How to go about hiring a 2D/3D artist in Ontario
Ok, I'm at a crossroads in terms of next steps for the creation of graphics for my MMORTS WorldAlpha.com. I had one concept artist do a couple of great images for me, but he is taking a month off, so now I'm without any artist, with a bunch of graphic work that needs to be done. I have a few questions and hope to get some reasonable answers here. I really need the bulk of the work to actually be done in Ontario, preferably the GTA, to qualify for some nice incentives from the government.
Here is the type of work I need done:
3 - 2D Background images (city streets) High-res 6,400 x 4,800
11 - 3D Weapons (sniper rifles) & Concept Art to go with it
11 - 3D Tanks & Concept Art to go with it
11 - 3D Artillery & Concept Art to go with it
600 - 2D Icons
25 - 2D Site Graphics
6 - 2D Characters
5 - 2D Movie Trailers
The above order is in order of priority. So, here are my questions:
How many people do I need?
I know at big companies, you would have specialists for each type of artwork. I would prefer to just hire one person to do it all. Is this realistic? What is the minimum number of people I would need?
Contest or Hire?
I really would like to do a contest in regards to this. The top 2 are my huge priorities here. So, one 2D city street contest, and one sniper rifle 3D contest. I know that contests take some time to execute but I was hoping to get see more potential artists, and maybe generate some interest in the game. More traditional has been the straight out hire someone. Not sure which way to go here.
Contract or Employee?
Once I found someone, what should I do, hire them for a 3-4 month contract, or hire them as an employee, with the understanding it may only last 4 months? Should I try to get a full-time/part-time commitment, or have them do it freelance?
How do I find artists?
Apart from posting it here, what are some good ways to find artists in the Toronto area or Ontario region?
What kind of hourly should I expect?
Ok, I do have budget for this, so I'm not asking for a pro-bono, or student project job here. I just want to have an idea, what kind of rates this type of work would be for a mid-level person. I'm assuming I won't be able to afford high end.
Any help in answering some or all of these questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Mike
Creating a Social Strategy MMO
http://www.worldalpha.com
Here is the type of work I need done:
3 - 2D Background images (city streets) High-res 6,400 x 4,800
11 - 3D Weapons (sniper rifles) & Concept Art to go with it
11 - 3D Tanks & Concept Art to go with it
11 - 3D Artillery & Concept Art to go with it
600 - 2D Icons
25 - 2D Site Graphics
6 - 2D Characters
5 - 2D Movie Trailers
The above order is in order of priority. So, here are my questions:
How many people do I need?
I know at big companies, you would have specialists for each type of artwork. I would prefer to just hire one person to do it all. Is this realistic? What is the minimum number of people I would need?
Contest or Hire?
I really would like to do a contest in regards to this. The top 2 are my huge priorities here. So, one 2D city street contest, and one sniper rifle 3D contest. I know that contests take some time to execute but I was hoping to get see more potential artists, and maybe generate some interest in the game. More traditional has been the straight out hire someone. Not sure which way to go here.
Contract or Employee?
Once I found someone, what should I do, hire them for a 3-4 month contract, or hire them as an employee, with the understanding it may only last 4 months? Should I try to get a full-time/part-time commitment, or have them do it freelance?
How do I find artists?
Apart from posting it here, what are some good ways to find artists in the Toronto area or Ontario region?
What kind of hourly should I expect?
Ok, I do have budget for this, so I'm not asking for a pro-bono, or student project job here. I just want to have an idea, what kind of rates this type of work would be for a mid-level person. I'm assuming I won't be able to afford high end.
Any help in answering some or all of these questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Mike
Creating a Social Strategy MMO
http://www.worldalpha.com
Replies
you could post a job opening on the igda site for toronto. facebook or twitter or whatever. I think theres an actual site too. Better yet, GO to the IDGA events held monthly.
Thanks for the info about going to schools, that is helpful. I actually was at the IDGA event that featured Polycount, a couple months back. The only thing about going to the event, there isn't really any "platform" to let the attendees know that you are looking to hire. As you mentioned, (and I was planning to do), I could always post it to their facebook page.
1.) Is it too many questions? Too long of a read?
2.) Are the answers so obvious, it doesn't deserve an answer?
3.) Are the questions so difficult, no one knows how to help?
4.) Is it that I'm not an artist myself, and only looking for the help of an artist, that means my types of posts are generally ignored?
5.) Is it my post lacks real graphic content and therefore people move on?
6.) Am I expecting an answer too soon?
7.) Some other inexplicable reason?
I'm looking to hire an artist in Ontario, I would think some Ontario artists looking for a job, might have some recommendations, as to maybe help their chances? I don't know. If someone could let me know even how to couch my posts, to better my odds of getting some response. That would be greatly appreciated.
