freelance without a contract

[artist_cg]

ok here is a story , i hope i won't look stupid , anyway i found this advertisement on some site , a freelance work to make cars for a game company , so i sent my portfolio , now the problem is ,
when i asked the owner about money ,
he said " we all get paid after selling the products " ,
so i said " its ok" ,
now my question , is this how freelance works , no contract , and i just do the job and wait for them to sell then have the money ,
btw the money varies with the selling , " if we sell alot u gain alot , if not then u won't gain alot" ,
ok why did i do it , i am still a student , building my portfolio , i thought to add experience to my resume , thats all ,
thanks for ur time

btw i don't care about money now , but just wanted to know ,
how to guarantee that he won't take the models and forget about me ?!

[moririn]

that sounds wrong or strange...even if there were no contract there should be some sort of guarantee to protect u from exploitation..don have a professional opinion tho..

[artist_cg]

again i am a maya user , so no ideas

[Lynette-3dt]

If you're working freelance for them then I would imagine a contract should have been signed by both parties, especially if it's on a profit-related scheme, which it sounds like this is (the more they sell, the more you get). Have you sent them the work already - the final work? I would be inclined to hold onto it until you can get evidence that you will get paid, or at the very least have some written documentation to explain how payment will work and when. They may be taking you for a ride - it's hard to say, but it does sound odd from an outsider point of view.

It might also be a good idea to ask for their registered company address and contact number - this is always just good to have for reference, should you need to chase them up at a later date.

Good luck!

[artist_cg]

it won't be easy to follow them anyway , i am from egypt and they are from uk , working over the internet , from home , but they don't sound trustful anyway , so i guess i'll end it if there is no papers , anyway thanks for the help

[Lynette-3dt]

what is the company, can I ask? we might have heard of them. if the whole scheme is based on the quantity of sales, then you basically need to know how they will report the sales to you and how they will pay you your money, as the very starting point. if they can provide this information and you are happy to trust them from then on, then you can obviously give it a go if you want to and feel happy to, but if they're unwilling to provide information at this early stage, then it's unlikely to change in the future. i would still try to get a signed contract of some sort, or at least some kind of signed documentation that confirms how and when you get paid, and how much. if they're unwilling to tell you this, then it may be best to leave the project - it's entirely up to you at the end of the day though, we can only offer advice from an 'outsider' point of view

[artist_cg]

here is the site ,
http://www.makmodgroup.com/index.php

[Lynette-3dt]

hmm, can't see anything dodgy about the website; haven't heard of them myself though. they really should put an address and contact number on the site i'd say: ask for a contract/written details, and if they can't do that for you then, well, it's really up to you then. at the end of the day, if you do this work for them then you will have something to add to your cv, which is great, so you just have to decide if the risk is worth it. if you've already done the work then, i guess you have to consider what you will lose from continuing and sending them the models - and then decide from there what you want to do. it's really difficult to advise to be honest as they could indeed be genuine, so i don't want to advise you to quit the project if that's the case - only you can decide really

[artist_cg]

thanks for the info , i was going to forget about it , but may be they r not that bad , i might continue , but anyway thanks for looking , i appreciate it

[joeyarkenstat02]

just watermark all of your images.........they can shop them around with it on there (most companies do anyway)

then, tell them you will remove the watermark upon receiving payment

protect yourself!

[ideaman]

Hi,

You need a contract to protect yourself.

I will be very wary if someone says that contract is not needed.