Do I need contracts to hire freelance artists?

Hi,

Just looking for some advice. I'm in the process of hiring some freelance artists to create some assets for a project.

My question is should I get them to sign contracts? Even if they are just contract templates from the web, is that better than not having one at all?

I cant afford to hire a lawyer or anything like that.

Additionally does anybody know of a good contract template for this kind of thing?

Thanks so much

 

While I recommend you make him sign one. They are only as good as the lawyers you can employ. Even if he directly broke the contract and is easily proven it's no good if you don't have funds to take him to court.

 

It would be the smart thing to do, yes.

 

This is entirely up to you, remember that a contract is designed to protect both parties involved so it cuts both ways, so many freelancers wont go into a job without a contract either. On the other hand if your contract is too draconian in nature you may scare off some freelancers who may be perfectly dependable otherwise. Bear in mind both parties needs when designing the contract, you need to protect yourself and get value and delivery and not have your IP stolen or be ripped off, they need to be guaranteed the income for their work and not be impeded from being able to earn an income (i.e. no non competitive clauses). At a certain point a contract will be overkill, at others a necessity you need to be pragmatic about this.

 

Give that guy an arts test or modelling test. If the person refuses to do an arts test, or fails to do some great artwork that would take him 15-30 minutes to complete, you can drop that person outright.


You might want to look-up their portfolio. Some of the people like Rosor (ProFactor), HeV, SemaVan have very extensive portfolio. You could go by small milestones.

 

Thanks for the responses and good advice.

I read an article about creating a contract without any legal jargon but to simply state clearly who is paying who and what the work requires and what the deliverables are etc.

Does this sound like a good idea or could there be any negative consequences to this?

 

You need a contract to protect yourself.


I've seen various abuses - our works re-sourced to India and Pakistani artists who then come to us saying that they were not paid, our artworks re-used by several nasty people on this forum, artists inflating their rates, poor artwork given, bait switch - giving Dexsoft assets illegally, other people's codes given to us, along with copyright notices from other companies, and so on.

 

Having terms clearly defined on paper is always a good thing. Remember a good contract is meant to keep you OUT of court and used as a reference when any disputes arise. If terms change via email, or added features are requested, update the original spec document.

Once all the paper work is done, I'd suggest hiring 2 or 3 artists and getting each artist to do a very small sample done of the work required. Agree with the artist on the costing for this small sample, and what is required, put in as much detail as possible.

This establishes a few things...

1.) The artists pricing in comparison to other artists
2.) The ability for you to work with the artist, were they good to communicate with, were they efficient, was their work sloppy?
3.) Is the artist passionate about the work, or are they just in it for the money and want to finish it as quick as possible?

I would also suggest throwing in a change or two to the delivered sample, this gauges the artists ability to be happy to make changes to things you are not happy with.

After working with 2 or 3 artists in this manner, you'll end up preferring 1 of them over the others, then simply continue to work with this artist.

Remember, keep milestones and payments small, and as you build the relationship with the artist you can become a little more trusting.

 

I'd advise against this, a lot of serious artists would point you towards the door. I would. Working for free to prove yourself doesn't get a look in around here. I wouldn't ask anyone to work free for half an hour just to prove themselves. Thats kinda rude IMO.

 

@Aaron,
My company has been victim to scam-artists and very insulting people who were banned on this forum.


The simple test is there, which allows HR to gauge on top of their portfolio, what they did or put on their portfolio is true and as of fact. The simple thing is modelling some strange artefact (combination of two items they did already), or taking an existing model they have and adding some animation or re-texturing it, multiple-choice coding test about general coding questions. Many people made a big polygon mess or stick drawings or walk away, not interested.


It is really batshit insane to add re-textured DexSoft or Mixamo models to your portfolio, put Asian MMO screenshots on your portfolio, or claim to do some really cool MMO codes when it is actually Zerano's Multiplayer kit, or ask someone from India or Pakistan to do your portfolio works... thinking you could fool us...


As for free works, other than what HR requested, more than $50,000 has already been paid out to the artists here. I'd rather give arts requests to the ex-game-studio employees here.


I know it sounds rude, but it is what it is. If I sound rude, I am sorry about that.

 

We found this to be pretty much the case. We used to do art/eng/design tests, but dropped them a couple of years back. Almost every time the tests really turned out to be irrelevant, they didn't tell us anything new. I don't think we ever had a case where a weak portfolio/resume tested well or a strong portfolio/resume tested poorly. And small tests don't help with the parts we don't know (how they work in a team/under pressure/if they are creative/etc..) Asking for a "test" task when they have provided examples already (portfolio), is basically saying "prove your portfolio isn't fake". Not a good start. And we often would have candidates that would simply drop out of the process when asked to do a test. And the ones that would drop out at that point were the ones on the high end of the scale, not the low end.

