How much should I pay for Wind Waker style character models (including textures and basic animations (run, jump, swim, die, some attacks, etc)) of approximately the same quality as the example above?
I would need the “naked” character model, attachable hair, hat, shirt, pants, shoes, gloves, belt. In the image some of the clothes appear to just be textures but for my purposes I would need actual models of the clothes.
I’ve never commissioned models before or made a game so some help is appreciated, thanks.
Approximate numbers based on credits from the game:
Six character designers, four animators, 1 manager/producer, $58,000 average salary, 3 years development time = $58,000 x 11 x 3 = $1,914,000
Well I know that is not an accurate representation of what modelers charge on here. I’ve seen AAA quality character models be sold on here for 100-150$
I know some Wind Waker stuff must be cheaper than those AAA assets.
Well… you can find character artists for free or paid. Look on the collaboration forum and Commercial work forum, and once you see someone, send them a PM and ask how much they charge.
Do you mean the models? I was not referring to them as such you know, you can’t get the same style of graphics as wind walker from models and textures its the shaders and shadow effects that produce the look as well as models and textures that compliment those shaders.
Don’t forget a game isn’t just a couple of characters. In a game like Wind Waker there are thousands at least of models, textures, materials, shaders, animations, sounds, etc. Even if lets say you average $5 an asset and you capped your game at 500 assets you are still talking $2,500 in assets alone. Of course these numbers are completely fictional, the point is that unless you do the work yourself or find someone to do it for free thing can get real expensive real fast no matter how simple you think the work is or how cheap it should be.
One person already gave you a good answer, but you dismissed him and claimed to know better. Including textures, rigs, animations, and attachable clothing items, I’d say you’re looking at between $1,000 to $2,000. Anything under $1000 and you’re taking a huge risk working with someone who probably doesn’t speak English as a first language, who is probably in a country where you couldn’t possibly sue him or enforce a contract, and might well be simply ripping models from a game you haven’t played and reselling them to you. If you can’t afford $1k, then you will have to decide whether to accept lower quality, take that risk or simply do something else.
To clear up some of your misapprehensions, it isn’t necessarily true that WindWaker style graphics will be cheaper than AAA artists. Since they are aiming for jobs in the industry, artists whose style is realistic/AAA are much more prevalent. Those who are still in college can be had for very reasonable prices. There are far fewer stylized artists and those who are very good at it are very thin on the ground indeed. Supply/Demand dictates that those people can charge more.
Additionally, models do not cost per polygon. It is harder to make good models with low polygon counts, so it takes longer. Those speed modelling sessions you watched doubtless created very poor geometry which would not deform well when rigged. These are important issues. Get them wrong and could easily pay $500 for a model that’s useless and has to be thrown away.
“Link has 2874 tris, the mesh showed earlier from google3dsomething looks like the one i extracted. He uses 42 bones. with a total of 323 animations for the body (not all can be opened with an error that they use 5 instead of 42 bones, so its for some item he can use, say a bow or something like that. Also he uses 155 of facial animations.” quoted from http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104415
Phil, pixoloco and I gave some solid advice based on real-world numbers. He can use that info in whatever way he wants.
I’ve only done a little bit of toon/cell/npr stuff myself for pre-production but I’ll post an example. I have experience doing this on two Wii games, both games went with a standard shading model during production.
I could do that, I know I could do that, yeah I could totally do that. Would take about a week for one character textured+rigged, but animations depends because if you want Disney quality, well… Anyway, don’t matter, I’m too lazy.
