How much is your art worth?

Draffin

I posted this in the "Looking for work" forum and a got a couple of offers for work, which is great...but i'm actually at the moment just after some advice, soooo.......

Effectively a group of us are starting work on a game. We have all the programmers in the world but are lacking good artists.
I just wanted to get a ball park figure on what we'd be paying if we were to do a pay-per-model system. Most of the work would be vehicles (space craft) with a range of sizes.

We'd expect a close to if not industry standard

Any advice would be great.

Regards
Ben

Mark Dygert

Hi Draffin, Most freelancers will figure out their desired hourly wage based on their current situation (how much per month will cover the bills, plus a little divided by how many hours they plan to work). Then estimate how long the job will take, factor in some time for changes and multiply that by your hourly rate.

You could use the same calculation to get ball park figures.

If that works out to be too rich for your blood you'll probably have to take a step down and look for people who do it part time or who are just starting out and will take a lower rate in exchange for a lower quality product.

If you're looking for top notch pro work I would recommend checking out:
Valkyrie Entertainment http://www.valent.us/
3 Point Studios http://www.3pointstudios.com/

Draffin

Awesome thanks Vig,

and yeah, i don't think my blood runs that blue

Regards
Ben

diminished_Self

id say its worth exactly however much someone is willing to give you for it and not a penny less that what you'll accept.

seforin

vig: Come on dude your not gonna support your boy at liquid?

just saying the guys who did work on mass effect and all....they might know a thing or 2 on space ships


http://www.liquiddevelopment.com/

Ghostscape

Figure industry entry-level artists make between 30-50k a year.

Let's say we're low-balling a college student or someone else who does not have the industry record to demand a high salary, so we'll go with paying this guy at 30k a year.

That comes out to about $14.50 an hour. Figure something as complex as a FPS trash can is somewhere around a day, and an FPS gun is somewhere around two weeks (I know you said you're making spaceships but you haven't posted any concept art, etc). That means you're looking at somewhere around $110 for the trash-can complexity prop, and about $1160 for the FPS-gun complexity prop.

Obviously, scale up from there based on quality of artist, time required, etc etc.

PeterK

Dang,

No love, Someone ought to mention Exis too.

Autocon

Ghostscape wrote: »

Figure industry entry-level artists make between 30-50k a year.

Let's say we're low-balling a college student or someone else who does not have the industry record to demand a high salary, so we'll go with paying this guy at 30k a year.

That comes out to about $14.50 an hour. Figure something as complex as a FPS trash can is somewhere around a day, and an FPS gun is somewhere around two weeks (I know you said you're making spaceships but you haven't posted any concept art, etc). That means you're looking at somewhere around $110 for the trash-can complexity prop, and about $1160 for the FPS-gun complexity prop.

Obviously, scale up from there based on quality of artist, time required, etc etc.

Extremely true to all points above. One thing to remember also working with people over the net/not in the same room as you is you will have to adjust for needed back and forth on completed assets. Anyone who has ever had to deal with outsourcing can tell you that no one really gets everything perfect the way you will want it the first time. There could be alterations be it ascetic or technical that will need to be changed for fit your needs and thats more time plus the average time per asset.

When I read the title of this thread I really wanted to just respond with that my work is worth 1 MILLION DOLLARS! :O

Paul Pepera

Freelancers will normally charge significantly higher than they would be making hourly as a FTE at a company to compensate for the lack of medical benefits and the government taking a huge amount of taxes out of self-employed individuals.

ZacD

@Paul, and don't forget, freelance work isn't a very stable job, contracts end all the time and you might be out of work for a while trying to find your next job.

Mark Dygert

Ha yea I knew there was more I couldn't think of. Next time, next time...

kanga

Ghostscape wrote: »

Figure industry entry-level artists make between 30-50k a year.

Let's say we're low-balling a college student or someone else who does not have the industry record to demand a high salary, so we'll go with paying this guy at 30k a year.

That comes out to about $14.50 an hour. Figure something as complex as a FPS trash can is somewhere around a day, and an FPS gun is somewhere around two weeks (I know you said you're making spaceships but you haven't posted any concept art, etc). That means you're looking at somewhere around $110 for the trash-can complexity prop, and about $1160 for the FPS-gun complexity prop.

Obviously, scale up from there based on quality of artist, time required, etc etc.

Ha ha, this is a good one!
A good freelancer has 15 weeks of full time work a year, if they are lucky. The rest of the time goes into finding work, book keeping, investment in new techniques, hardware, software. The more work you can offer someone the lower the price. You are hiring their expertise (plus machines and soft) and depending on the international situation paying the sales tax on top.

A pro divides yearly costs and what they need to live and slots that into the 15 weeks I was talking about to arrive at an hourly rate. Also the faster someone works the higher the rate but the lower the time needed. For an FPS with a weapon in screen and close up quality see http://www.lonewolf3d.com/. That will cost more than the price you mentioned. For a student the price would be pretty good but the quality would be nowhere in the neighborhood.