Seeking character artists

[YouGroove]

What's funny is a lot of the really skilled artists are actually too detailed...their characters just have way too much intricate stuff going on in their costume

If you have a freelancer doing work for you can simply ask less items, less details or give him some example picture form the net showing what level of detail you expect.

[Patrick]

Yeah, I mean stuff like this, where it's like more detailed than anything in reality that has ever existed. All those little pieces would break off his costume the first time the poor guy tried to put on his shoes.

 

It's interesting that the more detail you have, the more opportunities there are for visual incongruence. This character would look completely out of place next to any characters that wasn't modeled with the exact same level of detail and style.

 

This is why the character artists get the work contracts for more than just a single character though, they're more so paid for their style and attention to detail than anything so when making characters for portfolio work it's to stand out and not go with something that would be specifically for general purpose use or that would realistically function, so long as it can animate. I get your point of view though, but as an artist and not a game developer they're trying to stand out, and as you've said it would work really well in a world where the characters were developed by the same artist or artists. So they would get contracted for more work in the long run but more often than not, a client would confront them with a style guideline or a set of character designs in which they would create to those required/desired specs. When it's simply portfolio or personal work, its to stand out and 'show off' so to speak...

 

I know that when developing assets for things like storefronts and everything, that you need to gear less towards the 'main character' outlook and more towards the 'general use' though my reply was just trying to give a little perspective as to why in some circumstances it's like that.

 

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Just out of general curiosity...

 

Do you have any references to the level of quality and detail you're looking for?

Any theme specifically?

 

The more information you include the easier it would be for any artists out there with the skill to decide whether they would be up for the task or if its in their ball park or not.

 

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I've not been around for a while, but I've managed to sort out my graphics card issue and my internet connection is sorted so I may be able to be around more often

 

 

 

Regards,

Patrick.

[Josh]

No, I don't know any of that. So I guess I also need to hire a designer first.

[YouGroove]

I don't think you need to pay any character designer as almost any 3D character artits have solid concept and design skills.

Some example from concept to 3D final character :

 

[Vulcan]

Here's a suggestion, why not pick the top 3-5 and have them send an image sample and then have a community poll who get to make those models. At least it would be cool to see those samples. Anyway can't wait for the next workshop

[Josh]

Basically, the problem is costs.

 

An animated character costs between $1500-3000 to make. I only want to sell character packs of five characters. Our DLC sales are good, but they will not cover $15,000 immediately.

[tournamentdan]

How about having a competition on http://blenderartists.org/forum/ . You could have multiple categories. Sci-fi,soldier,police, fireman..... The winner of each category could maybe win a leadwerks license and the ability to sell their characters in your werkshop first. Maybe hold a poll on both leadwerks and blender forum to determine the winners. It would be good advertising to boot.

[nick.ace]

Basically, the problem is costs.

 

An animated character costs between $1500-3000 to make. I only want to sell character packs of five characters. Our DLC sales are good, but they will not cover $15,000 in the first three months.

 

Where do you get these number from? Provided that the artist makes $40 an hour, that would still be close to 40 hours for $1500. Also, when making 5 characters, animations and other features of each character should only really been once. Whoever provided these estimates must have way overpriced them.

 

Instead, one thing you could do, kind of like what tournamentdan suggested, is allow them to sell the models for Leadwerks (like DLC), and then take a royalty. This is how pretty much every marketplace works, and you are guaranteed to make a profit while they are guaranteed to get very high visibility for their art.

 

Also, just sharing my thoughts, but I feel in some ways it would be best if the provided models are on the more generic side (kind of like you suggested) so that at least provide a good base for added detail.

[ChrisV]

I once asked a Professional artist (he made character models for Uncharted and other games, so yeah...a really talented guy), and for a single main character model (without animations and LOD versions), he was asking $1500, and for a less detailed character model, around $800 (also without LOD and animations). So yeah...those numbers aren't exagerated.

 

It is possible to find lower priced models, but it all depends on what kinda quality you're after.

 

I would be more than happy to create some model pack, but it'll take quite some time.

[YouGroove]

You don't need the best 3D artist from industry, but a really talented guy.

 

Instead, one thing you could do, kind of like what tournamentdan suggested, is allow them to sell the models for Leadwerks (like DLC), and then take a royalty. This is how pretty much every marketplace works, and you are guaranteed to make a profit while they are guaranteed to get very high visibility for their art.

I agree as the artist will propose a low prices when he knows he will gain money on each sale, if he sells the model only to LE3 the price will jump up. That's a choice on what matters between these two solutions.

[Vulcan]

Did I ever thought a good quality character would cost $1500+, obvious my price estimation was to naive. I presume it is an AAA character with all animation needed for a typical game. Some AAA characters could make a cool tech demo for Leadwerks, I thinking a mini game made with C++ to really show off the potential that Leadwerks engine has (just an idea). This could serve as a template for C++.

 

You don't need the best 3D artist from industry, but a really talented guy.

Yes while I agree it may not be wise for AAA.

[YouGroove]

Yes while I agree it may not be wise for AAA.

I talked about artist, i meaned you don't need some top notch artist to make AAA quality characters, there are many not working in the industry able to make such quality.

 

Another thing to consider is the animations , if you ask animated character many times it's better to ask them if they use motion capture they just tweak as this ill produce better and realistic animations instead of hand made less natural.

 

Here is a good example character for real time with good detailled polycount without exageration (decreasing quickly using LOD). It's done by a game art student, not industry veteran , people like that can offer you better prices also.

 

 

Another usefull pack could be some FPS player arms pack with quality texturing work :

 

 

[tournamentdan]

Yougroove, these characters that you posted at one time were much higher in poly count than 150,000. In order to get the detail these models have you have to first create a high poly model and generate all of your texture maps from your high poly to your low poly retopo version. So no matter what. In order to get good game models. You have to create a high detail model.

 

[Vulcan]

Wow! Linda Fyen certainly got talent. Would this be classified as AAA? Would this be able to run at 100+ FPS on a decent gpu?

[YouGroove]

In order to get the detail these models have you have to first create a high poly model and generate all of your texture maps from your high poly to your low poly retopo version. So no matter what. In order to get good game models. You have to create a high detail model.

This is what i do and what almost all 3D character artists do, where did i say this was wrong ?

 

Wow! Linda Fyen certainly got talent. Would this be classified as AAA? Would this be able to run at 100+ FPS on a decent gpu?

She's very talented, the character is as good as many of some commercial games like AC4 or GTA5 characters indeed. WIth a 3D engine supporting LOD , indeed you could use many characters like that in real time.

[tournamentdan]

 

This is what i do and what almost all 3D character artists do, where did i say this was wrong ?

 

 

 

You deleted parts of your original post. Where you compared to a character from a game that had 150,000 polygons. In which you were implying that a character that has less polygons would be cheaper.

 

If your going to edit your post. At least show that you edited it. And what correction and or changes you made.

[YouGroove]

I didn't know you was reading while i was editing

real final polycount is 85000 triangles (not polygons)

From Cevat Yerli :

Hero Marius 85k polys? It was choice: 150k polys w LODs vs 85K + better shading + no LODs (stable). The latter wo at better quality!

 

 

Uncharted game has player also really hight polys but ennemies really lower polygon count to keep performance good.