Hey there!
I’m an independent game developer working in Unreal Engine 4 and I’d like to have a quality character model to work with so that I can move from programming to the animation stage. All of the animations I plan to use are rigged to the standard UE4 Mannequin skeleton, so I would need the character model to be carefully fit around that skeleton (or vice versa) so that the animation retargeting process will work without my having to clean things up.
General Design Info:
The game is planned as a third-person, multiplayer-only cover-based shooter that revolves around “magical girls” (referring to the well-known Japanese anime genre) blasting limbs off in team deathmatch style battles with guns as well as magical powers. There is a level of playful raunchiness, typical of many JRPGs, that I plan to include in the final project, so the character design I’m looking for is fairly stylized (pseudo-anime, think maybe Overwatch or Fortnite if it was a manga).
There is a lot of dynamic movement the character will perform, so the model should deform well around the limbs and buttocks.That said, I would like the modeler to be able to do some weight painting. I can provide example animations that I’ll be using if it would help with that process.
One of the other main features of the game is to allow the player to customize their character. That will include clothing, hair, accessories such as jewelry or glasses, and breast size (to an extent; there won’t be entirely flat chests). I am only looking for one base female model, so any clothing/hair will just need to fit around that model, keeping in mind that breast size will be configurable (I’m not personally familiar with how that affects things technically, but I’m presuming whoever does the work will be).
Clothing is planned to range from more elaborate, slightly suggestive “magical girl” outfits (a la Blue Reflection) to more casual outfits (short shorts, skirts, jeans, T-shirts).
Technical Requirements:
Since this is a game project, naturally I want as low a poly-count as possible. Ideally, a base female model of no more than 10-15k verts would be great. I should be able to handle up to 30-40k for character+clothing (I’m targeting desktop platforms), but I would more comfortable at half that amount.
As mentioned previously, I also definitely need the model to be rigged to the UE4 Mannequin skeleton. This is a standard skeleton that I can provide to the modeler. If the animation retargeting doesn’t work correctly, I can’t consider the work done, so this is quite important. I’d rather not find an animator just to skin a model.
Finally, the reason I mentioned texturing requirements is because I’d like the models to have properly set up light maps and UVs when imported to the engine. I am willing to pay for custom textures too if you are able (and budget willing), but I’m capable of creating nice textures myself if this is outside your skillset.
Budget/Creative Freedom
Budget: as low as possible 
In all seriousness, I’d like to spend no more than $1500-$3000 on this. Any more would be pushing it for me. If there are corners you think can be cut to make the work less expensive at the cost of quality or whatever else, I’m open to hearing about those options once we’ve gone over all the details.
As far as the specific designs for the model and clothes go, I’m fairly open to letting the artist work that out based on some inspirations and short descriptions I can provide to anyone interested.
Please let me know if you have other questions! I hope I provided enough details (didn’t provide too many details?) and look forward to discussing the work in more depth with you. Thanks.
