Pricing for custom models

Hi all

I just got a quote today that left me feeling stupid. I clearly have no idea how much custom modeling costs and I have been basing my estimates on TurboSquid price times 3 or 4.

i have seen models for sale for $10 to $50 (some of which are pretty decent but are cheap because they are not skinned) but I didn't expect them to be custom made for like $100 to $150. Nah, I figured a custom next gen character would probably set you back anywhere from $300 to $600. So when I saw models for like $1000 I was like: "Yeah, great if you are making the Lord Of The Rings and have a couple million bucks in your budget and want to buy a few models. Sheesh. Who spends $1000 on a model? Are they mad?"

So far I have had 2 quotes for custom character models. One was more or less in line with what I expected and other made me realize that I simply have no clue how much custom work costs. Don't get me wrong, I am sure artists need to charge enough to be able to make a living and not die of starvation so that I can have a version of Lara Croft with one boob bigger than the other and 6 fingers on the left hand... but I am just realizing that I have no idea.

I asked for a quote today because I wanted a character and was willing to pay a certain amount, but my ignorance towards pricing just caused me to waste this guy's time. So now I am curious. I want to get a better idea of how much stuff costs so I don't waste people's time again.

Those of you who have created next gen characters, do you always start from scratch or do you reuse existing pieces? How long does it take you on average to create a character? If you can give exact details like "Well, my marine took me 3 days since I only subdivided an existing marine of mine and then added details in MudBox" That would be awesome. How much did you end up selling the model for? Do you ever do next gen models for TS or only on request?

I am real curious to hear from those who have done it themselves...
Thank in advance

 

wait, how much was the second quote then? Very high or very low?

 

"It depends"

That is the most accurate answer you can get.

the char...model, texture, able to customize? rigged?, animated? if animated how many animations? etc. this would all be guess in the wild

 

An average artist cost about 15-20$ /hour.
A custom, textured (normal, specular maps), skinned and animated model takes lots of time. Which means, lots of hours working and charging 15-20$ /hour. So yeah 1000$ i'll say is pretty cheap. Outsourcing studios charges 4x-5x that.

 

low char model around 4-8k tri
1k maps (diffuse/spec/normal)
rigged
non customizable = $150-$300

 

Okay, granted, I was not clear enough in my original posting. I meant modeling only. if you created something that was unrigged, untextured, tell me. if you created 90 animations for it before selling it, tell me. I am curious to know what stuff costs. I realize my first post could sound similar to : "How much does candy cost?" and can have a wide variety of answers, but that is what I'm after... If 10 people tell me they sold an unrigged, un-textured model for $10,000 then so be it. If a guy made 100 models for Pixar and charged them $1.99 so be it.

In the words of Jim Rohn: "If you do something often enough, a ratio will appear"
If I can get a couple of ratios of skinned prices vs unskinned prices vs animated vs rigged only, then I will have gained the knowledge I seek. I am not looking for "All next gen models will always cost you exactly $199.95", I am just curious about general pricing. I definitely don't want to go up to a guy and say "So, I've checked out your website. Your portfolio looks quite impressive. If you can come up with a good enough design for my character I am willing to offer you up to $50 to build it for me"...

Again, i am curious about how much prices fluctuate for the same level of "completeness".

 

cartoony or realistic? (i can annoy you for ages )

 

aleuus: Yeah, laugh it up mate. I'll make you an offer some time

See, this is what I meant:
TatoForever claims $1000 is cheap,
Says I can expect $4000 for an outsourcing studio (I actually think I saw a price tag like that somewhere once...)
qw_zzz quotes up to $300

That's a huge price difference. From 300 to 4000. Same thing. Now I don't feel so stupid any more for being clueless lol

 

Says it all right there. Perhaps a better way to do this would be to just soul-search and decide what you want visually for a character and then find artist that grasp that style and quality and ask them for quotes. Cgarena, Ralph3d, CreativeHeads are a few good places to find some talent. You will have better luck finding cheaper prices with students who are building up portfolios. Who knows maybe you will stumble upon a diamond in the rough who hasn't yet been discovered and swept off by an AAA studio.

