Hello artists! How much do you prefer to charge for art?

[sheetcakeghost]

Hi, everyone! I'm in the fledgling stages of putting together a visual novel project (and probably a team to work on it) and I've gotten to that very boring part where I have to start budgeting out how much each thing will cost me. Since I'm not currently hiring people on, I didn't want to ask this in the recruitment thread. This is mostly so I can more accurately gauge the cost of art assets. Any input is very appreciated! Even if it's not a direct answer to my question!

My question is this: How much do you like to charge for the following items?

• Half Body, Fully Colored, Character Sprites (PSD or separated layers preferred, full and lengthy references given on preference, minimum three brows, four eyes, four mouths for expressions, no animation)

• Same as Above, but Full Body

• Also Same as the two above, but including Alternate Poses

• Animal Sprite (Peacock) with Expressive Poses (most likely four in all, otherwise same as above)

• Single Pose Character Sprite with Three Max Expressions (for NPCs)

• CGs for Major Character Moments (typically two characters per, no backgrounds needed, main character only seen from back with a hood up, one character is a peacock)

• Full Color Background Artwork of Medieval Castle Interiors, Landscapes, and General Fantasy Style Settings (sorry this one is a bit broad, all of the needed backgrounds haven't been established yet, the budget will determine the amount for me)

• Full GUI for Fantasy Style VN (Peacock themed, no animations)

• Full GUI for Fantasy Style VN (Peacock themed, with animations)

• Logo Design for game Menu Screen and Icon (also a possible spashscreen for the company Berry Jam)

If it looks like I've missed something I may need, feel free to let me know! It's been quite a while since I've finished a commercial release visual novel, and the first time I've been the project leader and not just a contributor. Any advice is fully welcome!

[Elsa Kisiel]

I'm afraid no one will really be able to answer your question : every artist charge differently. Rates very a lot.

For the same thing, someone will charge 4$, someone else 40$, I would probably charge 400$, and another artist would charge 4 000$.

[parttimestorier]

Your best bet would probably be to look through the recruitment and services offered forum, as well as some other websites where artists offer commissions, and see what different people are charging so that you can estimate a rough average or maybe find specific artists to keep an eye on for the future. And I'd advise you to estimate on the higher end - you never know what might come up that you didn't anticipate, plus some artists charging more might be the more skilled ones with more experience, as opposed to people just starting out who might not be the best to work with.

[Elfie]

Largely depends on what you need, yes. I'm not an artist but I've been recently buying characters for my VN, so had a lot of communication with artists, and can share my experience on this from the perspective of a buyer:

Character of decent quality (think Sakura series, Muv-Luv, Venus Blood - roughly this level of quality), plus several expressions = +-100 USD. If you need several poses it will be slightly more (+20-40 USD)

I communicated with more than 50 authors, they had very different pricetags initially, but in the end all the offers mostly came down to +-120 USD for fullbody character+ 5 expressions + 3 poses with SLIGHT changes to posture. (not including animation in this)

Interestingly, I've noticed that most authors, especially those who rarely do art for VN's, do not really care if you need fullbody or halfbody (to waist), and if you end up ordering a batch from them will not charge extra for that. As one explained to me "Its easier for me to draw a full character and then cut it if you wish so...."
VN-oriented artists, of course, will charge you extra for that in most cases.

Live 2D animation - this is where prices go wild, ranging from 50 USD for a set of animtions packages, to 500+ for one animation (both for existing character). I guess this is because, unlike character art, there is not so much artists who can make decent live 2D animations, and thus no established prices. I got lucky with my hire here, but I think in the near future it will be hard to find any competent live 2D artist who will charge you less than 200 USD per char.

Can't really comment on UI's and logos as well as backgrounds. There is a lot of free ones in that category with commercial use allowed and , unlike characters, its not necessary for them to be unique - so I just stick with them. My opinion here - if somebody approach you and say they need UI/custom interface elements, this means their budget is pretty solid .

[sheetcakeghost]

Thanks for the reply, guys!

To the folks saying "do some research" oh, yes, absolutely. That is definitely the best way to go about it. Art style, artist experience, and an ability to communication well with one another are hugely important and will have a great impact on what the dollar amounts end up being. d: My biggest goal in posting the question here was to open up a discussion, as well as get a very very general idea of what the going rate of art prices is these days, while having all of that information in one consolidated place for the convenience of myself and anyone else who might look this topic up in the future.

Rest assured, this is in no way going to be the only thing I do before putting a budget together. In fact, when things get closer to the point where I do need the art, I hope to have had an artist hired on (and paid for character designs/concept sketches) long before full commissioning for sprites. Also, things like background art and logo/ui art are not on the top of my list. I included them here more for expansion of discussion than for any real need to have those made.

I actually make my own backgrounds out of public domain photos via photoshop filters to make things look like paintings. I also tend to make my own very basic GUI. Those things are definitely both for someone with an incredibly solid budget. Ha ha.