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Getting the most out of an artist.
Kobi Kobi Koo
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How do you get a paid artist to unleash their full creative potential on a concept art project with the same intensity as an artist working on his own personal projects?
Paying them more just causes them to produce more work, but without really raising creative quality.
Paying them more just causes them to produce more work, but without really raising creative quality.
Kobi Kobi Koo on
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But then we have to find a new guy to replace them and it's the same shit again.
And it's not like we're not giving them anything to work with, we write up very detailed descriptions and backstories as to what we want to see. We've even learned to not even hire any motherfucker who doesn't use absolutely perfect grammar or writing skill because chances are they won't truly understand what the hell we're trying to convey.
Is this a common thing
What is the disparity you are seeing between what the artists are giving you and you are asking for?
Are they just not doing the work?
Ever thought the problem was with you guys? There is such a thing as a terrible client.
This is the vibe you're giving at the moment. If you're looking for inspired work, you may need to be a little inspiring. Also, if you aren't leaving any room for creativity, you are less likely to get any creativity.
You're not giving a lot of detail though, so it's a little difficult to advise.
This. I probably wouldn't want to work with you guys from how you're conveying yourself, and I'm a broke as fuck artist.
Check out my art! Buy some prints!
If you're finding that none of the people you hire meet your expectations, you may have to re-examine those expectations and/or how you convey them to the artist.
Rigorous Scholarship
It's hard to say without seeing your detailed description, but there's the possibility that with your extremely detailed descriptions of what you want to see you're completely choking out any creativity on the part of the artist, which makes them not very enthused about working on your project.
It's a lot easier to get excited about something when you're given general specs like the target audience is and what the message is. No one wants to be the "automated machine that just implements what Mr. Client says he wants to see."
You're hiring an artist, presumably because you think they're creative and have some expertise, if you aren't trusting that they're more of an expert on creating it than you are, why the hell are you hiring them? Go do it yourself.
Again, take that with a grain of salt because without seeing your detailed descriptions we just have to make some assumptions.
You aren't looking for creativity. Creativity means the artist has leeway to express themselves in the art. What you're doing is hiring an artist to make you a really creative project, and then handing them a paint-by-numbers kit and telling them if they violate any of the rules, such as not following the numbers, not using the correct colors, or even painting outside the lines, then you'll fire them and find some other artist.
My suggestion is the next time you hire an artist, don't be so detailed and let them work. Give them the backgrounds, but be a little vague with the descriptions so they have room to work and express themselves, because that's what being creative is all about- expression.
EDIT: Beat'd. Still good advice, though.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
The problem we notice is that their first few sketches are always the best ideas.
Then it's downhill from there...
Clearly, I'm losing my patience. We can't just keep burning money away. It feels like we'd probably get more bang for our buck if we just paid only the upfront payment, got the first batch of sketches, fired them, got someone new, gave them those sketches and our new ideas and then got their first sketches and fired them, and then continued on... until we have a shitload of unrelated ideas piled up from a bunch of artists.
Which is really what we want anyway! Then get someone make more finalized versions of the stuff we do like.
But we don't want to do that.
We say something like "This type of character hangs out by the river often" or "this guy looks like he could rip your head off with his bare hands", so they can get a feel. Though more than that of course, like paragraphs worth.
Without going into too much detail what exactly are you hiring the artists for? Whats the end product going to be?
fuck if I know.
Someone explain it to me.
The artwork is turned into 3D models for a game mod.
It might take more than one go-around to find what works. But you seem to be interested in speed instead of creativity. The two are not really compatible.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
it's driven by ideas. you have an idea, you want to articulate it in the best way possible, and that involves creativity and technical skill. if your artists are not getting the feeling that they are able to articulate their own ideas, they will not be really outputting with any passion
Ok, so a game mod. How much are you paying the artists and where are you finding them.
Im still thinking the problem might sit with you and the direction you are giving. Ive had clients give me great prompts that then turn out to be soulsucking projects just because of the client being... terrible.
You have a game, and you want to make some good graphics for it. All you got right now are cubes for models and blocky landscapes and shit.
But you want this game to look good and have a tight theme, and just an overall unique look. You want graphics that are fit for the game you have made.
Your team has 0 art skill but deep pockets (to an extent).
How do you accomplish this goal.
Edit: to answer the question you just wrote, it entirely depends on hiring talented individuals. However, if you want a creative artist to really shine, you have to give them creative control. You've said it yourself, you have no art skills, so don't try and art direct someone who knows better than you what makes something look good. If you can't trust a person to do this, then you have hired the wrong person.
Find an art director. Then trust them. Let them do their job. Let them find artists and work with those artists. And then don't back seat art direct.
