Character and Enviroment freelance fee's
polycounter lvl 17
One of my friends that i know is trying to make a game/mod to see if he can sell it to publisher i dont know his whole world domination plan yet but he asked me if i could post this so he can consider what kind of game he wants to make.
There are alot of talented artist on these forums so i know alot of you guys do contract work and wouldn't mind tell me how much these would cost someone to make.
if you could tell me how much you would charge for this kind of character from start to finish of the model that would be great.
Characters:
Somthing like the crysis nano suit:
http://www.crysis-online.com/Media/Wallpapers/Wallpapers/US-Nanosuit-01-Wide.jpg
how much you guys charge for something of that quality? and would it vary from model to model?
for environments I know its tricky because unlike character theres huge differences in sized and scope of some environments but heres 3 different sizes:
Simple Props:
http://www.liquiddevelopment.com/services/Work_2006/Work_2006/042_image.jpg
http://www.liquiddevelopment.com/services/Work_2006/Work_2006/023_image.jpg
More complicated props:
http://www.streamline-studios.com/images/stories/gallery/unreal-tournament-3/UT3-b2-art-engineering-29.jpg
http://www.streamline-studios.com/images/stories/gallery/unreal-tournament-3/UT3-b2-art-engineering-12.jpg
http://www.streamline-studios.com/images/stories/gallery/unreal-tournament-3/UT3-b2-art-engineering-9.jpg
So if you guys didnt mind posting how much you would charge for props and character of that caliber it would be great thanks, My friend just wants a price range to negotiate with.
- Arman
There are alot of talented artist on these forums so i know alot of you guys do contract work and wouldn't mind tell me how much these would cost someone to make.
if you could tell me how much you would charge for this kind of character from start to finish of the model that would be great.
Characters:
Somthing like the crysis nano suit:
http://www.crysis-online.com/Media/Wallpapers/Wallpapers/US-Nanosuit-01-Wide.jpg
how much you guys charge for something of that quality? and would it vary from model to model?
for environments I know its tricky because unlike character theres huge differences in sized and scope of some environments but heres 3 different sizes:
Simple Props:
http://www.liquiddevelopment.com/services/Work_2006/Work_2006/042_image.jpg
http://www.liquiddevelopment.com/services/Work_2006/Work_2006/023_image.jpg
More complicated props:
http://www.streamline-studios.com/images/stories/gallery/unreal-tournament-3/UT3-b2-art-engineering-29.jpg
http://www.streamline-studios.com/images/stories/gallery/unreal-tournament-3/UT3-b2-art-engineering-12.jpg
http://www.streamline-studios.com/images/stories/gallery/unreal-tournament-3/UT3-b2-art-engineering-9.jpg
So if you guys didnt mind posting how much you would charge for props and character of that caliber it would be great thanks, My friend just wants a price range to negotiate with.
- Arman
Replies
I am an employed 3D Environment artist working in Colorado. You friend can e-mail me if he is interested in negotiating prices for free-lance work. He can view my portfolio at www.armandodurruthy.com.
- Armando
thanks for your interest and ill make sure to forward your portfolio to him for future use when he starts looking for freelancers.
As far as rates go, it's a little bit if a touchy subject to speak about on a public forum like this. It's hard to do because you don't want to under cut anyone else's rates or piss off the wrong people. The game industry is a small world in which everyone know everyone in a "Kevin Bacon - Seven Degrees of Separation" kind if way.
One piece of advice that I can give your buddy, is that he needs to figure out what kind of budget he will have if he hasn't already done so. Once he is aware of how much financial backing he will have at his disposal, he can figure out how many assets he will need and how to price the production of those assets accordingly.
Unfortunately, professional work and quality is not cheap. Depending on whether your buddy will be paying hourly or per a prop/project, it will run him a pretty penny. Or he can try and get a "MOD" group going on a "spec" basis (free labor) and pay them accordingly once the project has been purchased. Students and aspiring artists are the perfect source for this type of project.
Again, your buddy can e-mail me anytime if he is interested in knowing how much I and the guys at my studio charge. I hope that helps!!!
yep. Shit
I remember doing 20 hours straight redoing enviros after a hakpak update for NWN1. LOL good times.
http://www.dormaeglin.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum.php
quick plug.
http://www.3dactionplanet.com/serioussam/pro-pain/maps.html
That help ?
Some of those examples are pretty cool. I'd be happy to make some stuff like that on a contract basis.
