Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 20:36:56 UTC No. 874257

post on polycount job board

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 20:56:30 UTC No. 874258

>>874257
I checked it out...
Clicked on "Artists Looking For Work"
Practically every one is here's my portfolio --> artstation
This feels like a different website but the same pitfall I was talking about.

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 21:02:17 UTC No. 874259

>>874256
tell me about your game anon.
what's it about?

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 21:12:39 UTC No. 874262

>>874256
>without being too imposing on their creative freedom
have some free advice don't do that unless the artist you work with is really good. Tell the artist as precisely what you want as you can down to the color of the window tint.
or
find a really good artist and tell him you need a small spaceship capable of vertical takeoff.

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 21:44:43 UTC No. 874267

>>874259
Space opera.
Think spaceship combat + choose your own adventure mass effect-esque but with actually meaningful decisions and multiple endings.
Takes place in the far future. Main story follows a military pilot serving under a corrupt democracy who defies his orders to kill a princess who is trying to form a independent government for her people.
He's a traitor completely isolated from his country.
Story then progresses based on your success within the game. Lose too much and the people you are trying to protect are hunted down and mercilessly killed as a result of your intervention, win and you eventually carve out a path to independence for the people, win too much and they overthrow the current government and you have to watch helplessly as the resistance you developed goes out of control and eliminates your own people, or anything inbetween(20 planned endings currently).

Other than that trying my best to make it high fidelity and graphically interesting. Lots of pewpew, very tight controls, etc..

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 21:48:36 UTC No. 874269

>>874262
That's interesting advice.
I don't have an exact 'down to the window tint' vision, but there are some big picture elements that are necessary.
I guess I really am hoping to just find a really good artist. I'm comfortable if that is just going to take some time, but it's not like I have spent a non-zero amount of time and money trying to find one already.

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 22:35:35 UTC No. 874289

>>874256
>I gave some references and what I thought was simple direction

BAKA!

There's a reason why CONCEPT ARTISTS exist. You were basically paying someone not only to model for you but to also do the concept art for you. If he's got any experience he probably realized right away you were a chump and just sent you some half-assed thing.

Concept artists are the architects and modellers are the construction workers. What do you think is going to happen if you just pay a bunch of construction workers to build you a house with directions like "some kind of house with rooms and shit"?

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 22:53:01 UTC No. 874291

>>874269
You're looking for someone who can both design and model. That's a rare skillset.
People generally specialize in one or the other, so asking an average polypusher to come up with a viable design for a spaceship that incorporates a set of very specific elements is not a good idea.
Likewise, asking a design monkey to make something that would work in a game engine without 3+ weeks of retopo work is an exercise in futility.

Here's some advice for you:

1)Try ordering 2D concept art first. There are several people of varying skill and expirience levels that can do something for you. Here's your list: Tobias Frank, Jacob Lippold, ultrakira/AST21, kruger7215.

2)You might luck out if you look for slav hardsurface designers. Some of them know their modelling stuff. Try Turbosolovey, or Roger_Wilco or Denis Melnychenko. I don't think western hard surfacers are sitting there waiting for an indie contract to drop into their lap, but you can try Ben Bolton - looks like he's got the design and modelling nailed down.

3)If you're dead set on finding a guy that can do both, you need to find artist whose art you like and trawl through their likes, looking for something that's close enough to what you want. Sooner or later you'll find somebody who can do what you want, then it's a question of availability and price. Most of them will decline, but don't let that stop you:

5)If somebody doesn't agree to work for you for one reason or another, you can always ask them for recommendations. Maybe they can at least suggest someone. Try it.

6)If that doesn't fails, do the the asset store routine: look someone who's already produced something that's close enough to what you want, check if they're taking commissions.


>Seems like most of them have English as a second language and I can only effectively communicate very basic feedback
HAHAHAHAHA welcome to outsource blyat

Anonymous at Thu, 6 Jan 2022 23:32:26 UTC No. 874299

>>874267
"space zogbot turns traitor simp"

>win too much
don't punish players for being good at the game.

>graphically interesting
avoid current year US military in space aesthetics

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 02:13:21 UTC No. 874315

>>874262
This.
The less time an artist has to "design" something, the more time they have to actually buckle down and make something.
Whenever I get client work, I ask for every reference they have under the sun down to the color palette, similar styles, and everything else.
There's times where I'll get work that wants me to go out on my own and feel things out, but there's always the issue of it not coming back exactly how the client envisioned. In those cases I make that really clear, and most of the time they're there for my stylistic take on something rather than an interpretation of their imagination.

