Here's an updated price list for what you should expect from a 3D Commission from me. I'll also explain a bit here for further clarification. If you have any questions, please do feel free to ask on any of my socials or in the comments below~!
Firstly, due to previous turnaround issues, I charge AFTER every 3 hours of work. To demonstrate; you fill out for a commission, I'll start sculpting, then at the end of 3 hours(or if stage completes,) I will require payment before continuing. This will repeat every 3 hours of work. I'm using desktop monitoring software to time things.
No matter what you want the end result to be at, everything starts at Blockout/Sculpting, where we go ahead and define the shape of the model and what it will look like. It starts with basic shapes being stretched, pulled, and inflated to make the defining features of the character in Blockout. After blockout, the shapes are all merged together, and divided to a high resolution to make high-detail sculpts. This process costs $20 per hour, and for an average not too complex character, both these aspects of sculpting are completed in about 10-12 hours, for an average cost of roughly $200-$250.
At this point, your main choice comes into play. It needs to be made before work truly starts, as it does impact later steps.
(Red Arrows)You can have a one-time sculpt, a model that's pretty much useless for anything other than the single pose it's been sculpted into. But it's much cheaper than getting a complete Game/Cinematic asset. Good for things like: 3D printing Minis/figurines, Single headshot rendered images, Or Full-Body character references. Or: (Purple Arrows) You can go the route of getting a complete Game or Cinematic asset. This is a model that can be posed, animated, edited, and imported to anything you want(mostly) with ease. It can be put in Blender, Maya, SFM, or any VR/Social game. You can do it yourself, or if you'd like I could import it as well. The downside however is that it is much more expensive to complete it.
Single Pose Sculpt: This is a further extension of Blockout/Sculpting. It skips all the steps for an Asset and lumps them all together to make a model locked to a single pose. You can have a Bust(Chest, head, any you like.) or a full-body reference. The estimates shown in the image are INCLUDING the estimate for Block/Sculpting.
Game/Cinematic Asset Continued: Retopology: If you choose to have A game ready asset instead of a single pose sculpt, after blockout is complete, then I move to Retopology. This is the phase where I take the sculpted model that has several MILLION polygons and then piece together loops to make a much more optimized and functional model that can be used. After that, it goes back to sculpting for High-Detail sculpting the High-poly texture mesh(Used in next step).
UV Layout/Texture Painting: This is the step where the model is cut and flattened into a 2D plane that can have color applied to it. It's also where the high-poly mesh can be baked into a 2D Height/Normal map to add the sculpted details without impacting our Polycount or performance.
Rigging: This is where a skeleton is formed for the model. The armature is built inside the model, and parts of the model are assigned to each of bones. This is a process called weight painting. After the skeleton has been assigned to the mesh, a process called "blend shapes" or "viseme" sculpting begins, where parts of the model are modified to be controlled by a slider, namely things for expressions and the like. This is the BARE MINIMUM for a skeleton, and the process takes roughly 5 Hours AT LEAST. This minimum is only recommended for people who will make a model that is only meant to be posed for still pictures or used as a drawing reference.
If the model is meant to be used for Animation, Games, or anything else where it is meant to move, it is STRONGLY recommended that Controls are added. Rigging controls(Like those pictured,) are little shapes that aren't rendered or exported into the game/video, but are used to actually make the animation itself. This process(Henceforth referred to as Control Rigging,) is a much more lengthy process, and is infinitely extendable to however many controls you want to add. It is also worth mentioning that Control Rigs do NOT Transfer between programs. So if you plan to animate in Blender and Maya, you will need to make two different control rigs. The skeleton itself will, but the controls will not.
The process of Rigging(Both basic bones and control rigging,) can take an indefinite amount of time, so it is important to have a good idea of what you want your model to be able to do. I'm more than happy to help you think of everything you would want, and have a method of preproduction to assist this process that you will be part of at beginning of commission.
I know it's a lot, but if you've read through, thanks for reading! And again, if you have any questions, please do feel free to ask on any of my socials or in the comments below~!
