3D Artists: How Much Do You Typically Charge For Your Work?

raoble

I am in the very beginning stages of game development, and I'm currently attempting to assemble a budget for a short demo of the game, since I sadly haven't stumbled across a large sum of money yet to fund the entire thing.

I'll need to hire some 3D artists to pull it off, but since I'm not very familiar with the field, I'm not quite sure how much I should be expecting to pay. After all, budgeting does tend to get a little hard when you have no idea what something costs.

I figured the best way to answer my question would be to ask some actual 3D artists what they would charge for their services. I mean, hey, it's better than guesswork.

So, a question for those of you 3D artists who do freelance work: What kind of art do you specialize in, and how much do you charge?

Jonas Ronnegard

Really depends on the quality of artist and location, and if it's a serious freelance artist living on his work.

I would probably say that a serious freelance artist depending location and experience would take 200 - 700 usd a day
go lower then that and you would have to have low expectations.

radiancef0rge

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Freelance

The following numbers are averages, posted by Polycount members. All numbers are in USD unless stated otherwise.

Freelancer Type	US Day Rate	US Hourly	Overseas Day Rate	Overseas Hourly
Individual contractor	$300/day *	$37.50/hr *	$250 - 375/day	$31.25 - 47/hr
Low-end art studio	$350/day	$43.75/hr	$140 - 180/day	$17.50 - 22.50/hr
Average art studio	$500/day	$62.50/hr	$200/day	$25/hr
High-end art studio	$800/day **	$100/hr **	$300/day	$37.50/hr

* Individual contractors in the US range from $275 - 500/day ($34.50 - 62.50/hr) 
**These rates are for rare high-end boutique studios.

PyrZern

And obviously some would go way way way lower than that... I know some that ask for $50 per project... Obviously the quality gonna be totally different. 

Eric Chadwick

My day rate is around $600, but that's for mostly non-game art (sim, architectural, medical, etc.).

Shyralon

This might be a really dumb question, but why is the oversea day rate for individual contractors the highest of the few, but in the US the lowest of all of them in the table posted above?
Is it caused by US companys doing outsourcing in china/india while contractors in those countrys can charge more than the average studio pays over there?

Eric Chadwick

It's actually a range. Look at the asterisk below it.

These numbers are taken from one source, someone who was outsourcing a lot, but still you should take it all with a bit of skepticism.

The rates are actually all over the place. There are no standards. This table does not represent experience level, for example.

kat

Shyralon said:

This might be a really dumb question, but why is the oversea day rate for individual contractors the highest of the few, but in the US the lowest of all of them in the table posted above?
Is it caused by US companys doing outsourcing in china/india while contractors in those countrys can charge more than the average studio pays over there?

It's ostensibly determined by currency exchange rates, freelancers in China/India can charge much less due to the relative weakness of their currencies to the USD - http://www.katsbits.com/articles/how-much-should-i-charge-for-freelance-3d-modeling-work.php#international_freelance