Pixelation
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: MCNS on February 21, 2007, 09:44:26 am
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Hi
I'm new to this forum, well actually I frequently visit and read forum post, you guys here are so talented. Anyway now I have decided to register. I have a question about artist payment, so please forgive me if this topic has been explained before.
In my freetime I have been working on a 2d platform game completely freeware, the gfx/tiles has been temporary replacements like those found in spritelib, however I'd really like to have some original tiles, but I can't make graphics if my life depends on it, so I thought about posting a request in the job section, however it's my experience that most unpaid requests rarely results in the programmer actually finding an artist, so my question to you is, how much would and artist ask for payment? the job would be like doing 30-40 tiles 32x32 (8 bit)
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It's not about how much an artist asks, it's about how much you give. If you are willing to spend $200 I'm pretty sure you'll find someone, if you ask $50 you may find someone to but you'll get lesser replies and the artists willing to take the job won't be one of the best pixel artists around here, but that doesn't mean the quality will be very poor ;).
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Well I guess many hobbyist programmers have the same problem as me, so I thought a forum like this probably would be the best way to find a pixel artist. I suppose I could manage spending around $200, at this point I would be pretty happy to find someone who would be willing to do some tiles. But being a newcomer on this forum, I didn't really have any clue on how much amount of money would be fair.
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http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=1535.0
please do a quick search, before starting a new thread, that way you will find your answers a lot quicker. :D
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Well thanks for doing the work for me :)
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I dunno about 30-40 tiles specifically, but in my experience the freelance artist rates are generally:
$10/hour = lowballing or first gig
$15 = low-end
$20 = decent
$25-30 = experienced
$35+ = very pro (fast and worth the cash)
- Adam
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But how do you know, how many hours an artist has spend making the gfx. You have no way to check up on it.
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You'll have to trust him/her or pay him/her for the tiles they make and not for the hours
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I wouldn't expect any people here that are experienced enough to make art for a game to actually lie about their hours. Most of us seem pretty honest. At least, I hope we are. Plus, you can probably tell if they're adding onto their hours significantly just by looking at the quality of the work.
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you can also work out a deadline, or the timeframe in which an artist should get the work done. This helps the artist get a clearer idea on the speed they should work, and how many hours per day they should work on it. To do this though, the artist needs to know exactly what is to be needed ahead of time, so they can estimate a timeframe for you. Or you can estimate it yourself if you feel you can.
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But how do you know, how many hours an artist has spend making the gfx. You have no way to check up on it.
Well that's one reason I always pay per-piece whenever possible. If anything, hourly is more dangerous for the artist because if they're too slow and rack up more hours per piece than expected, they'll probably stop getting work pretty quickly. Personally, I think hourly is just bad for something like pixel art. It rewards the lazy/slow artist and has the potential to cost employers a lot more than they expected.
- Adam
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per-piece or per-project pricing can also save both the artist and the client a lot of time and trouble, because if you go hourly it raises a lot of questions, concerns, paperwork, etc etc that you could otherwise avoid, and its pretty standard practice. "hourly" in my experience is something you use to threaten clients, not get them ;)
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I prefer the pay-per-project or pay-per-piece way, especially when you are just developing freeware.