I am really curious to see how the poll turns out.

Best of luck mate,

Eugene Ivanov

 

Thanks

Yeah, the poll so far is most definitely quite undecided at best... But a ratio created by 3 people is still small... Quite curious

Oh, how about this idea: I start a website where people drop their character designs for all artists to view and then all artists can first build the model then compete with each other for the lowest price to sell to the original poster! Yeah! That would work! :roll:

 

Actually, they have a few websites that do that for contracting... not specific to 3d but I have seen a few 3d and general graphic design contracts bid on before. I can't remember the exact url but if it comes to mind I'll link you. Correction: they don't first create the asset, they first bid and the lowest bidder that passes for the clients expectations (portfolio quality) wins the contract.

Eugene Ivanov

 

I'm actually signed up with a site similar to that. When coding jobs become available we are informed and we can place our bids. I signed up ages ago but not interested in freelance a.t.m. so I just delete, hence don't know the name. Don't recall if they do modeling, though...

Actually, I was being sarcastic when I said it. had my :roll: actually worked, that would have been clear, but I completely forgot about that site... they actually exist... Incredible. So, people, I want that minotaur from Ralph3d. Place your bets. First one to charge $20 or under gets the contract

 

Sorry, i was talking for a custom model (not available to everyone), rigged, skinned and animated.

 

In my book, a custom model is a model that someone orders with thier own design... if they were to ask me to personally just make whatever I pleased then, I would A) have a lot more fun with contracts B) be the happiest artist alive because I would be paid to make whatever I wanted and C) charge next to nothing

Eugene Ivanov

 

Tato, so am I. You got it right
Custom models with exclusive resell/ reuse/ give away rights made for one person or company.

 

aleuus: NOW! you tell me... I might have to make you an offer, now

I am looking for some creatures to inhabit a planet. They are the dominant species and are half human, half animal. For example, the lead female character is a real sexy woman who later reveals she has a mouse tail...
Other characters can be as human-like or more beast like as you like... Go nuts. Contact me when you are done
P.s. "next-to-nothing", that means "cheap" right?

Glad to be the one to make you the happiest artist alive

 

Hmm, as far as the artist is concerned: it shouldn't matter what is done with the model after it is paid for and handed off. What difference does it make if the client then resells it a million times or just ten or uses it to make a 3d print to put on his mantle above the fireplace? The same effort goes into the model in all scenarios. So what I am trying to say is who and how many times the client wants to sell the model is up to the client... he pays for it and the rights to it so it is theirs to decide the fate of (granted, it is nice to know where a product will end up for the artist). I think the specs, style, quality and time that weigh the most in factoring the price of a 3d asset.


Eugene Ivanov

 

XD I think you misunderstood me... well actually I don't think... you did. What I meant was: you come to me and say make me a 3d model and I say okay... and come back 2-3 weeks later with a model I felt like making. Then since it was so fun for me I charge next to nothing. lol a female character who is half human half creature wouldn't be the first thing I would think of modeling in my free time

Eugene Ivanov

 

i really want to know if those that voted "200 and less" are actual artists or just people that want to dump the price.

i am 100% sure no serious artists is giving away such a model for that less money. (didn't voted yet)

 

$100: http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=327793
$50:http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=251234 (notice how this author modified one model for various models)
$80: http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=138703 (aleuus: imagine using your free time making this... with a tail )

Now give characters skin textures like these and I will be the happiest person in the world:
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=263772

http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=390633
This character but with a nicer face...

Fits my world, exactly, for $80: http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=62554

Schlumpfsack:
If these could be custom made for $200, that would be most awesome indeed

 

Not sure to get your point?
I'm talking about freelance artists working privatelly for clients (and meeting their needs).

 

you can't compare the price of models that can be sold on a side several times with a unique character and most of them are way to high poly.
the skin texture isn't really a problem, the problem would be performance (aka texture size) and a good skin-shader (<---at least a problem for me in unity)

 

Those of you who posted prices, would it be possible for you to add a screenshot of the model you sold for that price?

