Possible new job, art test, few questions
polycounter lvl 11
I was recently contacted by a game company via mail, who mentioned the possibility of a job, which is always nice, but some things aren't clear to me and I was wonder if this is the normal procedure with hiring artist.
To give you the rundown, I got a mail that they liked my work and who they were and if I was interested in talking further.
I wrote a polite letter back telling them I was interested, a few days later I received a mail with an art test.
I have no problems with the art test, though it doesnt really tell in what kind of software I have to produce it, I mainly use Zbrush/Max for most of my work, but they made no mention of it.
But the main thing that's unclear to me is they haven't told me what kind of function it is, judging from the art test it's character art, thats a good thing, but stuff like wages, contract time, travel compensation, isn't mentioned at all.
Is this the normal way this goes? you get an art test, and afterwards you hear what kind of job it is, what it pays and whatnot? or would it be normal to just ask first?
Thanks!
To give you the rundown, I got a mail that they liked my work and who they were and if I was interested in talking further.
I wrote a polite letter back telling them I was interested, a few days later I received a mail with an art test.
I have no problems with the art test, though it doesnt really tell in what kind of software I have to produce it, I mainly use Zbrush/Max for most of my work, but they made no mention of it.
But the main thing that's unclear to me is they haven't told me what kind of function it is, judging from the art test it's character art, thats a good thing, but stuff like wages, contract time, travel compensation, isn't mentioned at all.
Is this the normal way this goes? you get an art test, and afterwards you hear what kind of job it is, what it pays and whatnot? or would it be normal to just ask first?
Thanks!
Replies
Talk to them more, ask more questions before you proceed. See if you can get any answers from them
Let them know you are OK with doing this for them, but also this is an investment of your time, and you want to make sure it's done right.
Personally, I would pass on this. Not worth the time, unless this subject is a gaping hole in my portfolio and I would make an example piece anyhow.
It is definitely not out of line to ask for more details about the project scope, how much time investment they would like from you, rough budget, what they're expecting to pay, etc.
You are a business contact, treat each other professionally. Some are not willing to do this, trust your spidey sense!
A test is a test.
I would send them a quote on the work. In any case I wouldn't send unpaid source files without being paid first.
I think what they are doing is pretty cheeky.
Regarding that, the art test requires a complete charactar rigged with textures and all, is that usually the case? it sounds like i'm delivering a complete char free of charge, and then they'll see if they want to continue with me or not. but they'll still get a free char out of it...
That sounds even more suspect... A head, a piece of clothing, a full torso or maybe a full character sculpt, but never a fully rigged, complete, game ready character... this to me sounds dubious...
Or maybe these types of art tests exist and I've been lucky to avoid them?
I'll poke them some more next monday to see where it goes, but i'll be on my toes :P
If they're trying hard to dodge giving answers. You may want to just move on.
That could be an innocent mistake, i'd contact them and ask the that information first unless you think they might consider it a super easy thing to make. They should be perfectly understanding of your perspective as a whole, but my question having never applied for a art job (but having ruffly 20 other jobs in my life) is, does the person that handles the communication with the applicant, is his or her attitude/behavior ever completely different than the over-all company's? I wouldn't think so, but...?
You can always send them back a normal mapped photo of a big hairy cock. Technically speaking. Or send a informative, perhaps constructively worded complaint to the CEO or producers letting them know they lost a hard worker.. Speaking directly with top people in many areas sometimes helps, because they just simply rarely hear that kind of stuff.
run.
that's possibly 30+ days of work. you'll be wasting your time, you could be working on your own portfolio in that time.
art tests should be about 5 to 10 days at most.
i'd ask to be paid, no way in hell am i doing a full character for someone that may or may not give me a job.
If it ever gets to that point, you should just seriously move on. No reason to be a dick about it. You must remain professional, even when others aren't acting in the most courteous way.
The CEO or producers would probably never get a letter like that anyway. And I don't think it would really change anything even if they did read it.
They understood that fortunately, and I got the general impression that they wanted to hire me and compensated with a request to offer screenshots in several poses to get a good impression of it all.
So I spent the next week setting up the model and rigging it into several poses as requested, I also included an short turnaround animation so they could see the whole thing from all angles.
after not hearing from them for a while I sent a few reminders and got my reply today. The art was good and there were no problems there, but because I wouldn't offer the source file they couldn't judge my workflow for rigging through screenshots, so they ended it there.
It contradicts what was agreed upon in earlier mails,
but Oh Well, lesson learned I guess. moving on.
Free labor if you will.
If you didn't sign any NDA and you did a good job, then use it in your portfolio.