Estimating an artist's workload.

[LibertyOfTheAether]

Hello. I wasn't really sure where to ask this, as it isn't necessarily a question about the Ren'py engine itself. Essentially, I'm currently working on my own Ren'py project and I've been wondering how I can estimate how much work an artist would need to do. This is my first ever project, so I'm largely a novice when it comes to visual novel development.

How much work goes into character sprites and backgrounds, on average? Let's say that they need to work on multiple variations of each sprite and background, too. (I.E. Classroom background, day, dusk, night)

Edit: In hindsight, Asset Creation: Art might have been a better place to post this. Sorry.

[chocojax]

It's pretty easy to give a rough estimation of how much work you would need an artist to do by having a close-to-finalized outline, as well as close-to-finalized characters. That way, you know where scenes would take place and what character sprites to have. I would then order it by "most likely will be in final product" to "may be removed before releasing product." That way, it would save the artist time, and/or save you money if you're paying for them.

How much work on average? Uhh, based on my own personal experiences:

Least amount of work to Most amount of work: Sprites < CGs <= Backgrounds

Variations depend on what sort of variations, of course. Ones that would take messing around with the hues or adding filters would take a low amount of work, but the more drawing that's required in the variation, the more work it takes. (ex., classroom background night version < draw a new arm pose < draw new clothes < draw a new body)

Also, giving the artist everything they need to know ahead of time is goods. Because if you DEFINITELY need a secondary outfit, the artist can draw a nude sprite so that they can just draw the outfits above the nude sprite. :D

[Auro-Cyanide]

Every single artist is going to vary on what their workload would be based on their personal style, what you are asking for and how much experience they have.

Some styles are simply more time consuming, and some artist at better at some than others.
A CG with 8 people in it is more complex than a close up of one.
An indoor background with lots of furniture is more complex than a background of a forest.
Experience is tricky experience doesn't necessarily equal speed. With experience often comes patience and the ability to put more polish into something than a beginner artist.

You can only really get half decent estimates if you actually pick an artist and ask them to estimate.

For me for instance an average sprite is 6 hours, a background is 8-10 and a CG is 10-20. That is super simplifying what an 'average' sprite, background and CG would be but hopefully you get my drift.

[LibertyOfTheAether]

Thank you both for your replies. The project is still very rough at the moment, so I don't really have a final tally of all the sprites, backgrounds and CGs needed. However, taking into account the following:

For me for instance an average sprite is 6 hours, a background is 8-10 and a CG is 10-20. That is super simplifying what an 'average' sprite, background and CG would be but hopefully you get my drift.

I did a quick tally of all the backgrounds, CGs and sprites that I currently have planned in the project, and without even reaching half the words I want to write for the visual novel, I'd estimate it would be 200+ hours of work for you in particular, not including making variants. Definitely not reasonable by any means, so I'm going to have to do a fair bit of rewriting to minimise the workload on any artists who might join in the future.

[Googaboga]

It's always nice when writers downsize in order to be more considerate of their artist(s) :].

Here are some suggestions that might help with your minimizing.

CGs;
-Having super simplistic or even just abstract backgrounds for the CGs
-Having some chibi CGs rather than all of them being regular style CGs
-Avoiding having many characters or full body views in CGs

BGs;
-Creating time alterations yourself by simply editing the color hues
-Take one BG and add alterations to make it a new BG rather than having two BGs made from scratch
-Using premade assets when available rather than having an artist create every BG you need custom

Sprites;
-Creating time alterations yourself by simply editing the color hues
-Only asking for a few basic emotions and mixing/matching eyes and mouths yourself to create new expressions (like taking angry eyes and putting them with the happy mouth for a competitive/confident expression)

And for all of types of art you could let the artist know that they can use a style that's simpler/less detailed than they might normally use if it means they won't have to spend as much time working on each piece.

Good luck :>.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Thank you both for your replies. The project is still very rough at the moment, so I don't really have a final tally of all the sprites, backgrounds and CGs needed. However, taking into account the following:

For me for instance an average sprite is 6 hours, a background is 8-10 and a CG is 10-20. That is super simplifying what an 'average' sprite, background and CG would be but hopefully you get my drift.

I did a quick tally of all the backgrounds, CGs and sprites that I currently have planned in the project, and without even reaching half the words I want to write for the visual novel, I'd estimate it would be 200+ hours of work for you in particular, not including making variants. Definitely not reasonable by any means, so I'm going to have to do a fair bit of rewriting to minimise the workload on any artists who might join in the future.