 

i have never sold my models online but only to local studios in my country

 

Okay, let me up the antics a little bit:

How about a price estimate on this:
Say I wanted this model:



but I wanted it to look realistic like this:

 

Wow! Now that is what I call detailed
300 hours x $120 = $36,000 ...
Ouch...
Clearly I am in the wrong line of work

 

Fully agree
I've worked with artists in the past that did contract work for million seller x360 and ps3 titles and have some vague idea what they cost you for a fulltime month and with $200 you can be happy if you get half a day (that holds for any professional in the field by the way, not just artist though. The reason is pretty simple: they have to cover costs normally your company would have to pay for them like hardware, hardware wearoff, support, maintenance, insurance, electricity, working space, ... thats all included in the rate, you can basically cut 30-50% of what you pay as their upkeep costs thats not covered by you inhouse so if you pay them $200, they in reality earn ~$100 - with that in the back of your mind, think about what you are earning and what you expect from the company you work for as adequate income)

 

Standard industry timeframe from my experience provides the following for characters in the U.S. (depending on the importance in game).

The work involved would be:

- Conceptual Designs / Inspiration Designs / Mood Designs
- Character Expression studies
- Character Model Sheet
- Flats / Paint
- Personality Concepts (provided for animators)

32-40 : Total hours

- Low Poly model
- High Poly model
- Diffuse, Spec Color, Spec Level, Heightmap, AO, Normal (and potential bump detail)
- Morph (3d app side) to generate Normal map blend expressions

80 : Total hours

Animation time frame estimates (Dependent on secondary animation sets)
- Rig / Weight - figure, face
- 1 to 3 animations completed each day (Cycle)
- Standard set of animations for a third person game requires easily 100+ animations, which = 33 days of work (250 to 500 motions is very possible for main characters)

300 : Total hours

To have a character in game, with a professional 'aaa' quality, you would be looking at 420 hours of work. This is not including time and money factored in to revisions, corrections or additions suggested by the invested party.

Standard rates for freelance work (hiring a professional) will run between $25 - $120 an hour. Typically, someone charging high dollars an hour can complete the project in a much shorter timeframe, resulting in about the same cost.

This means...
A concept design will run you about $800 - $900
A complete model will run you about $2,000 - $2,500
A complete animation set will cost a months salary $6,500 - $8,000

The grand total for a complete character with animations will run about $9,900.
It can sound like a lot, but you are asking/supporting a professional for 8 to 10 weeks worth of work on a project.

Can the prices be reduced. Absolutely. You can certainly find individuals willing to work for less, but if you were going through a company, working with and wanting 'AAA' experience and product, then that would be a good average.


I hope this helps. If others have different experiences, it would be great to hear them.

 

@deamora,
Agree

@MrDude,
If you are lucky you can find seasoned freelances artists for about 20-30 $/hourly but not to the level of the image posted below. Even so, spec to spend lots of money. Custom job is always better but is cost.
Cheers,

 

$1000 is nothing in developed western countries.

$1000 is a weeks work (Mon-Fri 9-5) @ $25 per hour or $200 per day. (Even at minimum wage in the UK it would work out at $400.) That's barely scrapping a living, after tax/insurance and everything else.

I've been responsible for handling outsourced 3D content from eastern Europe India, and even though it totally destroys local freelance opportunities it's a good source of cheap models.

 

Well, I'd say it also depends on if your asking a person just doing it in their free time, or if it's someone doing it for a job. Many of the people doing it in their free time will ask much less (~$100 range for mesh only) where as someone that does it as their livelihood will charge more. It also depends on where the person figures their own quality stands. If they think/know they are good, they are going to charge more. If they think they suck, they'll charge less.