- You say you want to preferably hire 1 person to do all that in 4 months, that to me sounds impossible. Freelance/contract/number of people I don't know, it all depends on time and someone with experience would have to figure that out. It sounds like you might not have done a project game related before.
- You suggest a contest. I imagine that would be a red flag for a lot of people, doing free work for a chance to win work?
- You mention you have a budget, and that the work seems to be as a means to get money from government. On top of wanting the game to be an MMO, more red flags.
- To find people, I know at my university tutors were contacted with positions for things and they passed them on via student email or blogs, there might be a similar thing where you are. There's websites such as gamasutra where you might be able to advertise, as well as many artist forums such as this. I don't think these sites would be too hard to find. Creating a presense on Twitter or something and gaining followers could also help.
As I said though, I can't give you any advice about the business stuff. Unfortunately if this sort of opportunity arose near me and I had the skills for it, I don't think I'd apply to it, it sounds a bit dodgy.
Thanks for the response and thoughts. They are helpful. Let me try to sound less dodgy!
Like I was asking, I'm sure it would take a few artists, but my preference would be the fewest possible. I would rather have one 2D and one 3D versus, 1 concept, 1 web art, 1 3D environment, 1 3D objects, 1 character, etc. That's why I was asking to get a better picture as to what I could expect.
I have done one game project previous, but the graphics were pretty straightforward.
I know the contest route is probably not best for a smaller project. I was just seeing if this was a possiblity.
Ontario offers 35% back for all game development monies spent in Ontario. I'm not creating a game to get 35% back. Just by hiring local, I get more bang for my buck.
An MMO a red flag? Why I'm curious. Too ambitious for an indie developer?
I do appreciate your thoughts. Helps me as I figure out how to present my opportunity.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90456
What's with you and contests?
Sorry I sound like an ass, but come on..
To be completely honest, you don't sound very legit at the moment (which is why you're not getting the proper responses).
First off, hire a full-time Lead Artist/Art Director, with extensive experience in the industry. YOU are not an Art Director. The Art Lead/Director should be able to scope the project out for you properly, the time necessary.
From there, they can figure out if you're after 'Blizzard/Epic/Valve' quality, or just want to ship something out the door ASAP. They should be able to maximize the value of what is needed, and fit things within scope and budget.
The concepts you have up on your page are not really concepts. They are not particularly helpful, and really just look like paintovers of cutouts of Downtown Toronto. You won't really get much professional help showcasing work at such an amateur level of quality.
How many people do you need? It's a silly question. How detailed are we talking? Hyper realism? Gears of War/Crysis quality? Or do you just want something really quickly and crappy.
The difference per piece can be 1 week to 2 months PER MODEL (for starters). Once again this can be answered by an experienced Art Lead/Director. Getting it to actually WORK in your game engine will require a Technical Lead/Director. And getting your art pipeline sorted out could be a bit finicky.
So I guess to answer question #1: Anywhere between 3-20 Artists, for anything between 1-4 years, at any quality between Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, to Uncharted 3.
#2: Hire. Don't belittle our industry on an industry forum with weaselly tactics to get free art.
#3: Employee Art Lead/Director they will figure out the rest, depending on the companies financial situation.
#4: There's a job posting section on this forum. Many other 3D forums have the same
#5: Fulltime Jr artists start from $30k, and Seniors can make well over $100k, and everything in between depending on their experience and skill.
it's been a while since i've heard that name mentioned.
also, good post, all very valid points. IMO, from the outside this project looks like one of those mods that claims to be an "indie game", then tries to get tons of hype over a few piece of concept art and quickly dies off. the fact that OP is trying to develop an "indie MMO" is giving off a the same scent as those projects--and it doesn't smell right.
worldalpha: i don't know what the internal state of your product is, but you say you have funding, yet from your posts it sounds like you don't have a team at all. if that's the case, you shouldn't be asking for beta testers or generating marketing hype yet, because that's another trap that silly mods fall into. in my personal opinion, a project shouldn't have a website until development is quite complete, and there's a little bit of nice media to post. i don't mean to be rude, but what kind of experience with business do you have? also, do you have many people employed, working on your project?
@Racer445 - You say it is too early for a website, and yet the website answers the questions you have. "what kind of experience with business do you have? also, do you have many people employed, working on your project?" are both answered in my DevBlog. http://www.worldalpha.com/devblog/ Also, with beta testing of my minigame slated for end of January/early February, I wouldn't want to leave it any later.
@Justin_Meisse - having had one successful Intenet community, I'm using that money to fund this project. So I'm the one signing the checks as it were.
Thanks for the input guys. I do appreciate it.