To be a bit cynical, a lot of 3d modellers are great at replicating things, but not so much coming up with things. Being great at making props and vehicles that you see around irl, or are from a movie, is one skill. Being able to DESIGN those things is another.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 06:35:47 UTC No. 874356

>>874289
any 3d artist worth their weight can come up with a design without need to create an exact copy from an image.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 08:03:59 UTC No. 874369

>>874356
I dont think so. The construction worker vs architect comparison that anon made was spot on.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 08:08:24 UTC No. 874370

>Textures for low-mid poly objects, both skeleton and static meshes
>Ue4 particles for game, all relatively simple stuff, like blood spray or metal sparkle
>Sound effects, maybe even music
Anyone had experience with hiring artists for these areas?

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 08:46:26 UTC No. 874374

>>874289
>sent you some half-assed thing
The picture OP received is a concept. Get another guy to detail it and you have your cool spaceship.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 09:09:48 UTC No. 874376

>>874356
Lol, you must be a shitty 3D artist.

Concept art is its own thing. It's not something you learn by knowing how to model or sculpt in 3D. You can learn how to do concept work and 3D model but it requires effort and study which is not something most people here are willing to do.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 09:20:41 UTC No. 874377

>>874356
it's way faster to draw for concept designs, everyone does that when designing stuff, you don't go straight to clay and make a car design

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 09:26:00 UTC No. 874378

>>874374
OP needs to stop giving random people money and learn a thing or two about the production pipeline. The visual development is the most costly aspect of any production, like 80% of the budget at least. OP, are you sure you finished the 20% and are ready to get into the visuals?

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 16:27:08 UTC No. 874420

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 17:09:49 UTC No. 874427

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 20:37:14 UTC No. 874463

>>874356
no. fuck off. you are not a modeller if you say cringe like this.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 20:40:09 UTC No. 874464

>>874256
hire me then

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 20:53:16 UTC No. 874465

>>874356
Lots of people are attacking you and I do agree that being a designer isn't the same thing as being the modeler, but I ask the triggered ones - what do you do in situations where you have to come up with your own stuff? Even I, as a prop artist, at times have to design unique assets. We get some refs, but can't copy anything because of the copyright. I'd say that even though you might be "just" a 3D artist, I think it's a good idea, if not necessary to invest some time into learning basic design principles and learning how various things are built so when time comes when you have to actually use your creative part of the brain, you don't get completely stuck.

But yeah, these are separate fields, and I can clearly see that even in the work we do whenever we have to come up with original things. It can look pretty good and convincing, but I still can't help it, but feel that an actual designer could make all our designs look that much better.

After all, you can't really compete with someone who invested their lifetime in designing furniture for example. My chair design and theirs wouldn't be on the same level, but as long as it's good enough for the project, that's fine.

And I feel sorry for you guys if you really never get that kind of creative freedom and challenge at your workplace.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 20:57:39 UTC No. 874466

>>874256
Easy solution, learn to 3d model yourself. It's really not that hard. It's not like drawing where you need strong visualization ability to have a chance at churning out some artwork that looks remotely competent, if anything it's more logical and step-by-step like programming.

Anonymous at Fri, 7 Jan 2022 21:14:44 UTC No. 874467

>>874356
100% agree A 3D modeler should be able to come up with a good design, otherwise he is only a pleb who knows the shortcuts of a 3D program.

Some actors need a good director to do decent work, they are plebs. Great actors can improvise and don't need strict directions.
Same with "3D artists" some are just plebs who now how to use a program with zero individual artistic capability. These 3D peons need a strong Art Director who gives them strict rules to perform.

There is a vastly larger number of 3D peons than 3D artists.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 01:31:12 UTC No. 874505

>>874467
>A 3D modeler should be able to come up with a good design
>should

This is irrelevant to the topic. OP was wanting him to perform two jobs.

100$ for the concept
300$ for the sculpt
300$ for retopo, UV, and map baking
200$ for texturing
100$ for the rigging

What OP wanted should have cost him ~1000$ and this is a very reasonable price for a game asset like a spaceship. I doubt he went over 100$ and now he's complaining about getting what he paid for.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 06:52:17 UTC No. 874543

>>874505
Imagine hiring an artist who can only trace.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 10:15:27 UTC No. 874556

>>874370
Lots of good textures at Artstation's store. Wait for a sale though. I've purchased a number of Substance Painter smart materials and height/displacement maps from there.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 10:55:25 UTC No. 874561

>>874505
>1000$ and this is a very reasonable price for a game asset like a spaceship.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 11:56:00 UTC No. 874563

