A year ago, Polycount and CGChat had a game art competition to build a futuristic War General - The Dominance War. One year on, and the sequel is here.

I’ve not decided if I’ll enter yet. Hmm.

Inspired by a thread on Polycount about being an organised artist, I decided to post my tips there and here.

If you have any other suggestions on how I could become more organized and efficient in producing cg work, I would be much obliged.

Some general art tips:

• I use a folder of shortcuts (as posted here before): Windows shortcuts speed up your workflow
• At work I do a lot of rigging/skinning. I’m always dropping animations onto skeletons to test them, and by default 3dsmax looks in it’s own Animation folder. Therefore in that folder I have a shortcut to our exported animation folder on the network - this stops me browsing for it each time.
• I use Alienbrain a lot to prevent me having multiple versions of a file lying around with slightly different names.
• In Photoshop, if I’m using only a few layers, like using a PSD file simply as a container to store a diffuse, spec and normal map for the same object, I’ll have empty layers between each of those, named SPACER and turned off. It helps me separate each section, and prevents me accidentally collapsing them onto each other.
• With a busy PSD, I’ll make use of folders - example: if I have several diffuse textures for the same object with dirt layers, then each of those gets its own folder, jumper1, jumper2. Each of those has sub folders dirt, rips etc.
• Map your photshop filters to hotkeys! FILTERS?!!!!YUCK!!!!11. No, this is really clever. Alt-F5 is Unsharp mask, Alt-F6 is Gaussian Blur, Alt-F7 is Highpass (a VITAL filter)
• Never name a file temp.xxx if you plan on keeping it.
• Likewise, NEVER name a file latest.xxx

A few other computer workflow tips:

• Sort your internet bookmarks into folders, such as Music, Money, Art, Games. Sort these with subfolders where applicable.
• Delete emails as you get them/deal with them, or move them to a folder. At home I usually have 0 emails in my inbox - they are either deleted or stored in folders such as Friends, Holiday, Registration Information. If you do need to find an email later, use your packages SEARCH function.
• Use an RSS reader to get your dose of news. I prefer to use Google Reader, I used to use bloglines. A web based reader allows me to read the same feeds at home or work. I’m subscribed to BBC news, Eurogamer, Lifehacker, Warren Ellis, lots of friends sites, some Polycounters sites, Boing Boing, Penny arcade etc. Like everything else, I’ve organised these into sections - Computing, Art, Friends, Music, News etc.
• Use your feed reader to subscribe to digital photograpy technique sites - thats where you pick up invaluable tips such as colouring grayscale images with duotones and tritone. I learned the orton effect there, which is superb for concept art. I learned that you often get a better sharpen with less artifacts if you do it in LAB mode…

7 or 8 years ago, whilst teaching myself game art, I used to sell ‘Skins’, or character textures. People would pay me to make a personalised character texture for their Quake clan, or for their Unreal server. It was never very much cash, but it bought me a few beers. I still get the odd email asking my to make models/textures for people - for mods or for personal use (people still play quake), but I have no desire whatsoever to make them.

This could end here, but it’d be a short article.

I simply reply stating that a model will cost them £500 if untextured, £750 textured, £1000 to be built, textured and rigged. Texturing an existing model will be around £300. I then link them to various sites where other people will also be able to help them if these prices are not acceptable, and wish them luck.

I’ll be honest - I’m not interested, so I put a value on my time and skills and then I point them somewhere else. Most people are simply looking for some free artwork, and if I’m creating artwork for free, then it’s artwork for me. I already get paid to make art.

A good percentage of the time I never hear from them again, but occasionally I’ll get an incredulous reply along the lines of “WTF!!!111 it are onyl a moddel! LOL! ARE you serious!”

Yes, I am serious. “How can I possibly think to charge that ridiculous amount?” they exclaim?

Simple. Economics. Times * Cost per hour.

Take the time involved, the usually poorly defined brief and hence revisions. How long will that take me? What is a good hourly rate? How much is my time worth to you? Nothing?

The UK minimum wage at the time of writing is £5.35 per hour - that’s what unskilled workers get (and unfortunately in too many places skilled people also earn that). Can an unskilled person make the model and texture that you want? No - that’s why you are looking for someone with skills in that area.

How much does skilled labour cost thee days?

Which? researchers found the typical rate for plumbers is £30-50 for the first hour, £25-40 for subsequent hours. A junior barrister earns £32 per hour for preparing court documents.

I got those results from Google.

As I mentioned, I’ve got a full time job, it pays me well. I really don’t want to spend my free time making artwork for money, I want to spend that time actually enjoying my life, teaching myself to draw, reading, traveling - so you’ll need to compensate me for giving up my free time.

OK, I’ll be generous and say that I’ll charge £25 an hour - this is less than a mechanic and around the lowest end of the plumber scale. I’m not going to stop your house from flooding, or help you get to work on time, but I’m performing a skilled service.

How long will it take? Assuming it’s a fully textured model, I might take 40 hours (in a normal working week one brand new model, UVs and textures is a good workload). You did know how long it takes to make a model, don’t you? Remember also that I’d have to do this evenings and weekends, so I really should be on time and a half. But forget the overtime, I’ll stick with the flat rate of £25 per hour.

That’s £25 per hour over 40 hours - £1000. Of course, I’ll have to pay tax on that (ALWAYS PAY THE TAXMAN), and since it comes in on top of my existing normal salary, that’s a hefty chunk gone.

Am I ripping you off? I don’t think so. You probably think so. Can you get it cheaper? Certainly, you can get it for free if you look around, or follow any of the links that I post at the end.

So you can get it for free, cheap or expensive, but why? Ever seen a hairdressers prices?

Ladies Cut & Finish Senior £39.95 Stylist £29.95 Trainee £19.95

Why is that? Why does the Senior Stylist charge twice as much as the Trainee? Why do some hairdressers advertise for models for free haircuts?

To try and counter the negative comments I’ll get for this, here are some of those places to get yourself some game art. If you’ve read this, hopefully you’ll understand that it is a time consuming service. Even if you go looking for free artwork for yourself or for a mod, perhaps you’ll be more grateful for the work you receive and place more value on it. Unfortunately all too often people seem very willing to be unhappy with anything that they get for free.

Good luck!

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