3D/2D Artist Model,Animation Prices?

Hey,

I am a software developer so I have no idea at all about 3D/2D Artist prices.
Few years back, I’ve tried to create some 3D models myself with blender, but I suck at drawing/modelling.
I’ve also tried to use MakeHuman for my Human 3D models, but I think they’re just good enough as place holders.

I’m curious what the approximate price for a single 3D Model,2D Loadingscreen/menu,Animation, Effect is?

~Slei

Depends compeletely.

You can get a simple metal pipe for 10$
You can get a simple knife for maybe 20$
A complex knife for 30$
A complex sword for 50$
A full human non-textured etc for 200$?
A high-poly finished, rigged, animated human for 500$?

It all depends on what you need.

2D Graphics range from 10$ to 250$ depending on how much you need.

In which category would a model like this be:


(Source -> Game: Guild Wars, 2007)
The Model quality is OK, but not HQ

~Slei

[QUOTE=;103481]
Depends compeletely.

You can get a simple metal pipe for 10$
You can get a simple knife for maybe 20$
A complex knife for 30$
A complex sword for 50$
A full human non-textured etc for 200$?
A high-poly finished, rigged, animated human for 500$?

It all depends on what you need.

2D Graphics range from 10$ to 250$ depending on how much you need.

I don’t think any self respecting artist would charge a mere $500 for a complete character, with animations and all, that’s ridiculous.
Sure, if you hire some kid sitting in his mom’s basement you might get away with that but anyone with any experience won’t open 3ds for that kind of money for such a big project. That’s a really low hourly rate.

Also where are you getting your price range for 2D? I used to freelance doing illustrations for bands and brands and didn’t ever go under $300 even when I first started out, and that’s just a simple, flat illustration with few colors for silkscreen printing. I don’t know anyone that charges less for the that kind of work in any country where salary is around the same as western Europe and the US.

These prices you are posting are really expensive, check turbosquid.com for high quality models of humans and others that are in the range from 100 to 250$, of course there are more expensive , but the model u just posted wont exceed 100$ no way.

the prices on turbosquid are actually really cheap :), but the main problem with buying models from such pages are the cloths, which won’t fit into my game style(game idea), or i just don’t like them :>

What are the prices for clothing and animations, on a existing 3D model?

~Slei

[QUOTE=TheTrice;103618]
These prices you are posting are really expensive, check turbosquid.com for high quality models of humans and others that are in the range from 100 to 250$, of course there are more expensive , but the model u just posted wont exceed 100$ no way.

We can’t compare prices at turbosquid and prices for something you hire an artist for just for you.

I imagine prices are cheaper on turbosquid because artists who sell things there expect to sell several copies of their work whereas if you hire someone to make a model dedicated only for you, you will be the only one to be charged for all the work. Hence the difference.

Note though that I’m not an artist myself, but a programmer, but that would work exactly same with a program.

[QUOTE=TheTrice;103618]
These prices you are posting are really expensive, check turbosquid.com for high quality models of humans and others that are in the range from 100 to 250$, of course there are more expensive , but the model u just posted wont exceed 100$ no way.

You can’t compare buying models that are sold and allowed to be used by an indefinite amount of people to something someone makes just for your game. Of course it’s cheap to buy something that will be used everywhere. The model he posted would definitely cost way more than $100 if made for his game, with animations and everything, no serious 3d artist would start 3ds for that kind of pay, just because it’s low poly doesn’t mean it’s not worth anything, time is money.

so creating a particular 3D model for my game with animation textures etc. would cost about 400€++.
that’s expensive. well then I’ll hope to find someone working for royalty ._. .

~Slei

There are other ways. You can use character creators (DAZ/Fuse) and go from there. The animations will be hard. If price is so important, you might want to try Unity - the asset store has many cheap options. However your game will look as a prototype forever :confused:

You might not need exclusive monsters, of buildings, or even weapons/guns. But your main character(s) need to be unique.

For low quality models I would use MakeHuman, it’s free and the models can be edited with blender.
Ofc price is important, especially for indie devs (“junior”) :>, and no I won’t use Unity, because ue4 is better and especially for indie devs (best community, cheap subscription, better quality overall) -> my opinion

Talking about buildings, my Blender skills are good enough create them myself (simple “stone building” nothing special, environment will be a bigger problem for me, and especially cloths!!, My GF is trying to get better with blender, so she can create models for me, but to be honest it’s nothing you can learn in a few months(for HQ models). Some people like me, will be never able to create awesome models, because lack of artistic creativity :frowning: .

~Slei

[QUOTE=Sleicreider;103680]
so creating a particular 3D model for my game with animation textures etc. would cost about 400€++.
that’s expensive. well then I’ll hope to find someone working for royalty ._. .