>>874561
he's not wrong

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 12:31:20 UTC No. 874566

>>874563
I'm sure there are people out there who pay 1k+ for an asset, but that's the exception not the norm.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 12:46:05 UTC No. 874567

>>874566
prices have gone way up since the pandemic, and its a hero asset, so they are actually getting it for cheap. $1k usd is not much anymore.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 18:54:18 UTC No. 874598

>>874567
As someone who hires occasionally I can say the costs have gone down the last two years. Part of it is tools and workflows getting better over time, but in regard to the pandemic I have noticed the competition of more artists working remotely and higher availability due to many businesses having to layoff or close down has been driving prices lower, at least in my experience.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 19:04:17 UTC No. 874599

>>874598
if you hire bottom of the barrel from the third world, i can see that. Otherwise for the developed world, prices have shot up

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 19:07:58 UTC No. 874600

>>874599
Imagine thinking there are no great artists from third world. Actually it's quite surprising how good some of these people from "literally where" are.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 19:31:57 UTC No. 874605

>>874600
you rarely if ever see a poor 3rd world artist be able to compete with a first worlder just because of how expensive the hardware and software the industry is using is and on top of that being able to produce innovative work with those tools instead of cut and paste from tutorial

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 19:38:24 UTC No. 874607

>>874605
You're living in a bubble pal, but keep telling yourself about that "innovative work" jargonny stuff when your 1000 bucks asking price for a spaceship get's laughed at.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 19:39:15 UTC No. 874608

>>874561
I can do it for 500$ but im an amateur. don't expect star trek quality.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 20:52:17 UTC No. 874623

AAA game character costs around 100-200 000$. You can outsource this to Eastern Europe (cough cough CD Projekt Red) and can probably lower it to half. This means that with clever budgeting you can get 100 characters for 5 mil$. This is really cheap considering these games sometimes waste tens of millions of $ production wise when they decide to "change course" midway through development. This is why outsourcing is a must in development, and this is why the caliber of 3D artists has increased steadily around the world. Law of supply and demand.

You'll be shocked at the amount 3D assets which are bought and paid for but never make it in the final product. Case and point: Unreal Engine just gave for free a few years back 12mil$ worth of assets.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 21:51:19 UTC No. 874628

>>874623
>AAA game character costs around 100-200 000$
This sound like a WTF statement at first, but then you realize it's really not. Do you know how does that compare to a mid sized environment? E.g. a building with interior and surroundings.

I most likely basically work for free then. People are paying few thousands at most for the whole environment.

Anonymous at Sat, 8 Jan 2022 23:12:18 UTC No. 874657

>>874623
Are you on crack or are you talking about numbers in other currency that's not USD?

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 00:56:54 UTC No. 874679

>>874605
>how expensive the hardware and software the industry
Pirating would like to have a word with you, third worlder's are immune to consequences of pirating because they have nothing for the business to go after.
As far as hardware, you need fuckall unless you're doing renders, and even then it costs pennies to use a render farm and that's only if it's a necessary part of your job.
I brought a $73 chromebook when I was bored on vacation awhile back and was able to model in pre-cycles blender on it effectively.
The only expensive side is if you are doing "pixar 29 hour render for a single frame" shit.

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 01:31:11 UTC No. 874689

>>874608
OP here.
Guy I hired had a decent hard surface portfolio, mostly helmets/robots/guns.
He wanted $100 a day and worked for 4 days on it.
First day he bashed out two other variations along with the basic shape that we ended up going with, second day he added some flat textures and refined everything based on some basic feedback (thinner and wider) while missing some of the more specific stuff(wing thrusters), third day was materials/textures and and retopo, forth day was detail, polish, and compiling all the assets together to be sent.

>>874600
This. Their work is fine, communication has been the only occasional obstacle.

>>874623
>You'll be shocked at the amount 3D assets which are bought and paid for but never make it in the final product.

I've paid for a decent amount of production that'll never get used. It's just part of the business side, was annoying at first though. Sometimes you just have to shotgun a problem until it goes away. Overall the outcome was still good, pic related. I'll probably still use it elsewhere, so it isn't a complete waste. More assets are always helpful. It didn't turn out exactly as I needed, but there's always more money to throw at the problem.

It's still unfortunate tho, guy could have make 10k from me easily if he was just able to follow the feedback a little more closely. He was from Argentina, from what I understand $400 is decent money there. He made a months rent in 4 days.

