3D character artist as a freelancer

miketzet

Hello guys, 

I was wondering how much would a 3D character artist charges for a design that it was given to him to do it. I.e, a rock golem that has a rock boulder as a weapon, optimized for a game. The things that have to be done are modeling, retopology, texturing and rigging. 

carvuliero

That's actually hard to tell without specific concept art/client description + fill list of client requirements, it depends on various factors like your experience and speed, time required to complete , the way client want to pay you-> per hour/fixed  ,complexity, art style ,who your client is -> person/studio/indie, number of revisions , what final model is going to be use for/rights and bunch more

Simple formula you can use is your current hour rate X your time estimation to complete -> ex. 10$ per hour X 10hours =100$

Solid_Otter

It all depends on how long it will take you to finish. I would figure out what other freelance character artists are charging hourly then go from there. It is tricky in this case since it seems like your being asked to do more than character modeling.

Biomag

The most thoughtful way to approach it is to sit down and calculate how much 1 hour of work costs you. Keep in mind you have to pay taxes, health care, licencies, rent, marketing... make a calculation what expenses you have and divide it by how many hours you have at your disposal to work. Then also add some % for savings to have something between jobs and some % for your own benefit - if you don't make an earning, what's the point? All of these depend on where you live, as taxes and costs of living vary big time. Once you have a price you can still compare it to the competition and see where you can settle based on your skillset.

Sometimes there will be other things to consider - like is the a potential long term client? Is this going to give you some big time exposure or give you the chance to learn something new? Those might be incentitives to reduce your profit, but I wouldn't go as far as reducing your prices below your own costs.

On the other hand if this is a once in a lifetime gig you might just want to check the polycount wiki.