AuthorTopic: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project  (Read 7927 times)

Offline Johanna

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

on: August 17, 2005, 12:47:05 pm
We are currently looking for people to make generic, featureless, nude, shaded, character doll spritesheets for a variety of races.

Example (found with google):

(Click to enlarge. This is just an example, this does not set the style of the project)

The image above lacks a few things that would be needed in the spritesheets you would make:
8 frame animations (more is no problem, less is a nono)
8 directions

The size should be the same, meaning: 32x64pixel character boxes, certain actions/races may require larger (or smaller) boxes, which is fine.


As for actions, the following would be needed for each race:
Lying down
Standing
Walking
Running
Ready for battle
(Idle battle stance)
Attack (Sweeping, left to right, or other way, doesent matter)
Attack (Cleaving, hands behind head holding weapon, cleave down head to toe on enemy)
Attack (Thrusting, spear, thrust forward)
Casting magic 1
Casting magic 2
(Needs two different animations)
Dying

The attack actions should begin and end in the 'Ready for battle' stance.


A spritesheet should hold all frames and actions in all 8 directions. One spritesheet per race.
And as already stated, characters should be genderless and nude. In short, skin colored featureless characters.

The races are as follows:
Darkelves
Dragons
Dwarfs
Elves
Gnomes
Goblins
Humans
Minotaurs
Ogres
Orcs
Rastakrok
Titans
Treants
Trolls


Concept art of some races can be found here


Dolls should be as normal as possible, we do not want chibi (the example image is too much like a chibi) The doll should have as "human" like proportions as possible. This, ofcourse, doesent apply for the non-humanlike races.


Additional information about the game and the engine in general can be found here


We are willing to pay for the job done, however noone on our team has any general idea of how much this kind of work would be worth.
If you want payment it is arrangeable, but do note that we dont have anywhere near unlimited funds.
A price proposal would be nice to have, should it be you want to be paid.


If you are interessted, either post a reply here, pm or email: MuhDev@gmail.com


Regards,
C. Strand
J. Pihl
R. A. Juel Mønnike

Offline ptoing

  • 0101
  • ****
  • Posts: 3063
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • variegated quadrangle arranger
    • the_ptoing
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/2191.htm
    • View Profile
    • Perpetually inactive website

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #1 on: August 17, 2005, 04:49:12 pm
Lying down = 1 frame per direction = 8 frames
Standing = 1 frame per direction = 8 frames (unless you want some idle animation)
Walking = 8 frames per direction = 64 frames
Running = 8 frames per direction = 64 frames
Ready for battle (Idle battle stance) = 4 frames per direction = 32 frames
Attack (Sweeping, left to right, or other way, doesent matter) = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames
Attack (Cleaving, hands behind head holding weapon, cleave down head to toe on enemy) = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames
Attack (Thrusting, spear, thrust forward) = 6 frame per direction = 48 frames
Casting magic 1 = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames
Casting magic 2 (Needs two different animations) = 6 frames per direction x2 = 96 frames
Dying = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames (I think you could just go with a frontal death no matter what direction)

OK, this would be 502 frames of animation. (and this is just a rough estimate, as you might want to have more elaborate attack and/ or magic or dying anims)

Now lets multiply this by 14 for the races = 7028 frames of animation.

For a single artist this would take ages. My personal record is about 500 frames of animation in 5 weeks, working 5-6 days a week 8-9 hours a day (yes, i work fulltime as a game artist).

If i was to take this job i would want to have proper payment it would end up in a 5 digit sum.
Also after this you still have to have someone who has to put clothes on them, I guess you want them as sprite overlays, but they still have to be animated and then you are quickly somewhere around 100000 frames of animation. YAY!

My suggestion would be, get someone who is good in 3d and then make hipoly 3d models of those 14 chars which can then be animated and rendered.
So you will end up with something like Diablo in terms of looks. This would be much faster, but still a mayor job.

I have no clue why there are so many indie developers doing (or trying to do) mmorpgs. mmorpgs are about as complicated as it gets in almost every aspect.
Also i guess at some point you need creatures, as just having 14 races and no creatures to hunt, monsters to fight or big dragons to slay, would be a bit boring.