I'm a writer and have many professional artist friends (most do web design now, some graphic design). You can give me a strict set of guidelines and guess what, I will do that. You can give me a general set of guidelines (like a made-up theme off the top of my head: feudal Japan mixed with Victorian England) and I'll probably drum up a few different things, bounce them around and show you one or two. It's not like creativity just dies. You are either capable of being creative (which is why writers block is such a big deal in many stories) or you aren't.
I've never seem someone just tap out of it like they were pouring water out of a can.
You should learn about game design and how the product moves from idea all the way over to finished product. There's a lot to it, and your lack of knowledge on the subject is likely the problem. I feel bad for the people you fired (and maybe hired when they weren't qualified if you didn't know what to look for).
edit: Yes, you need an art director. Or if just one artist is doing it all, that's their job. You can give them a general overview of mood, themes, etc. but if you could design it as well as a professional artist, well then you'd be a flipping professional artist.
if you wanted the visual world to seamlessly tie into the the narrative, theme, gameplay, everything, you really would have needed the artist's input from day zero.
There is probably some sort of artist collective website that you could probably tap and look for artists that have a style that you really like, make sure to pick out a few and then write up an RFP, outline what you want from the artist (initial bw design sketches, then inked/colored character design sheets etc)
Since you guys have zero artistic skill give the artist a fairly wide birth and see what they do, make sure your proposal has sections for redraws, editing etc.
If the final product is full color character design layouts (With characters front, back, side, side, top, bottom view ) so your 3d artist then can recreate the character (hopefully they are good) since you guys are going to be doing the 3d you should be deciding before hand what you kinda want the style to be, is it cartoon, cell shaded, realistic etc, of course this should be decided during your search for an artist.
Have a timeline set as well with set dates for deliverables (slightly negotiable of course)
Never ask for artwork for free, and get quotes from the artist on how much they charge for various drawing types.
There is probably more but that should be a good start.
Oh and hire an art director.
Give the artist the blocky landscape and some general ideas as to what you want the area to look like without telling them "it better look like this or you're shitcanned". Give the artist the cube models and give them some general background information (age, job, etc.) without any hard details and let them come up with some good work. Do NOT give them a massive pile of paper detailing EXACTLY how you want everything to look. Just like how a writer isn't a personal fanfiction dispenser, an artist is not a color copier complete with USB-supported mind-reader helmet. You seem to be looking for the copier with helmet, not an artist.
Creative types work better in generalities instead of hard, fast rules. Give me a few sentences, I can weave you a world. Give me all the details up front, I'll tell you to write it yourself. I'm actually not surprised you've been burning artists like cordwood- you already have an idea as how the art should look, not to mention the whole "my way or the highway" attitude that isn't really conducive to an artist trying to do thier best work.
Next time you hire an artist, don't lay so many ground rules and see what you get.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
i.e. a bunch of people admitting to zero artistic ability telling multiple artists they're crap and hoarding their good stuff.
We all have talents. You gotta let the people talented in the right way help you out where you aren't and keep your ego out of the way.
Ironically, the artists are the highest paid members of the whole team. None of us gain any money from this and it is funded entirely from our own money.
We'd love to give complete creative freedom to an art director and trust we're going to get something truly inspiring in return and not something that looks like it was just done because it pays the bills, but chances are we're not going to get that without paying a hell of a lot more than we are now.
cough up more, or lower your standards
there's nothing to be ashamed of in the latter option. perfection doesn't come easily, and it's already apparent that the project you're working on is never going to approach artistic perfection
I've noticed some artists need really detailed information about what you want, and others like was said can take a simple sentence and craft some good shit. Not everyone is the same.
eventually we will probably just end up lowering our standards.
this would be a lot easier if we had a dedicated artist on the team that we didn't have to pay. I've thought of developing art skills for this very purpose, but it would take years to get to a level of skill worth a damn.
Hiring people to do all the other work we've done alone would have probably made this prohibitively expensive. god damn
Why am I telling you how to interview someone for a job...? There isn't a simple test for creativity. We're not measuring how tall they are, we are talking about one of the intrinsic qualities of human beings.
heh
edit: mine is 43
The reason you have problems isn't because of the artists. It's because of you and the rest of the team. You want creativeness in your art, but at the same time, you drown them in details as to how everything is supposed to look. It's self-defeating.
Stop trying to justify that the artist should be a mind-reader because you're coughing up that much cash. Give them freedom to work, and you might be pleasantly surprised as to what you could get for your money.
If you've gotten all six artists through the same source, your group/company/whatever might have a horrible rep among the rest of the community by now. I'd look for a different source for your art.
It's art, for crying out loud. You can't rush it, you can't force it. Give the artist a realistic deadline, a good amount of leeway, and some creative freedom. Do that and I'd bet artist #7 will be the last one you hire.
I can has cheezburger, yes?