My guesses are assuming modeling and texuring in a polished, next-gen style, and assume that concepts already exist.
Yep.
- The company you're working for, chances are you'll be able to get a better deal working with an established company than you would working for a small time startup or independent developer.
Now these are all very important factors you must consider with every job, and at the end of the day, if you know all of this info you should be able to calculate how long the asset will take you, add a bit more time for revision/reworking to the clients liking that will inevitably be needed. And set an hourly rate, dependent on your cost of living, what you think you work is worth, etc.I remember, back when a mod team was 5 or 6 people and the art work was done in a month or 2.
Times change, man
Figure out hourly rate. For example, say $60/hour. (could be lower or higher).
Next, estimate time that it will take to make the object in question. (You should really know what you are doing here.) At a glance, I'd say those simple props would take between a few hours to a day and a half. The more complex ones would probably take 3-5 days.
Next do the math.
Simple prop taking estimated 2 hours at $60/per = $120.
Complicated prop taking 3 days/24 hours = $1440.
If in doubt, round up. Limit client in number of revisions passes.
Also it depends on the hours too sometimes...some people charge accordingly, it is nearly impossible to get a busy and accomplished artist to produce something without being compensated for that (Duh).
I do some work, you pay me some money.
Several companies I've worked for have landed gigs like this. For maybe one artist's week of work it's not uncommon to make $20,000. I've heard of even more ridiculous sums being made.
The problems with dealing with some of these marketing firms is that they are entirely clueless. They might budget $40,000 to show some boxes and spheres flying around for a few seconds, or they might budget $40,000 for 30 seconds of 6 talking characters in three different environments with a bunch of effects. Either way, they want the project turned around in 2 weeks.
"If you're good at something, never do it for free."
The Joker is clearly a freelancer
Once the contractor gave the hourly rate I'd ask them to bid on the project, which basically meant, how many hours do you think project X would take them. Once they had time to evaluate it and let me know how long it'd take, we'd sign a Personal Services Agreement guaranteeing X Hours at X Hourly Rate. I'd always have a safety clause that said, if the asset wasn't finished in X hours, we'd renegotiate the contract at that point once the money went out. I'd always put a motivator clause in, saying if the contract was finished before X hours, I'd still pay the full amount for the original quote as a bonus. Oddly, I've never had to renegotiate a contract, but I'm sure it's just luck and picking good people (polycounters included).
Contracting art houses is a whole other beast though, and usually involves a few rounds of negotiations, minimum price, covering costs, yada yada. I'd highly avoid going that route for a mod. It's good for professional studios who need to contract a lot of artwork, but not really for small stuff.
I was recently contracted to texture 2 rts models, they were both unrwrapped and everything i was givin two days, i got payed 200 for both of them you think that was a good amount? they were both really blocky and not too complicated.
thanks for the reply ill give it a go
20 what? Dollars? Oh man that's really bad then! I normally wouldn't start below 40 which is like 25 Euro an hour.
depends on the company i'm working for, say it's ubi or ea, the price will be higher then for a small local company. And of course the price could vary between different chars, but you can also make package prizes, like building 10 Chars for X $ some might be easier to do then others so it'll sum up later.
why is that? i would say same quality is same price no matter which company.
Yeah times change and people forget what words mean.
I guess to me (and the dictionary) "mod, modification" means something different. I don't see the terms "new game" and "mod" as interchangeable for what this person plans to do.
To me mod means you take an existing game, and change it slightly, but pretty much the core game is recognizable. Like a football map for TF2, some code needs to be written some art needs to be made but basically its TF2 with a new spin. That's a mod. People should do that stuff for free and not whine about not getting paid.
What he's talking about is becoming an indie developer, license an engine and create a totally new game not make a mod. For that type of work I would expect to get paid, upfront and none of the royalty sharing BS most indie's pull. I'd expect royalties but NOT as the only source of payment. You don't get a model until someone gets paid.
I wasn't trying to say that people should be doing this work for free. If it ribbits like a frog, maybe its not a duck? If he runs around calling it a duck people are going to either think he's simple and doesn't know what hes talking about or be surprised when they signed up for one thing and are now doing something else.
Either way not a plan for success...
there are jobs you do because you like them and there are jobs to earn money, it's easy as that, fun jobs that you like are great but i only have like 2 projects a year with these terms so from time to time i just have to earn some money to pay myself for the smaller fun projects, indi gameproductions just don't have the money a client like ea has