Ah, I see where you are going with this line of thought. You are looking to minimise your assets. That is a good road to go down and important for visual novels. You want to try and reuse assets as often as possible without compromising the story significantly. This /is/ a challenge. Avoiding situations where you have the characters turn up in one location for 2 minutes and then never go back, or having a cast of side characters that say a sentence and then are never heard from again can be hard when you are used to thinking in a more novel format. However if you are asking someone to spend 8 hours on a background than you are going to want to make sure you use it for more than 2 minutes.

Also with visual novels it isn't uncommon to have multiple artists working in different structures, so there is that as well. Though it's still good practice to minimise assets as it minimises risk. This obviously goes doubly if you are looking to pay people.

Good luck with planning out your assets

[LibertyOfTheAether]

Ah, I see where you are going with this line of thought. You are looking to minimise your assets. That is a good road to go down and important for visual novels. You want to try and reuse assets as often as possible without compromising the story significantly. This /is/ a challenge. Avoiding situations where you have the characters turn up in one location for 2 minutes and then never go back, or having a cast of side characters that say a sentence and then are never heard from again can be hard when you are used to thinking in a more novel format. However if you are asking someone to spend 8 hours on a background than you are going to want to make sure you use it for more than 2 minutes.

That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I have no budget to sink into my project, so when I inevitably look for artists, the last thing I want for them is to having to spend 200+ hours without getting paid and with no assurance that the visual novel would actually make any money. It would just be unreasonable of me to expect that of them. Thus, I'm trying to minimise their workload as much as possible.

So far, each character I have planned for the story all have important roles to play, as opposed to being just a side character who quickly disappears. Backgrounds, on the other hand, are something that I really need to think about.

Also with visual novels it isn't uncommon to have multiple artists working in different structures, so there is that as well. Though it's still good practice to minimise assets as it minimises risk. This obviously goes doubly if you are looking to pay people.

Good luck with planning out your assets

Sorry, but what exactly do you mean by "different structures"? Do you mean different assets such as sprites and backgrounds?

Also, thank you.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Ah, I see where you are going with this line of thought. You are looking to minimise your assets. That is a good road to go down and important for visual novels. You want to try and reuse assets as often as possible without compromising the story significantly. This /is/ a challenge. Avoiding situations where you have the characters turn up in one location for 2 minutes and then never go back, or having a cast of side characters that say a sentence and then are never heard from again can be hard when you are used to thinking in a more novel format. However if you are asking someone to spend 8 hours on a background than you are going to want to make sure you use it for more than 2 minutes.

That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I have no budget to sink into my project, so when I inevitably look for artists, the last thing I want for them is to having to spend 200+ hours without getting paid and with no assurance that the visual novel would actually make any money. It would just be unreasonable of me to expect that of them. Thus, I'm trying to minimise their workload as much as possible.

So far, each character I have planned for the story all have important roles to play, as opposed to being just a side character who quickly disappears. Backgrounds, on the other hand, are something that I really need to think about.

Also with visual novels it isn't uncommon to have multiple artists working in different structures, so there is that as well. Though it's still good practice to minimise assets as it minimises risk. This obviously goes doubly if you are looking to pay people.

Good luck with planning out your assets

Sorry, but what exactly do you mean by "different structures"? Do you mean different assets such as sprites and backgrounds?

Also, thank you.

That is a very respectful thing to do I've sunk I don't even know how many hours freely into VN artwork, but I will always appreciate it when someone is being very careful to use my time carefully.

Background artists are also as rare as hen's teeth, especially if you are looking for non-3D so it's definitely a good idea to make the number as temptingly achievable as possible.

There are a number of different ways to handle divvying up art assets. Some do it per route, usually bishojo following in Katawa Shojos footsteps. Some do it per type of asset, so the roles are sprite artist, background artist, CG artist etc. Some do it based on skill such as sketcher, inker, colourist. Some have a bit of a mixture, like have a sprite artist, a background artist but multiple CG artists. Personally I think dividing by skills is a rare but potentially very strong compromise, especially if you rotate the artists based on asset as well. So 1 artist might sketch the sprites, but ink the backgrounds and colour the CGs. It maintains uniformity amoung the assets while avoiding having people getting stuck on some of the crappier jobs that are less story inclusive. But that's just my take on it. Generally I've worked as the sole artist and haven't ever fully collaborated with other artists. I've only done bits and pieces through the creative lead.