AuthorTopic: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?  (Read 3919 times)

Offline madmenyo

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Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

on: July 21, 2011, 04:51:00 pm
Hi,

I am totally in the dark about the salary of a decent pixel artist. I'd like to start on a bigger programming project, i would love to make a Jrpg game, but lack the ability to make appealing characters and mobs for it. I havent start working out exactly what i would need but i'd like to see what price range i'm up against. So here is a list of what i would need at the least.

4 main characters, about 32 * 48 with movement and some basic emotion animations consisting of 3 frames each.
4 portraits of these characters 128*128.
50 unique mobs and for each mobster i would need a couple (2 to 4) different color variants. Size ranges from 96*96 to 256*256 but most being around 128*128.
10 bosses 256*256

Like i said i'm clueless at how much time these things take to make and the budget i would have to put up against it if i set my sights on a cool indie Jrpg.

[edit]
Forgot to add that there are no palette restrictions as this will be developed with XNA for PC, xbox and maybe win phone too.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2011, 04:54:32 pm by madmenyo »

Offline ptoing

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Re: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

Reply #1 on: July 21, 2011, 07:09:42 pm
Couple of 1000 dollars for sure.

If you look at 50 unique monsters which also have to be designed I would say they will take between 1 and 3 hours, more for the 256 ones, depending on how detailed you want. If you want ff6 detailed, then it will take a while. So if you would pay an average of 100 dollar per mob that is 5000 dollars right there just as a rough (and low) estimate.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2011, 07:11:15 pm by ptoing »
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline madmenyo

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Re: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

Reply #2 on: July 21, 2011, 07:27:10 pm
Well that is a little over my budget unless i am sure the game can bring in at least half on the indie market. So i have to think of other ways like making a big chunk of the game with place holders and try to get people to work with me and split the profit in a certain way. But that is going to bring in lots of stuff i'm unfamiliar (and a bit scared of) like contract deals, invested effort, thrust, consistent style (if more then 1 artist). Are these kinda deals usual amongst this board? Are there more options to go about except making the sprites myself, i'm still practising but it would take me years to get what i want and still not being satisfied with the look :D

btw, i'm not necessary looking for awesome sprites, the game just needs to look decent and consistent.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2011, 07:30:23 pm by madmenyo »

Offline ptoing

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Re: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

Reply #3 on: July 21, 2011, 07:33:04 pm
Any business deals are made outside of the board, in private. We only are a means to finding artists or jobs via the job forum.

Doing stuff with placeholder gfx would be a good idea. It can really be boxes with text on them like 256x256 box saying BLUE DRAGON.
If the gameplay is not good with shit placeholder art good art wont make it better.

Also you might find someone who works cheaper. What I was stating was a professional amount of pay. If you get someone who seems to be a good artist but has never done any game stuff before you might get a better deal for your money. But they might be slower than a veteran.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Elk

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Re: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

Reply #4 on: July 21, 2011, 09:53:54 pm
I think it's more essential to ask for the cost/time/etc of a Project Mananger in this case ;)
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Offline madmenyo

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Re: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

Reply #5 on: July 22, 2011, 05:56:15 am
I'm not sure what you mean but a linear Jrpg isn't that hard to do. It has nothing to do with mmorpg or Wrpg's. I believe breath of dead VII was made by 2 persons and if i could pull something like that off i could afford $20K of pixel art.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: Cost, time, etc for some pixel art?

Reply #6 on: August 05, 2011, 11:47:19 pm
Bargin with them.  ;D