3d Artist Commission

tastydonuts

Since these forums are kind of a crossroads for a variety of interests, I figured I'd ask here instead of registering an account elsewhere just to ask a single question.

Basically, I want to know what's the ballpark figure for getting low poly 3d work commissioned. I see three routes of doing this... one being to hit up uni with a want ad, or browsing deviant art, with the last being being hitting the net for actual professional or pseudo-professional dudes. in any case, the question is the price.

if you've done this particular type of commission, how much did you charge for it? if you've paid someone to do it, how much did they charge you? what's the turnaround on such a task?

I guess some details would be very helpful:

There would be at least 8 models of humanoid characters, textured and I'd guess rigged too at the least.

NotYou

Most pro contractors get anywhere from 30-75 bucks an hour. 30 being really low, and probably most wouldnt accept that pay.

I have no idea what kinda of low poly character you want, whether we're talking gears of war low poly, or mario kart DS low poly, so I cant give you an estimate on how many hours are involved.

You might be able to rope in a student at about 200 a character, but no professional would ever do it for that price. And you'd get what you paid for. Unless you're shelling out lots of money, don't expect to find quality.

tastydonuts

I'd say Mario Kart DS low, maybe lower, as everything needs to compress to under 150mb.

NotYou

well, then, that's pretty low res work, and goes a lot faster. You might finish a whole character in 5-8 hours if you work at a quick pace and know what you're doing.

I would suggest you post a freelance job posting on the forums of www.polycount.com and www.cgtalk.com in the appropriate section. You can either be upfront about what you'll pay, or just ask for quotes. I suspect you'll get a fair amount of e-mails. If you ask for quotes, make sure and be specific about what you want.

tastydonuts

Yea thanks. I've even received a few PMs from this post. I'm going to hold off on actually buying the services though. I just want to know my options so that I can plan for that. I really want to avoid joining a forum to ask for specific quotes and junk until I'm sure I want to go that route. It's not a matter of not having the money, but not wasting other people's time. I'm sure those forums have plenty of people who do that already.

As far as the time goes, I've managed to muddle my way though a somewhat loosely presentable torso before stopping so far, and that was like an hour and a half or so of sporadic work. But w/o any real training or education on it I foresee failure as far as the joints go. I've read and watched tuts on doing them but it just hasn't clicked for me. Part of me wants to just keep at it to learn it, but I know how I am and I can just see this as ultimately being an obstruction to progress.

The simpler objects like buildings and what have you I feel fairly comfortable with doing. The only other thing I can think of offhand would be the actual model sheets. If I were to go this route, what would be sufficient? What I put together for myself works because I know what everything looks like, and I'm able to see it in 3d. There any formal guidelines I can use that you know of to translate for others?

Willeth

The standard reference I've always used for modelling in the past has been, at the most specific, a front, side and top elevation of the concept sketch, along with a more detailed concept drawing of a pose or situation or whatever.

tastydonuts

Ah. I haven't really done much with top elevations. I'll have to keep that in mind.

Another question if I go this route. Would it be much of a stretch to have them export/send the finished product to me in Blender, regardless of they used to put it together? I ask this because I decided when considering tools at the onset that I wasn't going to drop several grand on something whose output would only really be as good as I could make it.

Willeth

In my experience Blender can be a bitch to import some things into. That was a few years ago, though, it may have changed. If it's still the case then if you wanted to go that way I would recommend a preference for artists who are proficient with Blender so there's no compatibility issues, or find a robust converter that you can pump the files through yourself.

tastydonuts

Most of what I've been able to find about that suggests there are still problems with the bones and stuff.

To what degree would including that preference in my spec limit my choices?

NotYou

You can't export a rigged model from one app to another. You can however export the model just fine.

There aren't that many Blender artists, although I'm sure if you put an ad on the blender forums, you'd get someone to work for you.

Or you could learn to rig.

tastydonuts

Ah. The last question I have at this point is the legalese about it all. I mean, dropping 200 isn't that big of a deal, but I'm looking over the list of what I want done and it'd probably run a few grand total in most cases... so it'd be kind of an investment.

You have any information on how I could go about protecting myself and whoever I buy the services from when purchasing the commission?