Hello guys!

First and foremost, this is my first-ever post here, so I am really looking forward to warm welcome ?

After almost 12 years of web and desktop, I would like to slowly move to indy video game development.

And while I am quite good at programming itself, the video game art is a complex topic for me and googling for the answers actually left me with more questions than answers.

Hopefully, this forum is the right place to look for my answers.
My first one would be...

What are the average costs of drawing 2D sprites?

I found this article, which takes "Skull Girls" as an example (my game won't be anything close to that though), where they state that when done by a "decent" artist (sounds good enough for me) 500-frame character would cost 1000-5000$. Do actual 2D prices fall within this range? Would that mean that (let's say) a 50 frame character would cost 10x less?

In terms of quality, style and fluidity, I am looking into something similar to recent "Hustle Castle" (but on PC). Here is some sample.

I have designed the game and its logic and now I am moving to the development phase. However, since I am not the one who will handle the graphics and the animations (I will outsource them), the number of characters is limited strictly to my budget.

I am grateful for any links/comments/opinion/advise that you guys can share. I still have a long way ago, but it's better to start acting now

Hey! 

It’s tricky getting an affordable artist for a project, my personal recommendation would be to visit Deviantart and reach out to some of the artists that match your design spec. The only problem is that it can become a little time consuming.

Alternatively, you can try https://www.artstation.com/ I have not used myself but I heard its a popular website for artists. 

Welcome to the forums.

Prices are really going to range depending on who you hire (their skill set), what country they're from if you're not hiring local, the style of art, and what is required animation wise (more complex animations will cost much more), ect...

I've personally paid around $200-$350 per single image in the past. The second you ask for animations the price will jump from there. I've heard about people paying under $50 per image too, but again it depends on who they hired, and what they're expecting. Some people will work for much cheaper than others, but you have to factor in quality as well.

People can attempt to give you a generalized rate, but I'm honestly going to tell you I don't know of any 'standard' pricing put in place for 2D art because I've seen a wide variance. The best thing you can do is figure out what you want, and post a bid and see what artists are willing to do and for what cost. This will serve you much better than looking for a ball park figure that could be highly under estimated or well over what you could find at the quality you need.

Best of luck!

2 hours ago, xkvlad said:

Hey! 

It’s tricky getting an affordable artist for a project, my personal recommendation would be to visit Deviantart and reach out to some of the artists that match your design spec. The only problem is that it can become a little time consuming.

 

Alternatively, you can try https://www.artstation.com/ I have not used myself but I heard its a popular website for artists. 

Thanks for the reply! Well, with internet it is not difficult to find an artist out there. Actually, a lot of guys on devinart and artstation are talented beyond limits. Main question would still be the cost

1 hour ago, Rutin said:

Welcome to the forums.

Prices are really going to range depending on who you hire (their skill set), what country they're from if you're not hiring local, the style of art, and what is required animation wise (more complex animations will cost much more), ect...

I've personally paid around $200-$350 per single image in the past. The second you ask for animations the price will jump from there. I've heard about people paying under $50 per image too, but again it depends on who they hired, and what they're expecting. Some people will work for much cheaper than others, but you have to factor in quality as well.

People can attempt to give you a generalized rate, but I'm honestly going to tell you I don't know of any 'standard' pricing put in place for 2D art because I've seen a wide variance. The best thing you can do is figure out what you want, and post a bid and see what artists are willing to do and for what cost. This will serve you much better than looking for a ball park figure that could be highly under estimated or well over what you could find at the quality you need.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply! So far, I paid around 100$ for a character concept art (not an actual sprite, just the way the character looks, colors, etc). But the character would look different in the actual game and I not every artist understands animation and keyframes from what I know.

So, when you say you had paid 350$ for a single sprite - do you mean that if idle animation has around 5 frames, it would 5x the cost?

1 hour ago, Volts Pots said:

Thanks for the reply! So far, I paid around 100$ for a character concept art (not an actual sprite, just the way the character looks, colors, etc). But the character would look different in the actual game and I not every artist understands animation and keyframes from what I know.

So, when you say you had paid 350$ for a single sprite - do you mean that if idle animation has around 5 frames, it would 5x the cost?

I had a project which had static pose and a few variations which were under 10 frames each, but was around $800 all said and done; Something I needed for a mobile app at the time. I don't pay by frame, I pay for the end result that I want. Once I tell the artist what I need, they tell me their quote and I either negotiate, accept it, or move on. I honestly have no time to nit pick rates per frame, and every little detail. If they choose to break it down on their invoicing then so be it, but I don't even look or care.

I would suggest that you post your service request for bids. There is no other way to gage what you'll be charged. Just make sure you consider the portfolios for each bidder. Hypotheticals wont matter because the variance in prices for art is very wide spread.

1 minute ago, Rutin said:

I had a project which had static pose and a few variations which were under 10 frames each, but was around $800 all said and done; Something I needed for a mobile app at the time. I don't pay by frame, I pay for the end result that I want. Once I tell the artist what I need, they tell me their quote and I either negotiate, accept it, or move on. I honestly have no time to nit pick rates per frame, and every little detail. If they chose to break it down on their invoicing then so be it, but I don't even look or care.

I would suggest that you post your service request for bids. There is no other way to gage what you'll be charged. Just make sure you consider the portfolios for each bidder. Hypotheticals wont matter because the variance in prices for art is very wide spreed.

Correct, will do