On hiring a freelancer or studio for a full 3D character

instaBink

I will be posting a job for an entire 3D character given a character sheet for an upcoming game for steam, iOS, ps4 that I am developing. I'm hoping to get some perspective on developing clear character specs, and dealing with a few details I have unanswered.

So first off, the entire job contains, modeling, uv mapping skinning + normal map, rigging, and animations. To make things slightly more complex, I need two lods (1500 for iOS, 8000 for others) Is it better to contract this all out as one contract, or dividing up the work in smaller parts?

[do not apply yet, I will post soon]

JedTheKrampus

If I were you I'd probably at least split up modeling/uv/texturing and rigging/animation. Some  character artists aren't great at rigging but most animators will at least know what they need from a rig.

Bhrazz

Most character artist I know and have a good rep, will ship you the character, modelled and textured. But it won't have LOD/Animation or Rigging on it.

If you don't want to deal with it, hire a studio, otherwise you will need to find a rigger/animator.

MrHobo

In terms of specs, ideally you should be providing information like:
References (If its based off of a person ask them what they need for face reference)/Concept art (Front, Back, Side)
Platforms (Console, Mobile, PC?)
Engine (UE4, Unity, etc)
Polycount
Texture deliverables: Is it Metalness or Spec/Gloss? What are the sizes 1024? etc

As for the work itself... If you're contracting out to an individual character artist then you will probably want to split up your modeling and animation tasks. Rigging and animation is not "typically" a character art task and someone who can do it all may charge a premium for doing a task that normally falls outside of the standard scope of their work. I know I would.
Most character artist should be able to handle LODs though, its not really a major issue, so you can put that under the modeling tasks.

You could have it all done by an outsource studio but as I understand it they typically work on bulk order contracts and it may go well outside of your budget range to have them handle a single character to completion.