What do you do when you lose an artist mid-dev?

[Leper]

nevermind, he returned!

[Grey Alien]

haha, sounds like a rock band.

[Leper]

just wondering..

if you do lose someone in the middle of it, what do you do? how do you replace them without messing up the polish?

[Robert Cummings]

Well you hire good artists able to do any style anyway :) I can fit into any target style... a good artist should be able to otherwise what on earth does he think he is?

Thing is, you are the the only consistent thing. Do not leave it up to your artists or leave it too open to interpretation or they will just make anything. As you probably have a few graphics now it is easier for you to give them samples of a style they must adhere to.

Edit: thing is good artists with a broad range of skills charge a bit more.

[Leper]

Well you hire good artists able to do any style anyway :) I can fit into any target style... a good artist should be able to otherwise what on earth does he think he is?

Thing is, you are the the only consistent thing. Do not leave it up to your artists or leave it too open to interpretation or they will just make anything. As you probably have a few graphics now it is easier for you to give them samples of a style they must adhere to.

Edit: thing is good artists with a broad range of skills charge a bit more.


Sounds good. I might have to do that. but I can't afford much because I'm not a business, I'm not a corporation, and I only make aroudn 600 a week minus taxes along with a horde of monthly bills :P I'd also like to add that I think a lot of OKAY artists price themselves out of the market because they think that indie-developers can pay them what a commercial operation can. Just my harmless 0.02 cents.

[Sysiphus]

I can fit into any target style...

me too. You are not alone there. :P

But must point out something. Sometimes the coder wont say you the style to follow ;) ;)

Then it's understood as free interpretation. As I do when is the case. No rules, then artist use his criteria for what he think is the project with info given.

Lol, I do that every minute at my actual job. I adhere to any style,(and kind: be it 3d, 2d, pixel art,drawing..) any guy, any art. And to be true, in this profession, I have seem many guys not able to do so. Mainly as are all about manga (and try to remove em from there) , all about a genre and used only to do those puppets. Not a solid varied complete background. When you have it, no issues. I think good artists have it. Just not much good artists out there.

As you probably have a few graphics now it is easier for you to give them samples of a style they must adhere to.

Totally. Absolutely. And indeed, having the techniques and knowledge, is rather easy. Even easier than think of an style, maybe less rewarding, but done everyday by a pro...

But the problem often is not that. Is that the coder is not -and is not his fault- aware that he have to provide some samples of style. If not done so, is maybe as what he pursuits is variety. Even worse when the artist takes the impression that that is exactly the intention of the developer(variety, fresh mix, etc).

Edit: thing is good artists with a broad range of skills charge a bit more.

Or not. I am quite good (hehehe) and have charged really little in occassions ;) Sometimes even done free stuff. Quite too often, in the past. And I can tell u I have a broad range of skills...I only need to code and make music now...

[Sysiphus]

And related to the original question: The important thing for an artist is not get into a gig that's gonna not worth it. And if he does, finish it allways, and at top quality. Why? Well, professional reasons, too obvious. Of course, if it's a real , real bad deal for him, he'll be loosing lots of money for not using that time for something that pays way better.

That this happen, is easy, as often, even forcing the coder to put all the detail one can think of for the gig, previous to say yes or no...There's allways the kind of project or customer, that will demand more and more over what was asked, or even worse (as the other matter would be stoppable) , that he just didn't know enough bout graphics to know what he was asking for, and the other guy supposed he knew and was not counting on that...

There are several ways to deal with this. I use now not the best for me, but the best in my situation: I just take small tasks that I know by experience I can attack in a certain given time. If the thing grows later, can't grow more than an small amount. But if I were a full time indie, I'd do in another way. (basicly I'd take whatever the project but only if mid to big bucks)