Til now, I’ve remained a lurker on this forum. However, I just had to respond to this post.
With that said, I’m going to be very honest with you, Åsmund. For $50, which is non-negotiable, you’re just not going to get any takers. We both know that what you are asking for is simply unreasonable.
Allow me to explain by starting with your requirements.
- A reproduction of a well known character
- High poly mesh
- Sculpted details
- The highest quality materials
- Renderer specifc shaders
You’re effectively asking that the artist operate at an A+, professional level of quality as both a modeler and texture artist.
The average annual salary for a game artist is around $72k. Over the course of an average 40hr week, that translates to $40/hr, assuming an unpaid lunch hour.
You might be okay with the artist taking their time, but I can almost assure you that they won’t. The longer it takes them, the less they actually stand to earn.
For artists even considering this offer, I’ll ask you one question: How much is your time worth?
Here’s a brief cautionary tale to those artists who might be entertaining this job.
About 15 years ago, I took on a freelance archvis project. One of those walkthrough type of deals. The client contracted me for $2,500. At the time, that seemed like a great rate. I thought that I could bang it out in a week. Week and a half tops.
Unfortunately, I underestimated the complexity of the project. I also didn’t account for client meetings or revisions. By the end, not even including render time, I had put in about 360 hours. 12 hours a day, every day, for a full month.
For those of you keeping score, that’s just under $7/hr - barely above the minimum wage for 2002. Were I to count render time, I think I ended up earning just under $4/hr. I beat the snot out of my system for below minimum wage. Not worth it.
Artists reading this thread, never underestimate the value of your time. As long as you think something is going to take, it’s always going to take longer. Always.
Åsmund, I’m not trying to be dismissive, rude, or insulting. Please don’t misunderstand the purpose of my post. I’m simply trying to ask you to be reasonable. Even if the contracted artist manages to do exactly what you want in record time, $50 is simply too little to offer.
A typical production ready model can take a good 30-60 hours to make. You’re asking for the highest quality here. Being a commission, the standard of quality is yours, which means that it has to meet your final approval.
Even if you find some artist who can do this in a scant 2 days and at an entry level rate of $30/hr, you’re still only paying them 10% of what their time is worth.
This isn’t a Turbosquid type situation where the artist can resell the model 100 times over. In that case, sure, $50 might wok. They’ll even profit.
However, given that you’re asking them to create a high quality reproduction of a copyrighted character, they can’t do that here. This is a one and done commission. They’ll never (legally) be able to earn a dollar more than the $50 you’re paying for this project. $50 and that’s it.
At an average turn around of 30-60 hours, including revisions before final approval, this job can easily be worth $2k+. Nobody will (or should) take you up on that $50. Sorry, but it’s just too much work for too little money.
Like the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Pay $50 for a $2k job and you should probably expect to get $50 worth of quality. (Even worse, don’t be shocked if you get a hastily reworked rip of the official in-game model.)
Respectfully, you may want to just model and texture her yourself.
