I’m in quite a bit of a pickle. The artist that I’ve worked with on a number of games managed to get us both a gig doing a Unity project for a lady. After she told us she wanted to go ahead and I stopped looking for work, things went south. She got rid of my artist in favor of a family member. The problem is, the family member draws on paper! I told them I could probably clean up scanned images if they got them too me in high enough quality but now they want me to add the coloring, shading, and even extra things like grass and flapping wings. I’ve tried repeatedly to explain to them that programmers and artists are two separate things, but this is a woman who wanted to call Apple support because she forgot her Gmail password. I’m not sure the intricacies of software development are making it through. She says she can watercolor the drawings, but now she wants to come to my state so we can do the art together. I don’t even know how to respond to that without blowing my shot at the job. I need the money, but I am not an artist! Her coming here and watercoloring on paper while I watch is going to serve no purpose. At least not any purpose she couldn’t serve by simply watercoloring it on her own and hoping the scanner doesn’t botch things up. What is the most professional way to explain to someone like this that they are asking you to do something well outside your job description?
This is an excellent example of how things often go in reality. I guess your original agreement/contract defined exactly what you will provide BUT that was based on you working with the artist you had at that time.
I don’t know how much time has passed since your artist was replaced by her own. Ideally as soon as that happened I would have talked with the original artist and settled on a Finder’s Fee for the gig since without that person there would be no gig for me. Then the next thing is I would immediately make up a new agreement replacing the original that clearly states the original agreement no longer applies due to the artist being replaced and goes on to detail exactly what you need from the new artist, which format the art is to be delivered in and so on. And it also would detail exactly what you are responsible for delivering on your end. They can either choose to sign the new agreement or not. I know you don’t want to lose the work but you have to cover your arse too.
We still haven’t got to the point of signing any agreements. That was supposed to happen before the artist and I got to work, but I guess now we are still in the negotiating phase. He was let go almost immediately after we got the go ahead. I haven’t started work yet. It’s just really frustrating because I have no idea how to respond to her request to come here and do the artwork.
Why did you agree to work without your artist in the first place? You should have explained to her what is the artist’s job in your project and why you can’t work with her relative. Maybe you can talk her into bringing your artist back?
At this point we haven’t really agreed to anything in any official capacity. After she got rid of the artist she said she still needed a programmer and that is where we are now. I guess I’m just going to have to risk losing the job and tell her that I can’t work with what she is providing. I’m just trying to find the most diplomatic way to do it since they seem to be under the impression that there’s some button on the computer or some special skill that a programmer has to turn these hand drawn images into something useable. I’ve worked with a lot of clients who said they would provide their own artwork. So I told them to send me some sample art to see if I could work with it. I had no idea that this one would come in scanned form (in a friggin PDF file!) and need me to do all of the coloring, shading, addition of elements, and animation.
I see what you are saying. Well maybe just explain you need a digital artist from concept to completion. A traditional artist will not work for the project unless they are able and willing to take their scans and complete them digitally coloring and so forth and then sending the digital image files to you?
I think my biggest mistake was saying that I could cut out the scanned images if the scans were high enough quality. I can do that. That is technical image editing and not creative image editing. But there is a far cry from tracing something with a graphics tablet or using a magic wand tool and doing what they are asking me to do. I should have anticipated that they might not get the difference. Now I’m afraid it’s going to seem like I’m the one backpedaling. But I really don’t have much of a choice. Her coming here serves no purpose except to further waste our time. I did try to get her to bring my artist back to at least do the cleanup and revisions, but she was having none of it. I’m still not sure why she got rid of him since they have another project that they want both of us to work on. I’m guessing I’ll be flushing that one down the drain too if they mistake my not being an artist for being an incompetent coder. Which I feel bad about because that’s money out of his pocket as well as mine. I’ve also tried explaining to them that paying me to do something that I don’t know how to do is far less cost efficient than simply hiring someone who does know how to do it. I think this is just a case of nepotism ruining a project. And I fear I’m going to get the blame. I just have to find the most diplomatic way possible to explain the situation and try to mitigate the damage.
I don’t envy your situation. I’ve had many prospective client meetings for dev work and some of the things people come up with are just unreasonable. These days I still occasionally get a call… so and so gave me your number. I hear you built [whatever it was] for them. I’d like to discuss a project with you. “Sorry, I don’t do that anymore.”
Anyway man good luck. Hope it all works out for you!
It sounds to me like you’re trying to convince yourself that this is a job you should continue to pursue. Maybe it is, but since you haven’t agreed to anything the table is still wide open. Here’s what you need to do:
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Tell her straight out, but politely that as the programmer you do not handle the creation or modification of any digital media assets outside of the code.
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Draft a PSA (Professional Service Agreement) that clearly defines the scope of work for you and what the client is responsible for providing to you.
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As part of your PSA / scope of work, make sure you set proper milestones, rates, payment terms, etc. Make sure you are paid at milestones and not at the end of the project.
Now, for #2 above, this needs to be very specific. This is where you define exactly what your roles and responsibilities are. You need to define not only the things you do, but the things you do not do. You also need to define what will need to be provided to you, how it needs to be provided, and specifically in what format. If you want all of the art provided to you complete in layered PSDs for instance, you need to state that explicitly. Example:
“All digital media assets will be provided to the programmer by the client in production ready form. All audio files will be provided in raw wav format. All textures will be provided as uncompressed bitmaps or tiffs…”
Of course massage that what types of assets you need. The tricky part is not to be so specific that you leave things out, but to be specific enough that you don’t leave open doors for the client to take advantage of you.