I wish you all the best, but as far as i know there is not one single mmorpg which has been developed without proper funding. And that's not because nobody tried. They take huge teams several years and a massive amount of funding to get done.

And don't think just because something is sprites makes it easier to do than 3d. With this amount of animation it is not.

Anyway, good luck, just wanted to put things into perspective.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2005, 04:52:17 pm by ptoing »
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline FaeryShivers

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 64
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Happy Ufo Studios

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #2 on: August 17, 2005, 06:24:37 pm
I agree with ptoing, you're looking for a lot more than is probably affordable for your project at this time. For now I'd suggest trying to get someone to do just one or two races for now and leave it open ended for others later.A price I usually go with is 2.50 per frame as I know many other artists charge by the frame and you have a lot of frames there.

If you're looking for quality over quantity I'd seriously consider cutting down the amount of frames. While you may think thats a bad thing, its a lot easier and less timely to make the sprites more beautiful with less frames. I know lots of 2d games that don't use even close to that many frames and are still very beautiful games.

By the way are you planning on having interchangeable clothes for each race or is it static?

Offline Johanna

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #3 on: August 18, 2005, 10:20:48 am
Quote
OK, this would be 502 frames of animation. (and this is just a rough estimate, as you might want to have more elaborate attack and/ or magic or dying anims)
Lying down = 2 frame per direction = 16 frames
Standing = 2 frame per direction = 16 frames (we want idle)
Walking = 8 frames per direction = 64 frames
Running = 8 frames per direction = 64 frames
Ready for battle (Idle battle stance) = 4 frames per direction = 32 frames
Attack (Sweeping, left to right, or other way, doesent matter) = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames
Attack (Cleaving, hands behind head holding weapon, cleave down head to toe on enemy) = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames
Attack (Thrusting, spear, thrust forward) = 6 frame per direction = 48 frames
Casting magic 1 = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames
Casting magic 2 = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames (We meant that casting magic needed two animations, we appologise for the missunderstanding.)
Dying = 6 frames per direction = 48 frames

480 frames in total.

Quote
Also after this you still have to have someone who has to put clothes on them, I guess you want them as sprite overlays, but they still have to be animated and then you are quickly somewhere around 100000 frames of animation. YAY!
Ofcourse, but that is something both I (Johanna) and our current artists can do without problems.
The problem is that none of us are able to draw prope character 'blueprints', genderless, featureless characters.
If worst come to worst, we'll just have to keep trying to do it ourselves, although any help is greatly appreciated.

Quote
My suggestion would be, get someone who is good in 3d and then make hipoly 3d models of those 14 chars which can then be animated and rendered.
So you will end up with something like Diablo in terms of looks. This would be much faster, but still a mayor job.
We have already tried, using a testmodel with an absurd amount of polygons, it was still impossible to use, all features go away when scaled to the size we want. Diablo uses models a lot larger than the ones we are aiming for. But it's a good idea, and we havent abandoned it.

Quote
I have no clue why there are so many indie developers doing (or trying to do) mmorpgs. mmorpgs are about as complicated as it gets in almost every aspect.
Also i guess at some point you need creatures, as just having 14 races and no creatures to hunt, monsters to fight or big dragons to slay, would be a bit boring.
We could go indepth on how we solve the monster problem, and other aspects of the engine if you want, but we dont see how it's relevant to this topic, perhaps in a PM if you're interessted?

Quote
I wish you all the best, but as far as i know there is not one single mmorpg which has been developed without proper funding. And that's not because nobody tried. They take huge teams several years and a massive amount of funding to get done.
I guess we'll be the first then. At the moment the team is about 20+ people, we all work without any pay.
Also, there are MMORPGs developed without any funding at all, Mana dreams is just one.
As a coder I (Johanna) come across the usual: "Hi im making the bestest game evva!" posts quite often, and I'm sure you people have your share of them as well.
The FieldView project has been in developement for over a year already. We're all aware of the problems and hardship that comes with the genre.
Up until just a few days ago we werent even sure if we would have a server to run it on. Thanks to a generous sponsor, we now have that.
Do not for a second think this is a fast project, meant to put something out there in a months time. On the contrary, the entire dev. team feels we should take our time and release something we are happy with and want, instead of "going by the flow" and rlease something we would never play. Either because it's filled with bugs, the graphics suck, the music sucks, the sound fx sucks, etc.
The only reason the spriter would get payd is because we lack a spriter. It's not because spriting is harder than any other aspect of the game. I'm (Johanna) not saying it's easy, I'm saying it's just as hard as the rest.