Personally, just for a mesh only, being low poly, I'd only want to pay at most $100, as you can find many people on sites such as here that will do low poly models real cheap. Just look at the collab forum. There was one guy doing fairly detailed and textured low poly models (in the less then 500 poly range) for $1, and they were textured and had basic animations. Of course that's uber cheap and unexpected. But, depending on the detail, some people can create low poly meshes in very short fashion. (I wouldn't have expected the $1 guy to spend more then an hour or so on each piece, but he was also selling the same mesh to multiple people)

So, XD my official answer is it depends on a multitude of things. Just set the price range you want, and if they don't like the range, they'll just say no. It may be a waste of time for a minute or so, but that's the way of business. If you don't feel them out, you'll never know.

Now, I do have to mention that I say all of this from the perspective of someone that doesn't create models regularly, but that said as well, I also know that low poly models don't take all that long to do, and something less then 1k poly should be very fast to make, as someone like me with very little experience could create something that looks decent in a couple hours. So, someone that's actually good at it could probably make the same thing in like 10-20 mins. (I'm really bad at 3d modeling.)

 

I guess that time would include the high poly version for the normal map too?

Even given a 500 poly quota, a Pro can -
a) make it look a more detailed mesh, by working in triangles rather than quads.
b) make it look better when in deforms with animation.
c) disguise the silhouette better so it doesn't look so low poly.
...
I could just go on...Poly count isn't an indication of time required.

 

I don't know really i sell my models mostly about $150 to $600

 

Wow Thank you a lot, i've learned so much

 

Wow Thanks a lot, i've learned so much

 

for an example, how long's the time frame, how low/high do u need, rigg-able?, with facial rigs?, need sculpt model also?

usually i dont give my clients my mudbox files, i only give em the high the low poly ones

 

ProfCWalker has it about right. You have to decide if you want a pro or amateur artist, find out whether they are going to price the work with a small indie/hobbyist in mind, and their location will have a lot to do with it too.

The Artist needs to support himself and possibly a household, family and if he is self employed medical insurance. You will be lucky to get a pro for $20 an hour unless they are giving you a break. $45 is pretty normal for a contract artist. In house starts at about $4000 a month plus benefits.

I have done work for $20 an hour as side projects in my own time, but only if there is a lot of flexibility and I don't get pestered too much. I'm not doing much game stuff these days, seem to have gotten involved in a bunch of medical training simulation work using another engine,

If your on a budget and can't find a good hobbyist artist doing the work for fun you might have to adjust the look of your game to suit your budget. There's a reason that commercial games are so expensive and often 80% of the development cost is for art work and the 100 - 200 professional artists working for 6 - 18 months full time on the project.

Often a single character might have 3-4 seperate artists working on it.

Concept artist
Modeler (sometimes does UV mapping too)
Texture artist (may do skins of generic textures that get incorporated into the skin, sometimes does UV mapping too)
Animator (may also do rigging, or that might have been set up by someone else)

Might even have a seperate artists doing faces and face rigging and animation if this is an advanced part of the character pipeline.

Games are becoming more like movies with more specialization as the rendering animation and physics gets more advanced.

 

There is a huge difference between creating a custom asset, and selling existing assets on Turbosquid. The studio I work at has outsourced character models for 360/PS3 retail games ('AAA') - and it's always been at prices well in the 'More...' category of your poll. Thats for the basic model (low and high poly) + full texture maps (diffuse, normal, spec). No rigging, no animation, and we provide all the concept images. That's also a model that our studio has full rights to, and the artist cannot re-use or re-sell.

Really you need to look at what you honestly need for your game and determine your budget and expectations from there. Do you really need 'AAA' quality? If so, be prepared to spend lots of money on it - you're buying a considerable amount of an artists time to create it. Do you really need exclusive rights, or 'custom' models? Again, expect to pay for it - if the artist can't resell the model to multiple customers you have to foot the full bill. Often (good) models sold on sites like Turbosquid were actually made on full commission, and are just being sold at discounted prices for extra profit because their license allows it.

 

i sure am learning a lot over here. Thanks for the input guys. I was expecting you to tell me I was off the mark and that stuff costs more than I expected, but I didn't expect the figures you guys are throwing around.

