I'm in the process of writing a VN because being an independent author is hard, basically.
Looking to have a general sense of how much it's going to cost me to pay an artist (maybe one of you) to do 1920x1080 resolution backgrounds, character vectors with different emotions and reactions, shit like that.
If this is too vague please reply with what exactly you need to know.
Jun '18
Jun '18
Hmmm... well it really depends on the amount of detail required. The amount of hours to complete each one will kind of determine price so you'll be looking at between £60-90 each? In USD that's something like $80-120 or something? If it's SUPER simple it's probably only gonna be about £40 (so like $60 or so)
It really varies between artists but these kinds of prices are what I see in the UK between myself and artists I know. I dunno how artists do it in other countries though.
Characters from me in color would be $65 for half body, $80 for full body, per pose going by my basic charging rates. Then there would be a very small amount charged on top of that per extra face reaction. However these are based on communication eating up a lot of time in one-instance purchases. If I were to be hired for a larger project like a VN, I would probably discuss the project at large with the person and offer package prices on each character set that would be cheaper than separate commissions.
Backgrounds depend on detail level.
Some random examples of my more recent art since most of it's not generally available due to buffer:
It’s likely going to cost you 50-100$ per background, with 20-80$ per sprite.
I realize that’s a pretty big margin, but people charge very differently!
You could probably get a discount for batch-orders though.
Personally I charge 40$ per background, 15$ per sprite (not including expression changes) , but i’m considered cheap!
Comic art is pretty expensive overall. Even if an artist gives you a deal, you're looking at hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to get enough art to complete even a short comic story.
I'm not ignorant on the subject. I've spent hundreds of dollars on single commissions of art before and understand that this is a much larger project with a great deal more work to be done on behalf of the artist.
But I appreciate your input.
Depends on the artist. You will also likely be able to get discounts for batch orders. I'll link a few open commissions posts here from artists I know who are open for business.
You can find artists specialize in VN here, most of them showed their pricelist and examples I think.
https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=6288
I have a general price list here: https://www.deviantart.com/sushy00/journal/June-Commissions-74767933327
For backgrounds I would charge around $52 or more depending on the complexity of the artwork.
but you do not think that your personal opinion about the work is also taken into account? you as an artist know better how to do better and more beautifully
It depends on it you're looking for rights to the artwork or unlimited reproduction as well as the style, how much development is needed, and number of illustrations you're looking for. Obviously a really detailed style will take more time and cost more than a simple one.
Usually for commercial rights if you want to own the artwork and not pay royalties I would charge 5-6 times or more what I would for a personal commission, or around 3 times if I retain the rights and get royalties so it will really depend on the artist. Most of the contracts I've written I've specified usage agreements (eg. you can use this artwork up until X amount of profit then the contract needs to be renegotiated) which keeps the costs for the commissioner down a little.
Creating Visual Novels is awesome! For the artist however there is a lot of work. Before creating comics I use to make visual novels as a hobby using the renpy engine and then moved on to gamemaker studio 2.
Here are some sources you can find useful for making visual novels for a serious project:
My commission page
https://www.yonseo.com/commission/9
Sketchfab
Music:
soundcloud.com/artificial-music
Public Domain music.
Visual Novel Sprites:
When you commission you definitely have to take into consideration about using the work commercially. When you commission art you do not own the rights to the work. Some artists have contracts however I find that selling a separate license is much easier than contracts. There's no back and forth on what you can do with the work, contracts or royalties, etc. You would only need to purchase a license when your project is ready for commercial use.
Personally, I wouldn't do this as a "charge per element" rather, I'd charge minimum wage per hour worked
plus 15% (depending on amount of detail and whether it's colored/toned) and set a deadline, log hours and give you an estimate based on that. From that estimate, I'd take half up front and the other half when the project is complete. If the project is ongoing, you would just pay minimum wage on a bi-weekly/monthly basis but you wouldn't get your assets until money is in pocket. But that's also what that additional 15% covers. In lawyer speak: a retainer fee.
There would be other attachments to it ie:
Am I, the artist, being credited for my work? If not, why not and if you insist, I'd charge $10/hour instead of min. wage.
Escape clause for both parties: If something happens to one of us, we would settle on a %refund or %pay lost.
And since this would be a per hour project as oppose to per element, you will only get the assets that you paid for up until that point, finished or otherwise, nothing more until hourly pay resumes.
Doing this as a per asset thing is way too many numbers the keep track of.