Now, you’re worried about losing the job and what the perception will be to which I’ll tell you, if she wants to do business she needs to handle it like a business professional. She needs to know what the expectations and boundaries are up front. If she doesn’t like the terms, that is what negotiation is for, but it gives you a basis to start negotiating from and keeps the scope from swinging too far outside of what you expect.
Lastly, if you don’t do this and you continue… and things continue to fall apart / go south, she will be much more upset with you because those expectations were not set at the beginning and you run the risk of damaging your reputation or branding yourself as a cowboy developer who is just flinging from the hip.
Just explain to her reality, if she can’t accept it it’s better to walk away now because things will only get worse. This is a red flag, and I’d definitely use it to say this is someone you can’t work with. Do you know why she got rid of the artist, I’ll bet he wanted too much money, which means you’ll probably be working for peanuts anyway.
Ugh, I know this situation too well. Speaking to non-technical people about requirements and expectations is often a painful process. If it was me, I’d probably fire off something like this:
Hi CLIENT,
While I am looking forward to starting work on PROJECT NAME, I feel there is an issue we need to clarify before we move any further - the situation regarding the artwork. Digital artwork and programming are not the same discipline. Whilst I am able to provide some assistance with preparing the artwork for use, I am a programmer by trade, and creating / re-creating artwork in a digital form is beyond the scope of what any normal programmer would be expected to do.
I am aware that you want FAMILY MEMBER to produce the artwork, which I’m happy to try and accommodate, but none of the solutions we’ve discussed so far are good enough to get the project to completion. To move forward, I simply need the artwork in a usable digital format. The way I see it, this means we need one of several things to happen:
- FAMILY MEMBER produces the artwork by hand, including colouring / shading, which we then scan and tidy up for digital use.
- FAMILY MEMBER produces the concept artwork, without colouring / shading, which a Digital Artist uses to reproduce and finish the artwork in a digital format (possibly ARTIST FRIEND).
- A Digital Artist produces the artwork without the line concepts, but with input just from yourself and FAMILY MEMBER.
Personally I feel that the 2nd or 3rd option would probably produce the best quality, as scanning hand drawn artwork often has unreliable results.
I’m sorry if this comes across a bit stern or demanding, but I feel like we got our wires crossed somewhere along the line and some clarification was needed. I hope we can resolve this situation and move along with the project.
Regards,
NAME
Assuming she wants to continue, you should definitely look at doing as @Dustin-Horne suggested and get an agreement stating exactly what you’re responsible for and what you require to do that job. Sucks if you lose the job, but I guarantee it’ll suck more (in the long term and short term) if you agree to take on things you know you won’t be able to do.
Good luck!
Walking away might be a good idea. But if that’s not an option, can you subcontract an artist?
Something here leads me to believe that she thinks that the artist’s job is a piece of cake and anyone could do it, so she doesn’t want to pay for it.
I think the best way to deal with it right now is to clearly explain to her that there is a lot of work involved to bring the scanned image into the project. If she made the decision to replace your artist with her relative, then it would be logical to expect that the relative should be able to do the same level of work, that you would expect from your artist. Seeing how that is not the case, and that relative can’t meet your requirements, you either ask her for additional payment and do the remaining work yourself (or subcontract), or ask her to hire another artist which will fix the artwork with your requirements in mind.
The pay is actually going to be pretty good, enough to get me caught up and relieve a bunch of stress. After all, she is willing to travel a few states away to work on the project. That ain’t cheap. Which is why the thought of losing it is so stressful. But they do think that an artist’s job is easy. When discussing the shading the family member actually said, “It’s computer graphics, it’s easy.” Which is annoying. If it were so easy, why can’t he do it?
I’m not sure why they got rid of the artist. I think it’s just because the nephew wanted the job. The official reason she gave him was that he had a baby on the way and wouldn’t have time to work on it. Which I think offended him a little bit. He’s worked for D.C. and Marvel. His ability to meet a deadline is pretty established. Not to mention the fact that not many people quit work because they have a baby.
I guess all I can do is try one more time to explain the difference between an artist and a programmer. What they are doing is like hiring a carpenter and then handing him a bunch of logs. It’s great that he doesn’t have to cut down the trees, but logs aren’t lumber. I just wish I knew why she thinks that coming to me to work on the art is supposed to accomplish. I have a feeling that whatever I say she is just going to respond with, “That’s why I want to come to you.” I feel I need to address that misconception, but I’m not sure what the heart of it is.
convince her to pay a higher price and subcontract the artist
Would it be enough to allow you to subcontract your friend? At least partially?
ROFL! Draws on paper! LOL! No offence but this is HILARIOUS!
LOL!
You got that right!
I Second that!
Yup!
That was my idea… You just typed it faster xD
Or give her nephew the requirements you usually give to your artist, like what Dustin mentioned (file formats, number of frames per animation, frame resolution, etc), and see if he can handle a test assignment in a timely manner. If he can’t, tell her that you too don’t have the time nor expertise to do that job, and that’s why you want to have a professional artist work with you.
If she wasn’t about to travel to his location, you could try claiming you do have the expertise, asking for more money as you’re handling more roles, and simply subcontracting those roles. Or at least those parts of the roles you cannot handle yourself in some way.
Yeah, that’s the thing. If I just ask for more money and subcontract out the work without telling her, she’ll still want to come here and stay for who knows how long working on it. if I’m not the one actually doing it, that wouldn’t be good.
That’s what I’m going to have to end up telling her. I need someone to get this into a production ready form. But for the reason above, I have to tell her what is going on. I’m not sure she’ll go for it. I’ve already asked her to bring my artist back just for the cleanup work. But she said that he probably wouldn’t want to work on someone else’s drawings (she may be right) and that the “styles are different”. That last part I don’t get. The professional artist can’t match the style, but the programmer can?
Not and still be worth it. Especially considering the amount of revisions they want done.