourself with quality assets? Research a bit.
Good point…
Things to consider:
Maps of the model: Diffuse, Normal, AO (if needed), Specular (If needed).
Poly Count: If HQ model stick around 8k to 12k, depending on your game.
Topology: This is the most important part i think, if the model has a bad topology you may not have a good deformation when animating, and loose some details too. For example some extra quads around the fingers, shoulders and junction of pelvis and hips.
As others said If you get a model made specifically for your game the cost is going to be greatly increased, but you could instead get a generic knight with all the animations on turbo squid for 100 bucks or perhaps less.
Thank you all, I appreciate the feedback. The $200 area is around what I was expecting ($20/hr at around 10 hours for modeling/texturing, and possibly the animations). Thanks for clarifying everything for me and confirming what I should expect.
I think the $500 mark is more likely for a model you have exclusive rights to. You want low poly, good texturing, good animations and don’t want the person to be able to sell it elsewhere…
On TurboSquid I was looking for some animated animals, specific types but was open to non exclusive stock models and some of the ones were still over $100 each for stock models…(nice ones)
$20/hour isn’t much. Mexicans at home depot where I live charge more than $15/hour.
That work is much more physically exhausting and risky than modeling.
For a custom (with exclusive rights), low-mid poly character, fully textured and with 5-8 animations…
Amateur quality: $150+
Decent quality: $300+
Pro quality: $800+
… but really depends on the complexity of the character and animations, and some other factors.
depends on who you get really. I work in the AAA industry, and I get paid around 28 an hour as an independent contractor. I make weapons for call of duty and the likes though… so your best bet is to scour young artists who are eager to work on something… usually, you can find them on artstation… just message someone that has the style you are looking for.
Necro of a 5 year old thread…
But the thing that’s really bugging me is, why do you charge so little while working on AAA games? That’s outragously low!
That is not outrageously low depending of where you live. For me for example, living in Portugal that would be an amazing hourly rate if it was an 8 hours/day work. Maybe even a pretty decent one one for freelancing but certainly not a bad one. Just for example, the minimum wage in here is at 580€ or $719.78 USD.
So 28 per hour, would be (assuming 8 hours per day and 22 days per month) 4928€ or something close to 8.5 times the minimum wage.
The cost of the models is one reason I decided to learn how to do it myself. The quotes I got from people where about $3,000 - $10,000 per model. This was just before the indie scene became popular.