Hello folks.
I am thinking about paying an artist to do the graphics for my next Android game.
Though I’ve learned a little modeling with Hellevators, I really don’t feel like wasting half of development time modeling stuff .
So have u guys ever payed artists ? how was the experience ?
how much can one spend and where can I find nice and cheap artists ?
Thanks in advance .
Advice: cheap = shit. You get what you pay for.
Cas 
You can easily spend a lot of money ($1000+) for not really very much art.
I’d try to find someone who wants to do a project to build their portfolio. Plenty of coders write code for free. For whatever reasons there seem to be fewer people that do the same with art, but you should be able to find some. Maybe recruit from a university design class.
I know a couple professional artists who are out of work right now. One is better at 2D and the other at 3D. But I’m guessing that a month of work would cost you at least 5k for either. Or more.
And more usefully than my last slightly negative post :-X - take a look here. In most developers’ experience, the probability that work will actually be completed on time, if at all, is directly related to the price of the work. All artists who can get a portfolio together are competent. The problem is getting the buggers to finish a job when they say they’re going to. They’re just as bad as programmers at time estimates (so, triple any time estimate they give you).
Cas
Woah . I guess I’ll just stick with Nate’s advice, since I’m definetly not willing to spend K dollars with something that will give me zero return .
Actually I have a reasonably cheap brazilian artist who’s willing to do it for me, but I just wanted to be sure I was not being stolen . But I guess I’m the one stealing !
Yeah, outsourcing will generally net you better luck than looking in any countries that have a strong software presence (like the US). If you can find good people who live in a country with a weak economy, then you’re in luck.
I recently spent just over $1k to get some graphic assets to distribute with Typhon and essential branding images for the framework / web site and such. Which by the way I’m finally excited to get this work out there. I’m just updating the LWJGL and JOGL bindings for the desktop and finishing a few other things on the Android side, so release is imminent Q1 '10. http://www.typhon4android.org should have some landing page content later this week and a teaser video for sure by the end of the month if not sooner. I’m pushing the Android side of things with the release, but the framework is cross platform and plays nice with LWJGL and JOGL too.
I’m excited as some of the graphic work is really nice 2D/3D navigation overlays for Android devices that don’t have keyboards; gonna look nice! I’ll be able to release them royalty free for folks to use with the overlay component in their games and such.
I knew both artists casually. One was really slow (6 weeks now, but just finished!) on the complete turn around. The other is getting things done in a week or thereabout; though prob less work on that part.
So yeah, if you need things in a timely manner budget ahead of time unless you have a reasonable relationship with the artist and they can commit to quick release.
I’ve had some not so great and some pretty good experiences in the past.
One particular guy I’ve worked with which was both reliable and not very expansive was Tom Filhol, you can see his style on his homepage: http://www.2dhero.com/
He is quick, keeps his word and produces very good 2d sprites/tiles (but better static stuff than animations). If that’s type of work you need done I can only recommend him.
You may want to check out this guy. He has been posting a lot of art lately, and asking for requests. Although you’ll probably have better luck messaging him, he said to email him at yaomon18@yahoo.com
for requests.
From what I’ve seen so far, it doesn’t look like he’ll ask for money. Good luck!
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oh, sorry, I’ll remove the link right now.
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