I paid an Artist to do Pixel Art for my Game!

[@noiJadisCailleach]

As an artist, i thank you for sharing this story and being super professional on going about interacting with your artist. Not a lot of people have the etiquette or mind that the artist on the other side of the world is a human being just like them too. So thank you for that. I wish more people could be like you!

[@sr_eme]

Hi, I'm a Brazilian pixel artist, and I want to tthank you for this video. I really would love it if all my customers should saw this video, to make our work easier and faster, because part of my job is really communication. Try to understand what exactly the client needs or wants. And sometimes I need to ask so many things and details about the project that some clients just gave up... A simple list of assets, as you said, it's just rare... Thank you!

[@truelion-rt6gd]

Are you available?

[@sr_eme]

@@truelion-rt6gd Sory, no! I'm in a long project at the moment :) But if you wanna see my portfolio, I'm EmeDG on Instagram and Behance!

[@Cneq]

Very helpful video and this is one of the main things that has had me hesitant in doing game development on the side. I'm currently completing a Bachelor of IT and not really going into game development [main focus is project management, cloud computing and enterprise systems] but game design on the side as a way to demonstrate programming skill on my resume and maybe get a few onto steam is definitely something I'm curious in and the legal issues when it comes to artists has been the main barrier for me.

[@CypressDahlia]

The guy you worked with seems really cool. I looked at his stuff and he seems to have a very strong skillset. He could definitely charge more for his level of experience but as an artist I am biased in that assessment. Really cool video, too.

[@BuildNRoll]

yes, nice information for graphic artist hiring, thanks.

[@Gary1q2]

awesome video!!! thanks for helping

[@_cul8r_]

Really enjoying your content and following your progress. Good luck! Cheers!! EDIT: Just realized this video is a year old haha. Guess I have some catching up to do...

[@cmds.learning7426]

i like simple 3d model and toon rendering to pixel art style.easy and powerful

[@AvSias]

Thanks, the video is very helpful!

[@ZappyOh]

$16 per sprite, with all rights transfered ... that is a really good deal ! Originally I'm educated as a graphic designer for print, and worked in advertising for many years. I'm happy I no longer have to compete in that business :) Anyway, I think your sprites look interesting, and hope you can make it all come together with a coherent 'feel', which helps immersion tremendously. So, will you take the same route (hiring artists) for music/sound-design, or are you more comfortable doing that yourself?

[@Ombarus]

I've been thinking about it... I feel I could get by with free sound effects from around the internet but it would be nice to have a unique music theme for the game.

[@olafriven3272]

Very useful video, thank you!

[@VivekJamwall]

Hey, Great video, for someone who wants to hire as well as get hired. Amazing insights. I have a questions for you. What was the size of the assets ?

[@Ombarus]

Initially I commissioned about 30 or so sprites without animations at 128x128 pixel resolution.

[@1formy232]

This is so useful.

[@styxrakash4639]

Very useful!

[@ryandsouza8495]

Video idea I payed a kid pixel artist for making art for my game

[@tengentopka727]

Im a artist but im learning programming i want do everything by myeself.

[@TheSairenSA]

Do you have tips for artists that wants to become game programmers?

[@Ombarus]

Just grab a free engine like Unity, Godot or Unreal and follow a few tutorials. There's quite a lot of resources available online to get started. Start with simple stuff, it's not as hard as it looks :).

[@c0mpaq342]

I wouldn't even call it "programming" anymore. Look at Atari 2600 or C64, games were literally "programmed" in assembly. Quake was programmed in C, the engine was created with the game at the same time. You had to understand all sorts of stuff and basically create most of everything from nothing just with the programming language and some all-purpose libraries for sound, video and certain file formats. Now UT4 or Godot its almost like using Photoshop. You need to, occasionally, attach scripts to make sense of what you are puzzling together in the GUI. But the mountain of work is done either automatically by the engine in the background, or just drag and drop and click. That's why even one guy can pull of entire games now in reasonable time. Creating audio, visual art, models and levels from scratch is at least 80% of the work needed for an entire game. So if you are an artist already, its really just fiddling with the engine for a week to get something good going. If you are just a game programmer, it takes years and years of practice to make a decent soundtrack. Or even just to draw a convincing sprite that doesn't look like shit. And you got to have those talents in the cradle. Some people can never learn to make good music. Really, never, because its an art. Programming is not an art, its just a tool.

[@Ombarus]

@@c0mpaq342 Is a photographer not an artist because he uses a tool that does most of the work for him ? Is everyone who takes a picture a professional photographer ? I think that as long as you are writing programs it doesn't matter what tool you use; game maker, kismet or html, you are a programmer. These tools have only allowed people to get into programming more easily and do it as a hobby which is great but it doesn't mean that it stops there. Don't think for a second that a game like hearthstone or city skyline (I believe made in unity) didn't require any advanced programming out of the reach of the average level designer. All engines have limits and a big part of a programmer's job is pushing those limits. You could say that programmers 40 years ago saw assembly and C as a tool just like we see today's platform and they were just trying to push the limit of what each registers can do. I can make a drawing in a few minutes. It might even be good enough to put in a game. But this is only the first step to becoming a professional artist. And it's the same thing for programming. Start by playing around in the pre-made, easy stuff that an engine gives you then slowly learn all you need to become a professional programmer. And whether it's nurture or nature, studies have shown that just THINKING it's nurture can push you much farther than anything else. ( Stuff like this Rosenthal, R., &. Jacobson, L. (1963). Teachers' expectancies: Determinants of pupils' IQ gains. Psychological Reports, 19, 115-118. )

[@SoftBreadSoft]

"Programming isnt art" is probably the most intellectually barren thing I've read on the internet. It is both an art and a science/tool of science. Why interacting with your favorite game feels satisfying and fun is indeed the art of creating game systems.

[@rup7591]

@@c0mpaq342 3 years later, hopefully you have been better educated about this topic. Programming is or isn’t an art is very subjective but it is definitely an engineering skill. But I am leaning more towards programming not being an art. Programming is not a tool rather a skill. Tools in programming can be a language or a library or a framework or even an API. You mentioned Godot and UE4 but I will just talk about UE because Godot in general is coding heavy so I want to give you a chance. You know just to move a character how you want to, you need to do programming in UE4/5 right using CPP or blueprint. Unless you are satisfied with the default movement system. But same can be said about free art assets. I think you are coming from an art background was/ and maybe still is confused about difference between coding and programming. Coding can be a part of programming along with algorithm and DS and constructs. Coding has been reduced in the last few years but programming didn’t. Also a huge respect to artists but you should know a game programmer earn a much more than game artists.

[@analogcaptures2785]

I'm the opposite, I'm decent at art but can't grasp programming.

[@thelonlypanda1]

Im telling you rn, if you practice and subsequently get good at programming you will be a one person dev team. I wish I could be good at art in order to bring my imagination to life more accurately

[@analogcaptures2785]

@@thelonlypanda1 I hope you're right