Freelance photographer here, and this happens constantly. As @Scarlet_Cryptid said, exposure doesn’t pay your bills, and you were absolutely right to turn that person down. People don’t understand how much time, effort, and money artists of any kind put into their craft and will stoop to the slimiest methods to try and get good work for crap rates. It may seem counterproductive to say no to someone offering you an opportunity but trust me, people will 1000000% take advantage of that mentality
The worst is when you do make work in good faith with the person, get paid a little, but then they push you for more work later on that's merely speculative with no pay and no exposure in the foreseeable future.
Good point! I think exposure is great but it shouldn't be a bargaining chip for commissioned art.
@Toastbuster You're right. Exposure doesn't pay the bills. My cover art is a side gig for now but if I'm taking time out of my day to hand-drawn a Christmas ornament, for example, to fit the design and color-scheme you want for a cover - I want to be paid for my time!!! If the "big" author is so established, why wouldn't they have already have an artist on hand to do the cover work?
@joannekwan That sounds terrible.
Yeah, it kinda was (this was years ago btw). I stopped talking to that person and I think they got the idea that I wasn't interested in working with them anymore.
I’ve also come to learn that people who aren’t willing to pay for quality work are also extremely unpleasant to work with, so you probably did yourself more favors than you realize by refusing lol
If Disney or Pixar or someone with multi-millions of followers asked, that might be worth thinking over, if you can be sure you get the advertising such platforms are capable of giving.
Why cross out her name? If it was a legit, appropriate, publicly posted offer then I'd think leaving their name on it was fair game.
If Disney or Pixar pulled this on me I would refuse in a heartbeat. You KNOW they can afford to pay for it so if they wanted free work from me I’d feel flat out disrespected 
Just for your safety. R/Choosing Beggars would love you. She could make a complaint or you can get in trouble. Just thinking of your safety. c:
That is entirely true! They WOULD offer to pay, I'm sure. Their lawyers probably insist on it. But if an exposure offer came from someplace THAT big for some weirdo reason, I'd look into it further, because they CAN give you exposure you couldn't even buy.
The only type of exposure they provide is "This artist does stuff for free!" Not something anyone in their right mind would want.
Any company big and professional enough will pay you.....
You are doing something for them, not the other way around.....is fair to ask for payment.
I think that's what I said.
Payment, however, doesn't always have to be cash. E.g., putting my name on movie credits might be worth more to me than cash at some point. Nevertheless, my point was that, in my opinion, if the source has big clout, don't just knee-jerk & say "no". Find out more about what they're offering.
nobody reads the credits......
Being in the credits is a common practice for everyone involved in the project....and that is not the payment, just basic decency.....
Any self respecting artist will walk away if "exposure" is the only promise a company(big or small) has.......
If a firm contacted you to make some type of deal, you need money. Artists have lost the rights to their characters that they've slaved away on because they thought they were going to get more jobs and money.
The only time I'd agree that "exposure" is beneficial would be if the company found my art and reshared it because they thought it looked cool.
Never work for exposure. I teach videogame scriptwriting and one of my first lessons to my students is "Never work for free"
I'm sorry to come down on this here, but this thread keeps popping up as like one of the first threads I see in the Tapas forums. And seeing "give a big firm a second look for exposure" is just making me lose my mind. I am sorry if everything I say comes across as harsh, but like I get the feeling that you think you know more about how the animation/art industry works than you do.
A huge studio should absolutely pay their artists in money. Disney makes millions in revenue. Everything you make while working at Disney, Disney technically owns, even if it's something you create in your own time. My teacher used to work for Pixar (which Disney owns) and he said that people would wait until their contracts expired before even thinking about trying to publish or advertise their own projects (that they wanted to sell). On top of that art is a valuable skill. If you are making art as a professional, working for free just isn't an option. It's exploitative. There's a reason why in Canada unpaid internships were made illegal and other countries are looking at making that policy standard. Someone shouldn't spend years or decades, potentially thousands of dollars going to art school only to be "paid" in a movie credit. That doesn't keep your lights on, or let you buy food.
Do you know how much time, effort and knowledge goes into it? Would you ask a doctor who just got out of med school to preform surgery for free?? I don't think so.
Not only that in the US there is the strong animation union which helps protect workers to prevent people from being exploited like this. Art, video games and animation might be a "dream" job for some people but at the end of the day, it's still a job. This view is toxic, unless you are an absolute hobbyist doing things for fun and don't care about making art your livelihood. The only reason I'm not doing animation work right now is because I have made the choice not to because I enjoy teaching kids art, and don't want to have to suffer through crunch.
My friends who I graduated animation school with who are currently working in the industry and have worked on big titles like Rick and Morty and the new Carmen Sandiego reboot work their behinds off. They deserve every cent of what they're being paid, especially considering how in Canada we have only just gotten an animation union to help fight back against exploitation. Until 2019, Canadian animators weren't allowed to be paid over-time because of a loop-hole in the high-tech sector laws.
Our teachers preached at us "never work for free"! It's not worth it! Your time is honestly better spent improving your skills and working on projects that motivate you and inspire you. You're more likely to make portfolio work that way.
