prabhatM (10/2/2014)
Very nice.
What is the typical time and cost estimate for a character like this ?
And for historical / mythological characters ( Prince and Princess ) ?
I hope there will not be any litigation with the commissioning client for copyright in future?I can only speak for myself when it comes to pricing and time estimates. Marketing Gal was done on a budget of $650. And took approx. 42hr to create. (Those 42 hrs were spread across roughly 12 working days.) Marketing Guy was also done with a budget of $650 but the timescale was closer to 30hrs. I managed to do some improvements to my proprietary tool (Puppet Producer) which allowed me to increase production speed even more and also make more accurate rigging. So he is actually more advance than she is, in terms of range of motion and ability to move before wacky artifact starts to happen.
Given the state of my own proprietary tool, (Puppet Producer) I can realistically create something like this now in about 24-36 hours. With the majority of the work taking place on the creative side, not so much on the technical stuff.
BIG DISCLAIMER, just because this character was done on that budget doesn't necessarily imply that that is my "rate". My rates are dependent on various elements, including supply/demand, complexity, my availability, who gets copyrights, and whether or not I've had my coffee that morning
so best way to get a quote is to have a chat with me and and get an official quote specific to YOUR project. It’s also doesn’t mean that’s what’s someone else’s rate would be. There is only a handful of people who can probably do it for that low or within that timeframe.
The big thing to keep in mind is that this practice of creating custom CTA characters from scratch commercially so incredibly new there's really is no such thing as a standard way of doing it. I think my method is probably the most efficient, but as far as I know I'm also probably one of the only people that's actually making a living from it at this time.
It's a touchy subject because on one hand, the original way of creating these characters involves an insane amount of work (100+ hours), but the primary CTA customer base itself are folks on microbudgets. So, given the amount of work that is typically required, realistically only bigger studios should be able to afford custom characters like that. So most people who are taking the time to learn how to do it, are doing it because 1. they don't have the budget to hire someone else and 2.they are doing it because their own work requires it. So they are willing to learn for that purpose alone. They are not crazy enough to try and make a living from it just yet.
I mean think about it. Say I charge $650 for a character but it takes 100 hours to complete. For typical CTA user that is already way too high of a price. But for the developer working under such conditions, that equals to $6.50/hr!
If it was about the money, they'd be better off off working at McDonalds for minimum wage. They would get paid more and the work would be easier. So people who are doing it, are putting up with the cause the time they spend on building their own characters is an investment in their own work. But most people won’t give that type of effort on someone else's project. Just hasn't been feasible.
Anyhee, I'm rambling. There's several very talented people here that have shown they can create good character's from scratch relatively fast. One of my favorites is Shadowcross, even before he started using Puppet Producer he demonstrated that he could build high quality stuff the old fashioned way relatively quickly, and with high accuracy. Though I'm not sure if he does commissioned work. Think he's focused on creating for himself primarily.
Gary Pye is a really talented artist also, and he's the only 3rd party guy that I seen put a G2 character on the market place so far, not sure if he does commissioned work either. Think he’s enjoying his recurring revenue market sales too much to mess around with pesky one off commissions.
Anyway, there's a lot to be considered when pricing something like this, but for me the two biggest things are:
1. will the character need to be designed from scratch? Sometimes a client will already have their designs done and all i have to do is adapt their designs to work within the context of a G2 model. Sometimes I have to design the model from scratch, such as in the case of the Marketing Gal. In the case where the client already own his characters I have to price it accordingly. But in the case when I'm designing the character, then I also have leeway on working with the client on pricing if he would allow me to retain the copyrights. Some clients just need a custom character for their project, don't have a full budget so I work with them to give them what they want and need at a reduced rate. They get what they need at the time but since i retain copyright, I have the opportunity of maybe reselling the character or creating derivative work in order to make my money back.
Take for example Billy. Billy was a commissioned character. I worked with the client to provide a character based on what he needed for his project. The character was created to meet all his needs from head to toe, but it was created at a substantially reduced rate with the understanding that I would maintain ownership of the character once completed. Basically I liked his idea so I "invested in it". This allowed him to get the character he needed for his project at a budget that was feasible for him, but also allows me to make my money back (hopefully) whether it's through selling him via the marketplace or using him to create derivative works from etc.
2. The complexity of the character is also a factor. CTA characters have certain limitations and depending on the features the client absolutely needs I may have to work extra hard or find workarounds to make it happen. Such as delivering a character that has long flowing hair when CTA doesn't necessarily support characters with long flowing hair. Some characters are simpler than others, for example, this kid...
His eyes are very basic, so i didn't have to do the full eye articulations, also doesn't have a nose, and the mouths are very minimal. The hands are also very minimal. There was no hair to worry about, the antlers were part of his facial sprite. Fairly easy overall. Also the character design itself was already done by the client (Patrick Loeher), all I had to do was adapt it to work as a g2 model. So the Antler boy model was a lot cheaper to produce than Marketing Gal.
In terms of litigation from a client that commissioned a work. i don't see why that would be an issue. My approach is simple. I tend to create every character from scratch and never build a client’s character on top of a previous clients character. Even when they come to me with a request for multiple characters I typically make each of those characters from scratch.
This may change later as I build my own library of base characters that are my own. At which time i may be able to create characters at even cheaper rates… Say for example someone wants a character built based on the Billy base model (which i own). But for the time being every character I build, is built from scratch and is original.
Like I said, If a character is 100% my own design then I'm able to offer my clients a reduced rate for the work as long as I retain copyrights to the finished product.Or they can get the character will full ownership which is almost always the case.
In the case of Marketing Gal and Marketing Guy, those are 100% owned by the client. So you will not be seeing me put out any derivative characters based on those models. Nor will you see them in the marketplace unless the client himself chooses to do so. He's got big plans for them though, from what I understand he will be using them to generate characters for use in marketing videos. And if a new clients wants something similar, I can do it, but i can guarantee it will be built from scratch and not derived from a previously built template.
Ibis Fernandez | (available for hire)
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Professional Animator, Filmmaker | Creator of the highest quality (modular) G2 rigs for cartoon animator and developer of Toon Titan and Puppet Producer
Author of Flash Animation and Cartooning: A Creative Guide
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