"Being rude" is a certainly a factor. At least around these parts, there are more positions than top candidates. If I were looking, and considering multiple companies, I would certainly skip any interviews that required me "prove" my skills through a test, that is the point of my portfolio/resume. In reality, though it probably wouldn't come up, as that isn't a common practice, at least in my area. (markets vary)

 

If I were to hire a freelancer and we would be talking about serious amount of cash then I would try to get in contact with local (whatever that means to you) talent.

Talent pool would be smaller and to found a right person might take longer but it would be somebody with a real name and somebody I could meet face to face. Then if there would be a breach of contract I would be able to stalk this somebody with my lawyer Murder Axe .

In seriousness, while not always within realm of possibility, personally I'm just not going to do business with people I don't either know, can't get to know or somebody I trust can't recommend. It's more safe and lets you cultivate longer, more fruitful working relationships.

 

We're hiring local. Unfortunately we attract the wrong kind of people. HR had people decline to enter their SSN to eVerify website, decline to sign to consent for a background check or just don't bother to give details when we ask if we can have solid references and call them up. Usually they would use pre-paid phones and become un-contactable after some time. That's before we asked for a short 30 minutes on-site test.


We've had good success hiring highly experienced people.

You should have seen when the police came with search warrant to raid their "game studio" only to find they moved to another state (and busy scamming on this forum...), or how these people ran away when the police came over here. Every 3 or so weeks HR would call up the police and ask about certain scammers and what is their investigation status.

 

Haven't been on these forums for a while. I'll be short.
But I wouldn't trust a dog wearing black glasses.

Don't ask for tests. Eskimojoe probably has never hired anyone.

Out of 20 emails to hire somebody you WANT and not just anybody, you usually get 6-7 answers back, 3-4 of them say they are busy but thanks for the interest, and about 2 are ready to take the job. Now, do you really want to test them?

If you are really broke and losing 50-100$ is a catastrophe for you, try to ask them to take the job and pay by installments step by step per task, until you grow confident of their commitment. Mind you I never do this or done that. I just pay straight 50% upfront and 50% after.

There is NO 100% proof that they guy would not run with your money with a test completed or not or whatever secure method you designed.

 

@Magico,

I'm open towards fair suggestions to improving the hiring process. The HR guys here want to cover their backs, dot the P's and Q's and make sure their bases are all covered. They don't want to let another bad hire get approved or because they didn't check, and let a bad recommendation go through. They are very cautious and want to make sure nothing bad happens afterwards.


We have been very fair to people who do not go through normal channels to learn art, but not the point where they do bait switch on us. We have been most accommodating to people with disabilities, but not if you are faking a disability to get welfare.


There are books here on Unity Shaders because we realize that most developers are not Shader Experts, books on Maya as some people are not experts in certain Maya features.

If you need us to get a keyboard with bigger keys and joystick as mouse because you lost one of your arms in an accident, or you are partially deaf and need video cam. to need to lip read, we can accommodate that.

 

@Eskimojoe

I don't care about you or your company.
My message was for the OP.

 

Sorry but art tests are a no-go! Portfolio and work samples - sure. An artist has to provide those.
If you're not sure but would like to still give him/her a try then rather go for a small item or project first. If you'd demand a non-paid test I would tell you that we are not going to work together with 99% probability.

[edit] BTW - what kind of test would you propose that takes only 15 minutes that reliably tells you that an artist knows his work? Also: How can an artist be sure that those "free tests" are really only that - tests?

 

If you're asking this question in these forums you can't afford to have a contract written up or to pay a professional artist. Research any number of established artists outside Unity: there are plenty of them and they paid accordingly.

 

Don't give art tests. Get the artist to do a small portion of the work for paid.

 

Yeah... I'd have thought this was a bit of a no-brainer. Give them a relatively small paid task. That way you're mitigating your risk by keeping the money small and the task non-critical, but making the potential worker happy by, you know, respecting them and giving them work. If it works out then step it up, if it doesn't work out then you've lost relatively little and can move on to the next guy. In fact, you could give 10 small tasks to 10 potential new employees and pick the best. You then have the contact details for up to 9 others should you need to hire again in the future or do some short term scaling. And you get up to 10 pieces of usable work done in the process.