Quote
And don't think just because something is sprites makes it easier to do than 3d. With this amount of animation it is not.
We dont.

Quote
Anyway, good luck, just wanted to put things into perspective.
Thanks, and perspective is always good.

Quote
For now I'd suggest trying to get someone to do just one or two races for now and leave it open ended for others later.
Ofcourse there was never any intention of having a one man army. We're sorry if the first post came across as such.
If you only want to do the humans, feel free to do so.

Quote
A price I usually go with is 2.50 per frame as I know many other artists charge by the frame and you have a lot of frames there.
Even if the frame consist of nothing more than a filled in outline?
How about ~30cents per frame, or USD150 per spritesheet? (480 frames)

Quote
If you're looking for quality over quantity I'd seriously consider cutting down the amount of frames.
We're looking for quality and quantity, something which is quite possible.

Quote
I know lots of 2d games that don't use even close to that many frames and are still very beautiful games.
Ofcourse, it's just not what we want.

Quote
By the way are you planning on having interchangeable clothes for each race or is it static?
Yes, read up.

An additional note: the sprites would have no color limits, you would be able to use the full spectrum of 24bit colors, without problems.

If you think ~30cents per frame, or USD150 per spritesheet is way to little for character outlines, please tell. Don't rant.


Regards,
C. Strand
J. Pihl
R. A. Juel Mønnike

Offline Johanna

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #4 on: August 18, 2005, 11:21:40 am
The positions have been filled.
Thank you for your time.

Deal ended with USD100 per spritesheet and 4 artists.

We thank you again for your time taken on this matter.


Regards,
C. Strand
J. Pihl
R. A. Juel Mønnike

Offline NyanNyanKoneko

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 98
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Playing With Yarn

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #5 on: August 18, 2005, 02:55:14 pm
Why does EVERYONE want to do a freaking MMORPG!?

Don't people realize they are REALLY boring?   :-[

Plus I could pull off a playable mmorpg alpha in a week.  I will never understand the people who work on projects for over a year without much to show for it.   :'(

Offline jsmith71

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 11
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #6 on: August 18, 2005, 09:50:14 pm
There's something called opinion... ;) For example I find strategy RPGs boring as hell. Lots of people don't. Loosen up. :P

Offline NyanNyanKoneko

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 98
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Playing With Yarn

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #7 on: August 18, 2005, 10:01:10 pm
MMORPGs are just a bad choice for novice game makers, but too many start off making mmorpgs right off the bat.  =)

It's cool if you like MMORPGs.   8)

Offline Johanna

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #8 on: August 18, 2005, 11:52:33 pm
Quote
Why does EVERYONE want to do a freaking MMORPG!?
Actually, we dont want to make a MMORPG, we want to make a fun game. We all (the dev team) like RPG's, and we like playing together. The genre MMORPG comes to mind quite easily.
Quote
Don't people realize they are REALLY boring?
I agree completely, most MMORPGs available today are really boring. You often end up playing it as a singleplayer game, entering the towns only to sell and buy stuff. Which you could do at an NPC anyways.
Quote
Plus I could pull off a playable mmorpg alpha in a week.  I will never understand the people who work on projects for over a year without much to show for it.
Congratulations. Some people work slower, simple as that. We're not in any hurry. ;D
Quote
MMORPGs are just a bad choice for novice game makers, but too many start off making mmorpgs right off the bat.  =)
We're far from novice game makers. Ofcourse there are fresh people on the team, but the core is made up of experienced people.
Quote
It's cool if you like MMORPGs.
We do, you dont. So, how's the weather? ;)


Regards,
J. Pihl

Offline Darion

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 234
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • Portfolio bitch

Re: Sprite artist/animator wanted for serious project

Reply #9 on: August 19, 2005, 01:31:23 am
MMORPGs are just a bad choice for novice game makers, but too many start off making mmorpgs right off the bat.  =)

It's cool if you like MMORPGs.   8)

You are playing that wrong MMORPGs.
@darionmccoy