What is a standard pixel rate for art?

Artists usually charge by the hour, rather than the project. And it depends on the artist.

If you were more specific about the quality and experience of the artist, someone might give a better range.

I'm gonna move this to Visual Arts, you'll probably get a better response there.

First you need concept art, which will range from 10 - 60$ per character
Then, assuming you're doing basic sprites (RPG or platformer type- not fighter) you'll be able to get the first done for $20 - $40, and edits (for different frames and stances) for 1$ - 20$ per frame.

A standard sidescroller (all of the art for the whole game) like, say, Sonic, would run you somewhere in the range of $5,000 (we're talking concept art, a few dozen enemies, animations, a few levels of tiles)- that's if you're pretty lucky.

An RPG usually has more areas and characters, but something like, say, final fantasy 6 (the game only, not cut scenes) would probably run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 if you got pretty lucky.

Now, crappy graphics are another matter- divide those numbers by 10 if you aren't looking for quality- $500 and $2,000 respectively... if you really want stick figures and flood filled stuff, you can divide it by ten again... but nobody's going to want to look at that.

As you can see, it varies a great deal by quality- I don't charge less than 20$ an hour for my services, but you need somebody good for decent quality. Not that I have time, I'm busy right now... though if you want, shoot me an e-mail with exactly what you need an I'll give you a quote for reference. Send me links to other game graphics for what kind of style you want, and as quality references (very important), then tell me how many sprites, what size, what kinds, and what sorts of animations (including how many frames) they need to be. I also need to know what sorts of environments, battle engine, etc.

I'll do my best to ball park it for you so you aren't flying blind.

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Original post by BioMors First you need concept art, which will range from 10 - 60$ per character Then, assuming you're doing basic sprites (RPG or platformer type- not fighter) you'll be able to get the first done for $20 - $40, and edits (for different frames and stances) for 1$ - 20$ per frame. A standard sidescroller (all of the art for the whole game) like, say, Sonic, would run you somewhere in the range of $5,000 (we're talking concept art, a few dozen enemies, animations, a few levels of tiles)- that's if you're pretty lucky. An RPG usually has more areas and characters, but something like, say, final fantasy 6 (the game only, not cut scenes) would probably run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 if you got pretty lucky. Now, crappy graphics are another matter- divide those numbers by 10 if you aren't looking for quality- $500 and $2,000 respectively... if you really want stick figures and flood filled stuff, you can divide it by ten again... but nobody's going to want to look at that. As you can see, it varies a great deal by quality- I don't charge less than 20$ an hour for my services, but you need somebody good for decent quality. Not that I have time, I'm busy right now... though if you want, shoot me an e-mail with exactly what you need an I'll give you a quote for reference. Send me links to other game graphics for what kind of style you want, and as quality references (very important), then tell me how many sprites, what size, what kinds, and what sorts of animations (including how many frames) they need to be. I also need to know what sorts of environments, battle engine, etc. I'll do my best to ball park it for you so you aren't flying blind.

I'd like to add onto your post BioMors - this is an independent free-lance professional rate. If you are looking for top-top quality that you see in published games you will have to shell out big bucks. We are talking $50+/hr.

If you just want art for an indie game or a hobby game you can probably find rates under $25/hr. So first you need to analyze what your expectations of the game/product are, then you can figure out the investment needed. If you plan to make millions, expect to pay thousands, if you plan to make a few thousand, expect to be a few hundred. You have to spend money to make money though from a management perspective.

There is also the option of outsourcing work. However, due to ethical and business reasons I am highly against this practice, althought some people are not. You can get work very cheap from India/China/Eastern Euro countries if you look in the right places. If you find english speaking people you can get a great deal for decent quality work.

My company will do art services ranging from $20-$50/hr depending on the work you have. You will get professional quality artwork in a quick turn around time though. Please click the link in my profile for more info.

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Original post by wyled I'd like to add onto your post BioMors - this is an independent free-lance professional rate. If you are looking for top-top quality that you see in published games you will have to shell out big bucks. We are talking $50+/hr. ... My company will do art services ranging from $20-$50/hr depending on the work you have. You will get professional quality artwork in a quick turn around time though. Please click the link in my profile for more info.

$50+ an hour, now *That* I would work for. You make me feel cheap man.

My stipulation for $20 an hour is that it has to be fun, and I have to have a reasonable amount of freedom with what I'm working on. When it gets down to the tedious grind, which of course you know is most of the art, I can't be motivated by chump change (like really high frame rate animations that require drawings done over and over again- the kind of stuff that makes you feel like your brain is melting)- ugh, you'd have to pay me at least 20k to consider doing a fighting game.

I should charge more... but then again, could I still sleep until noon and work from home if I did? Probably not...

As a matter of curiosity, what kind of salaries do you guys at glass hat give your employees, and what kind of hours do you slave them away for each week? I really need to have a more reliable income pretty soon.

Based on salaries and rates of myself and many aquaintences in the business, I'd say a good median rate for professional quality pixel art is about $30/hr. I've seen salaried positions ranging from about $45K-$60K, but I've honestly never seen higher than that. I've personally never seen anyone ask as high as $50/hr, but if it was on a short-term, high-profile contract, it's possible...

I don't really think that extensive concept art is necessary when you're dealing with pixel art, though...especially for low-res work, it's usually quicker to just create concept sprites and game mockups, rather than work fully rendered drawings ahead of time.

So when it comes down to it, how does pixel art compare to moderately competant 3D modelling pre-rendered and displayed as sprites? The impression I get (as someone who has only minorly dabbled in both realms) is that models have a large initial investment (creating the model, skeleton, textures, lighting) but creating new frames is easy, while pixel art is more or less a constant cost per frame (i.e. relatively little can be re-used from one frame to another; maybe you can keep, say, the head in a walking animation, but the rest will be changing).

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Original post by Derakon So when it comes down to it, how does pixel art compare to moderately competant 3D modelling pre-rendered and displayed as sprites? The impression I get (as someone who has only minorly dabbled in both realms) is that models have a large initial investment (creating the model, skeleton, textures, lighting) but creating new frames is easy, while pixel art is more or less a constant cost per frame (i.e. relatively little can be re-used from one frame to another; maybe you can keep, say, the head in a walking animation, but the rest will be changing).

rendering a 3d image to a small sprite can give you a lot of heartache, where an artist knows when to selectivley outline an aera, a 3D rendering will not, where an artist knows he needs to embellish a detail a 3d rendering will not.