If I'm applying for a job I expect that there might be some kind of basic test involved. Plenty of people do cheat or lie in their CVs or portfolios and/or simply don't know how their skills stack up against others'. But for contract/freelance work? That's another story. Either demonstrate your own maturity by going through the appropriate paces in the lead up to large contracts or trust that I know what I'm doing based on whatever it was that you've already seen that led you to me.

Consider it this way: the guys who are really good at their job don't have to put up with proving themselves for free because there are plenty of other opportunities for them to pick up work. If they're willing to give you freebies to prove themselves then you need to ask why.

In any case, starting any working relationship from a position of explicit distrust is very much getting off on the wrong foot. If someone asked me if they could do a background check on me for potential work and there wasn't a very specific reason for it (eg: working with kids) I'd immediately question the culture and whether it's something I actually want to get involved with.

 

When you start working with bigger clients and bigger brands, contracts become a necessity but in my experience, they're unnecessary headache starting out as long as you follow some simple rules. The only reason for a contract if you're a small dev (i.e not able or interested in pursuing legal action) is to (bold because it's important) define expectations. This one thing is really easy, really simple, and almost completely ignored by a lot of contractors and outsourcers alike. The advantage a contract provides is that it covers quite a few bases that you might not necessarily think of.

A few things you should explicitly state (never assume):
1. How you're paying (hourly or flat rate)
2. When you pay (how much upfront, milestones, and at project end)
3. What happens if things go wrong (i.e the artist is unable to complete the project)


Guidelines for vetting candidates:
1. Art tests are completely fine if the artist has no portfolio. There is no reason to assume that they can do something just because they say you can - this is business and it's not rude to cover your bases. Your time is valuable. If they can't be bothered to provide past work or a free sample, then find someone else. Paying them to develop a portfolio is not a good business model - losing $200 on a paid test isn't a big deal, but there's simply no reason to when that money could be going somewhere more productive.
2. Their time is valuable as well - if you do end up needing a free art test, keep it small.
3. If the artist does have a great portfolio, but not in the style you're looking for, do a small paid test.
4. Don't be a jerk about it. Having been scammed a few times, it's easy to fall into the trap of assuming that everyone is out to make a quick buck off of you - but starting a relationship off with explicit distrust is a surefire way to stress everyone out and end up with crappy bang for your buck. None of the items I've outlined above imply distrust - it's nothing more than keeping your bases covered.

Having done this for a while now, I'd be more than happy to help you out and hopefully help you avoid some of the pitfalls I've fallen into myself. Hit me on skype if you need any more help - my id is flaminghairball.

 

Whether the contract is formal or not, you're missing some important stuff there. For starters, who owns the IP?

 

By law, unless explicitly specified to contrary, the person doing the hiring owns the IP/work created. But, there is nothing wrong with being specific in the contract to avoid confusion.

 

Here I think that it depends on the relationship between the two unless specified in a contract. But I could be wrong, it could just be that the standard terms for many service providers simply state something to that effect.

 

Its actually specified by copyright law (at least US copyright law). The "author" of the work is the one who commissioned it. If I hire an artist to create work for me, I own all the content created in the scope of that commission.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf

That said, there is nothing wrong with clarifying this in a contract/agreement, and probably a good idea for clarity. But if not specified, the owner is commissioner.

 

There is funny issue.


Several artists here on this forum do not give any PSD, FBX nor source files after paying for the works. Only PNG, JPG and OBJ.


HR asked again and again to the artist for the PSD file dozens of time before they were dropped.


Their excuse? - The contract does not state giving source files, therefore, (artist) will not give it at all. Even when the contract specifies upfront to provide source files, they simply ignore it.


What would you do in such situation?

 

I think contracts are very useful, and important, so everyone knows what exactly the agreement is. To minimize room to confusion.
And after everything is clear, if you wish, you can add the human component (being flexible, reasonable, common sense, etc).
Both parties benefit from this!

 

Hire better artists.

 

If the contract clearly stated beforehand that the artist has to transfer the Source files (Specifically which surce files PSD, FBX, OBJ, C4D, MAX ...?) to you (the company) and the artist agreed to it he is contractually obliged to do so. Maybe he even raised the payment because of that. If he refuses you can refuse to pay a part of his fee because he did not fulfil a part of the contract. A professional artist should not argue about things stated in a contract, though. Even if it's asimple one: the things that are important to both parties have to be in it. Both parties agreed on it - that's what a contract is made for. To declare what is important to both parties.

Either way - that's just my opinion. For any certain legal advice: if in doubt you should always ask for legal counsil. I think you already knew that, though. I'm just a guy on an internet forum.

 

Why would anyone every try to hire someone without a contract? Doesn't make any sense.