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[Melaniipon]

It's not unusual for indie devs to outsource things they cannot do.

My team and I have been thinking of hiring a pixel artist at some point. We'd like to make a budget, but how do we estimate costs for such a thing? Should I hit up pixel artists and ask their rates then make an estimate?

(If I can hit up pixel artists to ask them - can I post that question in their porfolios here?)

[Cobralad]

you cant ask about individual person estimates publickly.

[mpixel]

Nobody is going to reveal their prices publicly and its unprofessional to ask. Do it over email after providing details about your job specifically.

Artists usually give a quote based on the actual job and prices vary. Don't lie about your budget to them either, that's helpful information for the artist to gauge how much 'detail' they would be able to put into their art.

The more you pay, the longer they can spend adding quality.

If you need a ballpark on prices there are a ton of articles on the price of art, take in account for inflation if its an old article and don't hold onto the number for an exact number, every artist has their own price.

[dspencer]

Nobody is going to reveal their prices publicly and its unprofessional to ask.

That seems crazy to me. If youre thinking about paying someone to do a thing how is it unprofessional to ask how much they charge??

[mpixel]

Nobody is going to reveal their prices publicly and its unprofessional to ask.

That seems crazy to me. If youre thinking about paying someone to do a thing how is it unprofessional to ask how much they charge??

[Keops]

you cant ask about individual person estimates publickly.

Why not? I don't get it. Maybe if you elaborate I'd understand. There are hourly rates, flat fees and everything in between (maybe some artist will work for Twinkies or Funnyuns), so I don't understand why you can't ask for that information.

[Cobralad]

Nobody is going to reveal their prices publicly and its unprofessional to ask.

That seems crazy to me. If youre thinking about paying someone to do a thing how is it unprofessional to ask how much they charge??

Dont do it on a public forum or individual artist portfolio.

[dspencer]

Nobody is going to reveal their prices publicly and its unprofessional to ask.

That seems crazy to me. If youre thinking about paying someone to do a thing how is it unprofessional to ask how much they charge??

Why? Everyone I know who freelances *has* a rate, what's wrong with asking for that publicly?

[eliasfrost]

It's about professional ethics and competition.

If you want to know rates of artists, best to ask them privately.

[Melaniipon]

I've started emailing some actually. I figured that was better than just messaging them here.

Oh man, the expenses! Reporting my findings shall be fun.

(TBH if I could just make my depression & adhd go away, then I'd be able to do it all myself since I have free time. Though, then I'd have a job and my time would be gone. D:)

[zizulot]

Best thing for that is fiver or other freelancing sites , it could get a lot of cheeper because of competition, some new up and coming artist doing it cheap because of competitivnes

[PetSkull]

I've had an unusual experience with a potential artist. I wrote a letter explaining my project and requested a quote on the estimated price for graphics. Never heard back. But later I saw the following tweets on the artists twitter account:

"literally have 7 people asking for estimates on giant asset lists & none of them are even in the hiring stage yet."

"i understand wanting an estimate for work before u hire someone, but please understand estimates take TIME & we don't get paid for that time"

For me a somewhat arrogant attitude against potential customers.

So it can be a problem actually getting a price quote... 

[Cobralad]

its actually pretty stresful to get estimates and it also depends on artist enthusiasm, so people dont like to do that for randos who may dump them.
i had many experiences when people add me as friend, after several days ask "how much" and then dissapear without any explanation.
many artist get nagged by shitty HRs constantly and frequently get dumped during negotiation stage, potentially losing other opportunities because they were busy aplying for that job.

[Mollrow]

I've had an unusual experience with a potential artist. I wrote a letter explaining my project and requested a quote on the estimated price for graphics. Never heard back. But later I saw the following tweets on the artists twitter account:

"literally have 7 people asking for estimates on giant asset lists & none of them are even in the hiring stage yet."

"i understand wanting an estimate for work before u hire someone, but please understand estimates take TIME & we don't get paid for that time"

For me a somewhat arrogant attitude against potential customers.

So it can be a problem actually getting a price quote... 

There's really nothing arrogant about this. Estimates take time and that amount of time changes per project.

If you want to get the work done and get a solid estimate, first ask what it would cost to get a quote, without describing the work you need done in exact detail. The risk for the artist is they put in hours of work learning about your project and what it'd take to do the actual work, get you an estimate, and only then find out that you aren't willing to pay that much. So the question isn't "how much is it to do *all my asset descriptions*?" but rather "I'd like to hire you to work on *this thing* what's your rate for a quote?"

[swonqi]

This fantastic guide by Cyangmou might help you. Especially the 'How to Calculate Animation Costs' part.