I'm trying to tame the unknown in terms of resource allocation for art and thought I'd ask your opinion on productivity: At what level of competency would you judge an artist who knows how to model and skin a 1000 to 1500 polygon human character? Would you say this is beginner to intermediate, intermediate or above? (Is this even enough info to make a decent judgement?) How many hours would it take to build such a character, taking into consideration that its a relatively generic male or female and thus doesn't require a large amount of character design (but with the caveat that clothing design might be a factor)? Next question: Imbedding a skeleton in this mesh and animating it through some of the following animations:

• Walking, Running, Stair Climbing, Ladder Climbing
• Generic Punching, Kicking, Blocking
• Sit down in chair, lie down in bed
• Stagger forward and collapse, trip and fall to knees and one hand
• Mantle up onto edge of surface, hang from edge of surface
• Flatten against wall, jump out, shoot and return to position
• Crawl while prone, walk while looking sneaky
• Be blown backwards and collapse against wall and floor in L shape
• Multiple move melee strike such as overhand strike with sword, jab and spin attack

Finally, how evil is it to perform two-character animations when the two characters are the same, such as:

• Shake hands, hug
• Carry body over shoulder
• Sneak up behind character, attack head, and let body slowly slump
• Grapple or restrain character

I know this will vary by skill level. If you like, tell me how long it would take you (and what your going rate is [grin]).

Quote: At what level of competency would you judge an artist who knows how to model and skin a 1000 to 1500 polygon human character? Would you say this is beginner to intermediate, intermediate or above? (Is this even enough info to make a decent judgement?)

That depends a lot of the quality of the models and skins of course. However, it doesnt take much to model a character with such low polycount, as you only need to get the proportions right but can't do much anatomy. Therefore i wouldn't hire 'him' to do higher polycount models until i see he has more knowledge and skills than 1000polygons can show.
Generally i'd classify a standard human model with 1000 polygons as easy and dont give it much credit, unless the model oozes with style.
The skin is a different issue as its quality doesnt have much to do with the polycount of model, i'd rate a skin for a 1000poly model at the same level as one for a 4000poly model.

Quote: How many hours would it take to build such a character, taking into consideration that its a relatively generic male or female and thus doesn't require a large amount of character design (but with the caveat that clothing design might be a factor)?

1000-1500 generic human... about 1 day for the model and UV and 1 day for the skin, given that there is a solid idea/concept.

i dont animate so i cant help there but reusing bones and animations is actually a very good thing. Being able to build distinctive characters that can still use the same bone setup and share animations is very valuable. Safes a lot of work.

That's a lot of animation. Competency level is obviously very subjective... but around here, I'd call it "very high." :P

Hm. Myself, I'd say at least a day (i.e., eight hours) per group, with a decent rig. More for anything involving two characters, which is indeed evil. Of course, a lot of the evilness is on the coding end -- you've got to somehow make sure these characters are going to line up for their interaction.

Speaking of which, you're also leaving out some transitional stuff. Drawing weapons, getting up from a prone position, climbing onto a surface at the top of a ladder, picking up the character to carry them, etc. etc.

Very rough estimate: 200+ hours for all of the animation. If I had more time to spare -- or if you weren't doing low-poly, which I personally dislike -- I'd be interested. It's a cool idea.

Heheh, wow. A lot of that I'm sure depends on the background an individual has. If they have a degree at a professional school in digital animation, they should be able to do all that. So, if you consider someone fresh out of professional art school as intermediate, then an intermediate level.

I know that most freelance digital animators I've met and have looked at easily charge somewhere between $200 and $300 an hour, but thats for fully rendered video. I'm not sure what the going freelance rate is for low poly modelling. These are the types of people who could probably whip up something the fastest, but they'll also be really expensive.

I agree with StrangeFate, the character model should be fairly easy if its low poly. Won't be hard to find someone to do that in these forums. The animations, however, are going to take quite a chunk of time, I would guess. You could probably find a beginner who will do it for less (or even free) for the experience, but for someone at that level it would take a good few months to create all those animations and have them perfected (My first run sequence took 3 weeks for me to perfect).

My actual suggestion would be to not look for someone to hire but for someone to work as a partner. I really think thats what these forums are most conducive for. Find a really great artist that's looking for a really great programmer to work with... and you are set.

I'd inquire with you further, but I already have my programming life partner. ;p