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 01:42:01 UTC No. 874691

>>874679
You dont know what youre talking about. When these third worlders can get soft thats essential but not on trackers, make another post itt. When third worlders can simulate literally thousands of frames of particle and muscle simulations, make another post itt.

Otherwise, gtfo. Nobody needs another modeler.

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 02:00:59 UTC No. 874692

>>874657
I'm using USD as a common denominator.
A 5000$/month salary in Eastern Europe is equivalent to a 12000$/month salary in the US. In other words the buy value of 5000$ in Eastern Europe = the buy value of 12000$ in the US.

This is not something that is hidden, it's how the world works. Most countries are self-sustainable, this means that their currency is worth as much as they say it's worth. This way the elite can funnel out resources from one place to another in a sort of win-win situation (but with some people winning a lot more than others). What do you think brands are? You can come to Eastern Europe and get a 20 dollar shirt, or you can pay 200$ for the same shirt in the US but with the "Versace" logo on it.

This is an exploit all companies use. And if you want to achieve anything in this world you need to be aware of it. It's applicable to all industries. Most americans aren't even aware that SpongeBob SquarePants is a Korean animated series. The US might own the rights to it, but it's mostly outsourced to South Korea (except the voices and script of course).

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 02:03:38 UTC No. 874693

>>874628
Keep in mind that 100-200 000$ doesn't go to one employee. Several people work on a character at once and they're all getting paid.

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 21:12:46 UTC No. 874890

>>874256
Here is something i slapped in around 10 hours... i'm an amateur please be harsh.

Anonymous at Sun, 9 Jan 2022 21:15:07 UTC No. 874891

>>874890
P.S >3.292 tris.

Anonymous at Mon, 10 Jan 2022 00:29:36 UTC No. 874919

>>874890
looks neat anon, reminds me of cold war Soviet tech.

Anonymous at Thu, 13 Jan 2022 15:50:03 UTC No. 875638

>>874689
Looks more like a little Model you put on a desk. Is this intentional?

Anonymous at Thu, 13 Jan 2022 23:01:23 UTC No. 875689

>>875638
The noise, camera FOV, and angle for the render is probably what gives it the miniature feel?
In-game the post processing, lighting, FOV, fx, color grading, AA, and sense of scale stuff, etc all make it look quite a bit different.

That said, I am in no way unhappy if any of my games assets can easily be turned into miniatures or merchandise. I have a few star trek/star wars models myself.

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 04:04:35 UTC No. 875730

>>874256
dig around local game dev discords there is usually a job posting section.

if you're getting bad results there are some things you can do.
cross-reference their portfolio for similar work

If they have work that's good and they are failing to deliver it's either they are lying about the work they are saying is theirs or the info you give them isn't clear.

try making a cross-section image of the ship and if you can't/won't. hire a concept artist first get a solid design with references then have another dig.

The only other thing is you get what you pay for if you lowballing and getting things done on the cheap its gonna look like shit.

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 11:37:48 UTC No. 875768

>>874556
Call me a paranoid schizo but...
What if I hypothetically bought a texture off artstation, applied it to a model, then published the game with that model, then someome rippls that model from the game. Wouldnt they just get that texture that was originally paid for for free? Would I get in trouble for costing the potential buyers the seller of the texture could of had?

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 11:38:55 UTC No. 875769

>>875768
*rips that model
my keyboard is tiny

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 14:08:31 UTC No. 875795

>>875768
Commercial licenses allow for distribution with the only requirement usually being attribution, so the developer has nothing to worry about.
Ripping the model has no bearing. The texture is already included with the game you are buying. However purchasing a game doesn't provide you with a license.

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 14:24:56 UTC No. 875799

>>874890
lacks depth and needs detail (with purpose). the windows need to be improved (actual interior)
i'd try adding some pipes or access panel across the surface, go for the star wars route of greebling by thinking what each detail does as you add it

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 14:34:43 UTC No. 875801

>>875768
yes. people are able to rip assets from your games. you usually wouldn't get in trouble for it either, you shouldn't be expected to be responsible for the actions of a third-party. the pirate in this case could be the one to get into hot-water for unauthorised usage.

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 14:44:19 UTC No. 875804

>>875799
>needs detail
>make it the basic panel kit bash cluster fuck
Imagine thinking chasing trends is good design advice.

Anons model in a game would be remembered as a great design by any fan of the game
some basic bitch artstation faggotry full of panels hatches pipes and access ports will just drown in the sea of soullessness it spawned from.

Anonymous at Fri, 14 Jan 2022 15:29:46 UTC No. 875808

>>875801
>kitbashes, retopos and reskins your model
>checkmate atheists