I keep hearing the words "place" and "where" and I think that might also play a large role for people on a budget. I mean, over here, the average person works for around $250-ish to $400-ish a month. If you are gonna turn around and say a single, quality yet bargain model, will cost me around the $4000 mark then that means for the same money I can afford to pay someone local a salary for nearly a year. Surely I can get more than 1 model made for me in a year? I guess that goes for the outsourcing to India as mentioned above...

I seem to recall hearing once that Tesco in the UK has a labour force over here in South Africa that they pay £5 a day. That's like 1 hours wage for a UK person but over here there are those who are quite happy to work for that sum. Tesco is striking a bargain and the people over here are smiling as they walk to the bank... I guess location also matters a lot when asking for quotes from another country. Clearly, people from South Africa wanting to offer work to someone in a first world country is NOT going to work out

Seriously, I was expecting you to tell me a model would cost more than I expected but I never expected you to turn around and tell me that if I needed 3 or 4 models it would be cheaper to start my owe game studio and pay staff a monthly salary for a year, rather than outsourcing the three or models model from overseas... This was a true shocker. Heck, I recon if I offered someone local $300 for a model and said they had 2 months to do it in their spare time I would actually get quite a few interested calls... Hell my wife worked full time for less than $250 p/m... and that was 6 days a week.

My original question was: "How much do you guys charge?"
It turns out the answer is "Too much for third world countries to afford"
Now the question has turned more towards "What country with a talented artist has a weak economy?"

As it is, I am trying to make an RPG. I have a story that I have been refining for a couple of years now and I really, really want to tell the story. The story is what is important to me so I am willing to compromise a lot on what my final product looks like in terms of style and theme. If I can find something on TS that fits my needs then so be it but heck, picking bits and bobs from here and there and trying to get stuff that works together... Ouch!

Initially, I had no intention of making a realistic looking game. In fact, I didn't even want to make it in a medi-evil setting, but I was unable to find models that fit my vision. I then got a whole range of building models from Arteria3D and they use photographs for the textures. Thus, I either have to find a character I like and scrap all the models I got from there or stick with the models I got and just get a character that fits the scene. This means lifelike... which means the majority of models I have seen are NOT an option. Besides which, I have not actually found a character that fits the story line... so custom seemed the only way to go. Again, I could either go for painted textures and scrap all the models I currently have, or stick with the models I have and have the custom model made to look real to fit the scenery... Again, I want to tell my story so the actual look of the character is very customisable, as long as it fits in with the story...

This really is going to throw quite the hurdle in the works. I guess this makes Daz3D look like a VERY cheap option indeed... $150 for the game dev kit and around $250-400 per character with outfits and deformers etc etc... Hmmm...

So to sum it up, no, I don't NEED custom work, I THOUGHT I did... now I see that a starting little indie like me cannot possibly afford it (well not internationally at least, not with our weak currency). I will have to look at other options. For instance, DexSoft has great looking models and the characters fit the buildings. Perhaps I should just do everything with their model kits... That would solve THAT issue... the only problem now is that none of DexSoft's characters fit the main character... Thus I would just be exchanging Arteria's medievil kit for DexSoft's medievil kit and I will be right back where I started from with needing a lead character...

Anyways, I'll just have to look at what is available and see what options present themselves... but thanks for the input, guys, quite informative indeed.

 

Is the code for the game already done? I would really work on getting the game feature complete w/ placeholder assets first. Once the storyline and gameplay elements are in place, then work on assets. If it's a good enough story, you could pitch the idea to publishers who might foot the bill for custom, high quality assets, or you could launch the game w/ low quality assets to generate some funds to release an updated version w/ better graphics. Or you may be able to get a freelance artist who would be willing to create characters for a share of the profits of eventual sale.

But focus on gameplay first. To many games now days are all eye candy and no substance.

 

Niosop. 100% agreed on that!

