How to contract artists?

[lazalong]

Hello,

Anyone has good specification documents that he could share with me?

I am working on an indie game project but I am a project manager & programmer not an artist.
Hence I have some difficulties to specify what I need to contract freelance artists (for 3D characters, animations, buildings, etc).

IMO it would be helpful to decrease misunderstanding between artists and project managers if someone could create a guidelines how to specify artistic deliverables and/or provide a good example of such documents.

Even better documents by category of deliverables if they exist (are contract for characters the same a for buildings or for landscape ?)

Some said to me: "be as specific as possible", "explain what you want".
Nice advices but not really helpful to create contract/specification documents as I don't know what is specific for an artist. For example:

What are common polycounts?
When should I ask for normal maps? To decrease polycouts? In a second phase?
What are the specs of normal maps?
How do I define rigging needs?
If several LOD (level-of-detail) of a model are needed should they be billed the same?
Are HIGH or LOW polycouts models more expensive? (I would have though that creating good low polys is harder than high one).
How do you define when a job is done correctly? (aka the job is so bad that no payments should be done).
etc.


Also it could be useful to have some time requirements (or even price):

Such a model needs usually 30hours & 4 cycle of refinements.


In short: What do you need as artists to make a job which decrease misunderstanding and maximise satisfaction.

Bye

[Adrian Walker]

The problem is that all of the questions you're asking vary greatly, particularly depending on the target platforms and the amount of crap you have on the screen at any given time.

For example, if you head over to unrealtechnology.com and go to Technology->technology Overview->Typical Content Specifications you'll see just how wide of a spectrum things are in the Gears of War/Unreal Tournament 3 games. Now, if you're were looking at doing a top down shooter in XNA, your specifications are going to be COMPLETELY different.

The only way to really know is to throw some models into your engine, do some stress testing and "typical" scenarios, and go from there.

[Eric Chadwick]

As for the contract side of it, you really should buy this book. I can't recommend it enough.
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook:
Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (http://gag.org/pegs/)

[lazalong]

Thanks Eric,

This is what I was looking for :cool:

Such a Guidelines would IMO be a good wiki addition for Tech-Artists.Org
where artists could all participate and help enhancing it.
Just my two cents.

[Eric Chadwick]

I hear ya. Unfortunately I don't see that happening, book content is copyrighted, and it's difficult to post personal contractual details. But you never know. Gamewatch.org (http://www.gamewatch.org/phpBB2/index.php) has some interesting threads and resources.

[lazalong]

I hear ya. Unfortunately I don't see that happening, book content is copyrighted,
I didn't mean copying the book.

But create on the wiki a placeholder structure inspired from the book Table of Content. Artists and contractors could then gradually add their experience.

[Eric Chadwick]

Go for it! :)

[lazalong]

Go for it! :)
Let me find/buy this book first, have some practice in negotiating with artists then I might have an idea were to begin :D:

I asked for information because I know I don't know the subject.
If I did it now it would be at total mess.

[Eric Chadwick]

Start the wiki section anyhow, with what you know so far. Like a link to the book, a link to Gamewatch, etc. It will get you started, provide a locus for your studies, and maybe get other people started too.