sprite making critique

[jane_runs_fast]

Hello,

I mostly do small commissions for fanart and backgrounds and such, nothing fancy- and have just recently started fooling around with game making.



This is my first batch of sprites ever (for a private game I'm messing with that will likely never see the light of day)...The one outfit is meant to be Regency Era. I know it's not exact and the hairstyles are not to date, that's not what I want to be critiqued-

What I'm wanting to know is- are my sprites, as a whole, at the level that I can charge for commissions or am I at the 'that's nice if you make them for free' level?

I've never made sprites before, so I'm not totally sure...

How I have everything set up is;

-nude headless bod
-headless body with clothing
-tons of heads with expressions

^^^ Saved separately to save space since several outfits and so many expressions would be a lot to save as a full bod.
They work well on renpy and have a very clear resolution, even while zoomed in close.

If they are good enough to pay for I'm gonna offer to do a few games worth of work free to add to my portfolio-
all the images are blown up for closer inspection- so if you zoom on these images you do see some pixelation.

Here are some of the expressions...

If you do think they are worth the time- what do you think sprites like this should cost (after gaining some sprite making experience? )
And how many expressions would be considered the normal amount to make?

Let me know what you think- and thank you for your time.

[numituwi]

I think you're at the level of where you can charge others for sprite making! Your art is very clean and you have things set up nicely.

When figuring out prices, usually it's best to see what others put up their prices as. Alternatively, you can see how long it takes you to work on a sprite set per hour and decide for yourself how much you'd like to be paid based on the time spent. I never set up commission work for sprites, but if it's a full-body colored work, about 40$-80$ per character could be reasonable.

As for amount of expressions, what I generally do is 10-20 per character. Though I believe what expressions needed depends on your commissioner.

[Limabaen]

I definitely think you could sell those! I've seen people on this forum sell full bodies for around $30 to $70. I've noticed that pros on Japanese sites tend to charge around $100 to $200. Considering the nature of this forum though I'd stick to the first range, at least for now.

Instead of saving the expressions as heads though, I prefer saving each facial feature on a separate layer, so I can mix and match to create almost unlimited expressions by hiding/unhiding layers. That way I don't have to worry about getting enough variety of expressions in.

If there's any critique I'd give...maybe the colouring's a little flat? It's fine, definitely a stylistic preference but if you're aiming for the typical "otome/bl look" I'd recommend using more contrast and more saturated colours, especially with the hair. Nothing an adjustment bar couldn't do.

[jane_runs_fast]

Thank you both, I really appreciate the feedback! and will work with making the sprites more colorful! Looking at it now- they do look pretty flat.

[Steamgirl]

I would probably commission you at the lower or medium end of the scale. For me, maybe the nose could do with a bit more work, at the moment it's not quite consistent with the overall lighting. I agree with what Limabaen said, I prefer a .psd file with a variety of eyebrows, eyes, and mouths on separate layers so I can mix-and-match expressions, as well as a blush layer.

One thing to consider is that for an otome game people will probably want to commission several characters together (like 3-10 of them). Some may want to have female characters or side-characters as well in a variety of ages. It's worth thinking about that and how much you charge. Also, many games feature more than 1 outfit for the characters, so consider your "addition outfit" price point too.

If you do open commissions, would you mind dropping me a PM? I don't know if I'll have a project on the go at the time, but it's always worth knowing which artists are available.

Good luck!!