Am i overpaying this freelancer ......

[elidaman]

Hello,

I started a new project and using most of my personal money.

The artist i hired can not rig or animate or even do proper 2d. He is a great modeler + texturing with my expectation....

So the assignment or work that was requested of him is.

- 18 models ( I had to provide the work of art )
- He has to provide screenshots of all characters
- He has to provide 360 imaging of all the images
- He needs to do touch-ups and probably redo one or two models after completion.
- He has to provide the source of his work
- He started Aug.24 and due date Sept.25
All that for; $3700CDN (Paid him so far $2500 and the rest on completion)

* Status of situation: He trying to finish #17...(I am sure he will be able to)
He does his work in Zbrush and is not able to with other 3d apps.... Overall i have 20+ more models to do but i think he lacking ; AM I WRONG???

Opinion from professionals or... would be much appreciated.

Thank you

[poopipe]

the problem here is that I don't know what canadian dollars are worth, how much canadians get paid or what he's making.
18 complete high-res, textured characters in a month is pretty effing fast ( i wouldn't claim to be able to do it) . 18 low poly boxes is not fast at all.


i pay my garden landscapers £8 per hour for unskilled labour (eg. digging a hole) and £15 per hour for skilled labour (eg. building a lovely stone terrace thing). This is irrelevant, I just wanted everyone to know I'm rich enough to hire gardeners :D

[elidaman]

He is Romanian and i am paying him in Canadian.. so its good pay i think. I want to be sure is it overpriced or just. The due date can be ignore and delayed as long he working on it daily.

[bclark22]

As poopipe said, it really matters if the work is high or low poly. I wouldn't claim to be able to do 18 high res and textured models in a month either. Low poly would definitely take less time. As for the pay, I think it sounds reasonable, but again it also matters what kind of work it is, high or low poly. 3D isn't cheap most of the time!

[walkerism]

the problem here is that I don't know what canadian dollars are worth, how much canadians get paid or what he's making.
18 complete high-res, textured characters in a month is pretty effing fast ( i wouldn't claim to be able to do it) . 18 low poly boxes is not fast at all.


i pay my garden landscapers £8 per hour for unskilled labour (eg. digging a hole) and £15 per hour for skilled labour (eg. building a lovely stone terrace thing). This is irrelevant, I just wanted everyone to know I'm rich enough to hire gardeners :D

ha ha, that cracked me up. Give yourself some praise, or better yet pay your gardener to give you some.

[elidaman]

Understood. They are supposed to be high-poly.... I will try to post some photos later for criticism. (currently at work :))

so the pay is good but the deadline is what doesnt make sense from what i see

[poopipe]

it depends - if he's only making zbrush sculpts then it can be done pretty quickly, If he's doing full on, complete, textured and riggable models then its nowhere near as quick to do the work.

[elidaman]

From what it seems to me and when i show you the photos you can validate it later.

- I THINK only sculpting + texturing

[elidaman]

I like you site and work poopipe.... " very nice artwork and.. ". If you agreed to same terms i would hire you for the fact of your presentation is much better and...

Anyways here is the #17 he finished today... I am at the office so sorry if cant show another sample yet..(will try tonight or later)

[Zlatovous]

The textures are horrible, stretched photographies without any work. He has some knowledge of the ZBrush (the modeling isn't bad, but he should learn how to smooth)

Honestly, there are people who would made it better with the same price. This is probably just some guy who never seriously textured and it hurts the work. Find someone else, this guy is still learning the basics

[elidaman]

Are you recommending someone... Because most of the people i spoke with think highly of his work.

Here is another model he did for me. I am not saying you are wrong but i am unable to agree or disagree. I am just hiring and that's the work i got.. if you aren't happy can you specify whats wrong with these art...

thank you

[Crispy4004]

I'm no expert on rates but this is my take.

There is definitely room for improvement, but I'm a bit forgiving here. I actually feel a bit bad for the guy. 18 high rez models in a month, that's a tall order, especially if there is a lot of character work. The fact that he's made it to #17 in less than 2 months even says a lot for how diligent he's been working on this.

You're getting around $200 per model, which seems reasonable considering how it's looking, you may even be underpaying a bit. Another way to look at it, your paying around $100 a day if he works 5 days a week in 2 months. In Hollywood that's considered a very low rate even for a first time freelancer, so you're actually doing pretty well there.

Quantity wise I'd say you're getting a good deal. Quality wise there is room for improvement, but having a higher standard also means the time and money required will increase exponentially.

[NinthJake]

Are you recommending someone... Because most of the people i spoke with think highly of his work.

Here is another model he did for me. I am not saying you are wrong but i am unable to agree or disagree. I am just hiring and that's the work i got.. if you aren't happy can you specify whats wrong with these art...

thank you
The thing is that it's not us who are supposed to be happy with his works, it is you (assuming you are the manager/director/project leader/whatever else highly ranked person)

Yes, the quality is not great but as Chrispy said, it is to be expected with such a short time-frame.

I have never been freelancing or working with this myself so I cannot say anything about the payment but it seems pretty reasonable.

[elidaman]

Thank you for the words of wisdom and yes short time he has to do it all. He also warned me that for great models it takes usually a few weeks for 1. This deadline does cause sacrifices and the price is acceptable overall the feeling i got.

The models arent terrible and i guess touch ups will be done later... Overall the animator will have his hand full in rigging and converting the models for cinematic animations or events...


He did some great work and with a deadline.I am happy that he did good work. It aint 'wow' due to the deadline given but i would surely give it a thumbs up (18 in two months about).

[Crispy4004]

Yeah it's not a bad deal for you. In fact I'd say things worked out pretty well, especially considering he was a freelancer from out of country. A lot could have gone wrong.

In his shoes it probably would've been good pay had he finished in a month, but that's his fault for taking on something like this that clearly was more than a month long job for a 1 month rate. He basically did the equivalent of working as an Assistant Manager at McDonald's for 2 months in the states, but hey, who knows what that comes to in Romania.

[elidaman]

Thank you. He is happy and so am i of his work. He did warn me that making a model typically does take a month especially if want it to be super detailed and well textured. Under pressure he did super well...

[Kenhennen]

OP, the whole thing is going wrong.

you wanted 18 high quality characters for $3600 (btw here's convertor (http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Amount=3700&From=CAD&To=USD&image.x=57&image.y=18&image=Submit)) in a month? this is never gonna happen this way

as one of my friends used to quote, "price, quality, and speed. pick two". in your case you wanted all three and you got speed and price in place.

as for the art, it's all about what you consider "enough". the characters you posted are poorly done in terms of gaming/fmv, but there may be cases where this is enough.

my guess is, you are overextending yourself with this task, planning something big from start. anyway, good luck with that...

as for the question, you are definitely not overpaying him in terms of "make 18 in a month". pros would probably not sign for this due to work/time. your guy is junior, and a month under such pressure, no matter the results, for this money is ok.

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