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So I am about to enter into a contract with a up-and-coming gaming company as a character designer and I'm having trouble figuring out what a month of freelance work is worth. More detail: I'm going to be drawing, inking, and coloring in Illustrator and Photoshop 6 characters in 3 different poses (each) with multiple color variations. I will also be doing 90x90 avatar pictures for those characters (also in color), as well as multiple exploratory design iterations. Basically, it's going to be a full-time month of work and research, as I intend on including 2 minor revisions for each character (color changing, minor detail alteration) in my contract, as well as multiple expression sketches and ideas for design variations (which would be developed further only through another contract). I was thinking of charging the following for an exclusive month of work: $12,000, broken up into 3 phases (up-front payment, middle of the contract payment, post-contract payment). This contract would also grant an exclusive two-year license to my characters, but would allow me a limited license to show the work on my own portfolio site during that time. I fully expect that the company will try to negotiate me down to $10,000 (or lower) and will try to get the rights to the characters. These characters will be the face of their children's offering. According to its site the gaming company is looking to raise $500,000 in venture capital and has already raised $10,000. Basically, I feel that my original estimate is taking into account the importance of the designs and the amount of time and "thought work" that the project will require. However, the fellow that contacted me has already jokingly asked for a "fun discount". I gently let him know that that is not how it works. The only problem: I already created two sketches of the characters on spec and sent over JPEGs to show them "samples" of my work. I feel like this puts me in a weaker position. Also, is the estimate I shared too much or too little? I do UX design mostly, so I have no idea about character design estimates.
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Jun 18, 2015 15:00
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 16:20 |
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kedo posted:I know nothing about character design, but spec is bad. Especially if you don't know the company and they're trying to lowball you. Legally they probably couldn't go and use your designs without opening themselves up to potential litigation, but then again, you'd actually have to sue them if they used the characters which takes time and money and isn't a sure thing. So it's probably okay. Thankfully, I have a direct email trail, so I'm not too worried about winning in a courtroom fight.
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Jun 18, 2015 17:48
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Realistically, I'm thinking it will be closer to $10K. I just want to start high and go low. The licensing deal doesn't seem realistic in retrospect, yeah.
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Jun 18, 2015 23:48
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Unfortunately, this one is moot; the client said they couldn't afford one quarter of my asking price. I have to eat and I'm not going to waste time on this extensive a project.
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Jun 21, 2015 13:14
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