I have no experience in showing people stuff and saying "will you support or sponsor me?" but I did notice a few places that do mention they do this so I was planning on doing that exact sales pitch actually. "Here is the game. Play it, get back to me" if/when they do and they ask "So what do you require/want from us?" I could reply with "Well, the game is done but I need money for more art assets to make it look the part"

That was the plan... but placing all my hopes on "Yeah, someone will love my game enough to spend thousands of dollars on it before it is done" ... yeah, that is just daft... Also, after reading so many posts about how it is sign of a noob, a sign of someone with no money and/or a sign of someone having no respect for the artist, I vowed to never make anyone the offer to work for me for free with the possibilities of royalties if the game ever gets published, maybe... Oh, and of course, everyone's favourite: "And if we don't make any money, at least you will have your name in the credits" Ohh, ahhh.... Nah, bru, I can't possibly expect that of anyone.

This is, of course, the nice thing about the way I work. I am a programmer after all. I thus spend my time on all things code and code stuff in such a way that anything can simply be replaced by a simple drag operation. I literally don't have to worry about graphics until the very end. Thus no rush and all the time I need to look around

 

Don't forget the option of trading the skills you do have - There are probably plenty of artists looking for help with scripts, and coders looking for art assets. That's a good solution if you're working on your own project and don't have time to collaborate. It would have to be a fair trade though.

 

SURPRISINGLY, 50% of the voters said < $200
???
Interresting...
No screenshots?

 

I think that the poll may be a bit misleading in its wording...

How much do you charge for normal mapped low poly character models?

This can be misinterpreted as the price of a turbosquid model available for any mass purchase. 29.99e for this http://www.dexsoft-games.com/models/underworld2.html at DexSoft.

Now, How much do you charge for a Custom Built Proprietary Non-Transferrable normal mapped low poly character..., that would be different.

Having more experience in film and tv than games, the prices quoted here seem fair. This is tough on the indy developer. But then you need to find an indy artist. Startup projects grow best when everyone is starting from the same place. You need to find an artist who's starting up just like you are, and grow together, even if not in the same company. After a while, you'll all be asking for your £100/hr, and you'll be calling yourself a professional.

 

because those that voted <200$ are not modelers and they wanna dump the price. 100% sure

 

Lol, I've charged <200 many times because I'm not exactly pro, and because I don't do it for living, in fact sometimes I don't feel like I should charge at all. If I wanted to make a living out of it, 200-500 would be enough for me, I wouldn't get rich, but where I live that much can get you through the month, as sometimes it takes a lot of time to make these models, 1 week to do a really good 3d model, 2 weeks until we're done with the changes, hehe.

Seriously speaking, a character might take a lot of time, it involves many time consuming steps before it's done. Nowadays there are tools like uvlayout, that speeds up a lot the unwrap process, but a full model with animation +client changes can take a lot of time. So a I believe professional 3d modeler is entitled to charge 1000+ bux per character, otherwise he can't might not be able to make a living out of it. The only way to get custom 3d characters is to get a guy who's doing it for fun, if you're lucky he'll even do it all for free, but don't expect top quality!

 

MrDude,
How much will you charge for working 3-4 weeks creating code for a given studio?
If you ask less than 200$, I would like to get your services right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
eheh

 

TATO:
Yeah, yeah Point made. In fact, point made days ago, hence my surprise at the poll result.
Regarding my fee, I am real expensive. That's why I haven't been snatched up yet (yeah, that's why, I'm sure... ). I charge about $150 p/w... :horror:

Little Angle:
Bru, you are spot on! Kinda invalidates the entire poll, doesn't it? Phoei for my bad choice in wording

 

Hey Folks,

I must say, a fascinating post.

From our experience I had have to agree with ProfCWalker and his breakdown of the cost involved in creating a custom character.

If you take this example for instance:

This was a low-poly character we built to specification requested by a client for a demo they were pitching.
We didn’t do any of the concept design (already done) but we were involved in tweaking it a little. We provided diffuse and normal maps and we only provided a few animations.

This cost around £800/ $1200.

If you’re looking for AAA quality then as ProfCWalker you would be looking at the best part of £ 6,500 / $10,000

We do work with a lot of indie dev’s though and of course budget is always a massive concern. Some clients approach us with art work and concepts in hand and we quote accordingly, others want characters building from scratch. As each one is a custom build we have to quote for the work accordingly.

I suppose that’s the key word here is...”custom”...it really does depend on brief.