~Slei

As people have alluded to, probably way more than that. It’s more like $1-3k per character model, rigged but without animations.

It’s kind of a crappy situation for indies that want to hit a high quality bar - the only real option is getting funding, because even if you only need a handful of models you’re looking at several tens of thousands of dollars in art costs. Add animation and you can basically just double whatever your models cost. Which sucks because right off the bat you’re talking about $30-60k in art costs, without even paying yourself or doing any licensing costs, just for the barebones character art you need for a basic 3D game of any type.

That’s a steep funding goal for an unknown developer.

It leaves very few options for sole developers that want to make something that doesn’t look like total garbage…

If you’re okay with Quake 2 era models with just diffuse you can probably do alright, but even then you’re probably talking about $400-500 per character, without animation.

Is getting a character pre-made from turbosquid and then paying an artist to edit it to your liking cheaper and easier?

[QUOTE=;103896]
Is getting a character pre-made from turbosquid and then paying an artist to edit it to your liking cheaper and easier?

Unlikely - even if you get a piece of art from TurboSquid that is suitable (which is really hard, btw - I’ve trawled TS for years and found barely anything that’s truly usable), it would probably still need so much work that it would be more cost effective to just get it made from scratch for $1-3k.

There isn’t really a good answer for solo devs or those without a massive budget (and no art team) who also want to provide art that doesn’t look like it was made in 1995 (which of course, is required to even have the merest shot at your game selling at all… if you don’t have quality art your game won’t even be looked at, much less purchased).

I’m not sure what the answer is besides possibly working full time while living out of a car, and spending all your income on tiny bits of contract art (which as people have mentioned, presents its own problem in terms of consistency between art pieces, if different contractors are used), which for obvious reasons, is not practical.

Crowdfunding is an option, but as mentioned, even for just a few characters, you’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars. For any full game, that’s going to mean an astronomical funding goal, that, for an unknown developer, is essentially 100% impossible. Which doesn’t even get into how you get funding for your art if you don’t have pretty art to get funding…

Also from what I recall there are some metrics that show that crowdfunding projects that are from a solo developer almost never get funded. But again, that presents the problem of having an art team, and then the problem of getting an art team on board, without any art to show off the game.

Surprised no one has mentioned outsourcing as yet. There’s countries where artists are willing to work considerably cheaper. If you’re on a budget, it’s worth a look. There’s always freelance sites, where you’ll be able to make artists bid against one-another for the position, as well.

Obviously, if you hire someone in the United States or United Kingdom (among other places), expect to pay standard prices.

[QUOTE=;103901]
Surprised no one has mentioned outsourcing as yet. There’s countries where artists are willing to work considerably cheaper. If you’re on a budget, it’s worth a look. There’s always freelance sites, where you’ll be able to make artists bid against one-another for the position, as well.

Obviously, if you hire someone in the United States or United Kingdom (among other places), expect to pay standard prices.

In my experience, even artists in places that are otherwise known for low comparatively wages still charge the same industry rates for game art as everywhere else.

The other problem is that you get weird results sometimes - I worked on a game that TurboSquid was making (doing gameplay code) and they were using some international art contractors - a few times we had characters come back with one giant arm, or a leg that was like 2 inches shorter than the other.

[QUOTE=n00854180t;103910]
they were using some international art contractors - a few times we had characters come back with one giant arm, or a leg that was like 2 inches shorter than the other.

Sometimes when you are emailing models overseas, moisture buildup inside the compressed file will swell or shrink certain parts of the model. :wink:

[QUOTE=Chicken+Ribs Combo;103927]
Sometimes when you are emailing models overseas, moisture buildup inside the compressed file will swell or shrink certain parts of the model. :wink:

It was even more hilarious because the giant-armed-character was an attractive female character. And that arm was HUGE. I’m talking she had one HULK arm, and one normal dainty girl arm. And it wasn’t like it was a mutant arm or anything, it was just the dainty girl-arm modeled like 5x bigger. WTheck!

[QUOTE=n00854180t;103933]
It was even more hilarious because the giant-armed-character was an attractive female character. And that arm was HUGE. I’m talking she had one HULK arm, and one normal dainty girl arm. And it wasn’t like it was a mutant arm or anything, it was just the dainty girl-arm modeled like 5x bigger. WTheck!

I’ll be frank with you, I’m a pretty joyless person that doesn’t laugh a lot but that is hilarious! :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=Sitrec;103608]
I don’t think any self respecting artist would charge a mere $500 for a complete character, with animations and all, that’s ridiculous.
Sure, if you hire some kid sitting in his mom’s basement you might get away with that but anyone with any experience won’t open 3ds for that kind of money for such a big project. That’s a really low hourly rate.

I have a question…
How long does a good artist usually works on a new 3D character model with animation and everything?
How long for a 3D model without animation - e.g. a bridge?