Well, imho he''s paying twice the price for VERY little extra work. Fixing triangulation is going to take a tiny fraction of the time it takes to build the model. That''s if he even has to do it.

A high-poly model isn''t (and shouldn''t be) the same model as the low poly with smoothing applied. In a low-poly, the optimization is for rendering speed, and a great deal of detail is necessarily left off. Belt buckles, ornaments, etc... might be textured on rather than modelled physically. Things such as cloth and hair will have decreased detail. A thousand and one tiny little details are added to a high poly give enhanced visual realism, things which must be left out in the low-poly version. A good high poly model is not going to be merely a smoothed version of the low-poly; it is going to be (or, at least, it had better be) a model with increased physical detail.

On the same token, a low-poly model isn''t (and damned well better not be) merely an algorithmically decimated high-poly model. Mathematic mesh optimization works okay for quick, rough elimination of mesh detail, but the true artist will use it sparingly and perform fine-tuning mesh optimization by hand. Simple changes such as flipping edges to define a muscle better, welding vertices to flatten a rough spot without sacrificing surface detail, knifing edges to accentuate a fold and make it more realistic, shifting a seam to ease the deformation artifacts of vertex skinning and optimize the joint movement--these are the artistic details that require painstaking effort in order to obtain a low-poly mesh that captures the maximum of detail possible for the required face-count and grants smooth, realistic animation with a minimum of artifacts. No mere mesh decimator algo can ever decimate the mesh with the effectiveness of an artist''s eye.

As far as pricing, I can not say. However, both low poly and high poly models require a great deal of effort (painstaking detail for high poly, maximizing detail for low poly) to do well, so the pricing is likely to reflect this. Perhaps you should contact a number of other reputable freelance modellers to do a little comparison shopping.



Golem
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Low poly takes shorter amount of time to make.

Now days people just create the high resolution model, and make the high, moderate, low poly out of that. Especially if you need to generate the normal map, you need that high resolution model.
Obviously really low poly model probably need to be made by hand.

That said high resolution model takes way longer time to make.

However to be fair, does the artist do the original design by himself, or is he just doing the 3D part. If he does the original design by himself, than its his right to charge the same for what ever model you asked of him.

Didn''t know that VertexNormal, thanks for setting me straight.

I agree with VertexNormal there, if all the high poly model is is a smoothed of the low poly... something is wrong.
Same if you simply do the other around.

The best way is to ask the artist what he is doing, and simply keep the points that have been highlighted in this thread when deciding upon a price.
Possibly ask for "two for one" price, depending on the technique used by the artist (''coz in the end, that''s what you want, isnt it ? two models)