to cost if I were to buy services? I have read on the net that around 10k polygons is needed for a main character in a game like this, but I have no idea how much I can expect to be paying for a rigged and unwrapped model with 10-15 animations. Can anyone give me an estimate? 
With that little information on style etc. no one can give you a proper estimate. Prices vary, great artists are expensive but imho worth it. Maybe ask an established outsourcing studio for a quote?
10K character for isometric game is overkill, you won’t see that detail from such a far distance, 1500~ would be ideal.
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I had a quote that told me $600 - $800 for a game-ready character sans animations. And another artist $1500 sans rigging and animations. These were both well-known professionals (well-known if you’ve done 3D modeling tutorials or bought models from DAZ 3D you’ve likely come across their work).
I’d be dubious of buying the animations and the character modeling from the same artist. The number of people and businesses that actually have good motion capture facilities is quite small or can manually animate is smaller than the number of modelers.
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you would need to provide more technical information regarding the model you’re willing to get. On my end I usually ask the client to provide these info:
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concept art if any or reference images plus description.
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art style / direction?
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platform targeted
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average estimate of triangles count
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number, type and resolution of textures ( legacy diffuse, legacy specular, normal, PBR albedo, PBR specular, PBR gloss, PBR Ambient Occlusion etc… in 2048², 1024² ?? etc…)
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number of bones in the rig, or what needs to be animated ( just a closed fist, all fingers, eyes? jaw? full facial rig? etc…
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number and length of the animation cycles
If you contact any artist with all these info you’ll be sure to have them get back to you with a pretty accurate quote.
Good luck.
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Thanks for all the replies.
Are you serious about 1500 being enough though? That sounds very low but what do I know, I just go by what I read on the net, that around 10k polygons should be used for the main character in an isometric game. I googled and for example Mario in Sunshine has 1500 polygons, will that be enough you think? I mean the main character is the most important asset to spend computing power on imo.
Regarding your questions rosor:
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- concept art if any or reference images plus description.
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- art style / direction?
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- platform targeted
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- average estimate of triangles count
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- number, type and resolution of textures ( legacy diffuse, legacy specular, normal, PBR albedo, PBR specular, PBR gloss, PBR Ambient Occlusion etc… in 2048², 1024² ?? etc…)
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- number of bones in the rig, or what needs to be animated ( just a closed fist, all fingers, eyes? jaw? full facial rig? etc…
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- number and length of the animation cycles
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1, 2. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2b/44/76/2b4476de0577e2d541ca07d76612f376.jpg
I’m going for a fantasy game where the main character is immortal and old, and I just stumbled upon that pic and it’s an almost perfect representation of what I want, the face expression and all. The ribbons I could do without, and the chest piece is not exactly how I want it, but it’s a very good foundation. -
- pc/ps4/xbox
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- In Diablo 3 the poly count is between 3-5k polygons fully equipped, which I think is the amount of detail I want
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- I’m not sure about this one, I’m seriously completely clueless about technical stuff in graphics, I want it to look pretty much like the picture, is that a good enough answer?
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6, 7. since it’s an isometric game the animations would be fine with just a closed fist etc, and 10 - 15 animations, most animations only being a few seconds long
For that character you should check out UMA and ask a professional the costs of texturing and customizing the UMA character. UMA 2 is in the asset store.
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Ok that’s a great tip, thanks. I just thought the two were closely related and assumed that if you are a great modeler you’re a great animator as well.
No, not at all.
Example the one that I had quote me $1500 said it would take him about 40 hours to do the model and texture it. No rigging either. The other for $600 - $800 depended on how much customization he’d have to do - i.e. how much he’d have to alter his set of templates. For that price he surely wasn’t modeling from the get go with every request and based on my own modeling self-teaching his quote equals 2 to 3 work days effort rather than 5 or 6 days like the $1500 quote. Now add to that manually animating and the costs and difficulty for that character get extremely expensive.
That’s how a business like Mixamo came into being - there a plenty of capable modelers but add in rigging and animation and suddenly the number of capable professionals plummet. By the way, rigging is now free, well rigging a reasonable number of characters, at Mixamo-Adobe.
Most times a professional artist will have a set of templates which they adapt to your specifications. And as you’ve shown with that example character there is not any special unique animation you’d need so they’d adopt a template set of animations to a run-of-the-mill gun shooting character and if you requested they may do something to adjust the animations to be unique like introduce a limp.
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Is it possible to export the character the UMA character to other programs or will the modeler be forced to use Unity?
Thanks for all your awesome advice :).
The UMA characters can be altered in 3DS Max, Maya, or Blender. In fact, I thing if you look at WillB or the Alien guy in the Asset Store for UMA assets you might find hair and a trenchcoat similar to the picture. You may need only some texturing work done.
The professional you hire will need to adjust their workflow so that you can use UMA though.
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May I bug you one last time? In what way do they have to adjust their workflow?
Because the UMA characters need to be put together by the UMA system so they create a character to their liking, integrate it with the UMA system, and then in the UMA system they save a ‘recipe’ for that character. Then when your game needs that character they use the UMA system to load that recipe that was saved.
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How likely is it a hired artist is going to learn the UMA system to do this? I’m genuinely curious. It seems like a lot to ask in addition to finding a good artist.
Not going to comment on all other info - cause I’m a little busy this evening, but I just wanted to confirm what @MurDocINC stated.
1500 is more than acceptable for isometric game characters, but I’d give a liberal poly count in your advertisement at 1500-3000 based on your concept image above.
To get working hands/fingers an artist needs to have at least 2000 polys/tris. Under 2000 and the character will need to have only pointer finger and mittens or textured fingers/hands.
And since you commented while I was typing I can answer that question also.
An artist will learn the UMA system readily - especially if you list that in the advertisement -
If you are really interested in the UMA system I would suggest advertising for a generalist artist who is already familiar with the UMA system. If you don’t you will receive low quotes from artists not knowing how much R&D work they will need to perform in order to learn the system and create assets that conform to the system.
And the contract artist who is competent in modeling and animation creation - will be spending time on UMA research when they could be spending time on the art and making unique animations for the character you want made.
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That’s quite easy to solve and the answer is it’ll be pretty easy. You just go to the asset store and ask someone that’s already learned the UMA system to publish their own products if they might be interested in doing a project for yourself.
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My own models that I made were 2500 - 3500 but I included things like an opening mouth, tongue, teeth, and the entire eye. The hair and eyebrows were also geometries. I also just layered the clothing I created over the bare model rather than cull excess hidden geometry so what the other two are telling you is true. A modeler can create a good looking model for you at 1500 - 2000. Still a half week’s work though if they do a good job and work quickly from scratch.
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So much good advice from you, I really appreciate it :).