

Ask HN: How to Find Artists for Mobile Game? - ronyeh

If you are working on an indie game for iOS/Android, where would you go about finding and hiring a graphic artist?<p>I feel like most of the good artists already work for existing game studios. Is there an HN for independent game artists, where I can post a job listing / contract?<p>Thanks!
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alexchu
Odesk isn't a place for quality artists. If you are not confident in your
ability to identify professional artists from amateurs than I would not advice
you to go through odesk.

conceptart.org is a good go to community to concept artists. The community
here generally stride for realistically rendered artworks. However, in the
recent years this website became flooded with more newcomers and students. It
may take you a while to sift them through.

polycount is a good go to community for 3d production artists. There's
actually a good amount on top industry professionals who are active in this
forum.

Deviant art is the largest community by user count. But you're more likely to
find a mix bag of talent here. If you're looking for more anime / stylized
art, this would be a good place to start.

Behance is mostly concentrated with graphic designers / motion graphic
artists. So you can look for UI related talent here.

A source I would recommend is CGHUB (www.cghub.com). It's now the most active
community among industry professionals.

What kind of game are you making. If you provide a little more detail I may be
able to help you pinpoint where to begin looking.

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ronyeh
Thanks!

Still in the (very early) planning stages. I was thinking a board game. I like
the art styles and color palettes of games like Kingdom Rush and Hero Academy.

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NateLipscomb
One good source is Behance (behance.net). A lot of good game artists have
profiles and portfolios on there. You can message them directly or post a job
for applicants.

Odesk (odesk.com) also has game artists, although the quality is all over the
map. You can post a job description and review the portfolios of the artists
that respond to find a good fit. They allow you to do a short "working
interview" project, too, where you have the artist spend an hour or two
creating a piece or two of your game art so you can see how well they will
execute your vision, how they are to work with, how fast they can produce,
etc.

I haven't used twitter to find game artists before, but I'd image if you look
for the right hash tags, you could send out a request for available game
artists and get some responses from available folks.

Good luck.

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ronyeh
Behance looks good. Thanks for the tip!

I'd rather avoid generic contracting/freelance sites, as I feel like the
quality would be "all over the map" as you say.

I'd prefer looking for artist communities, especially if they have forums that
talk about iOS/Android game art.

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NateLipscomb
No problem. Although I think Behance is probably better for your purposes, you
might also want to check out DeviantArt (deviantart.com). It's another pretty
big artist community, although I'm not sure how many game artists are on it.

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phaus
Go to conceptart.org, establish an account, enter the job listings and
employment forum, read the stickies so you know how they want ads structures,
and then post accordingly. There are quite a few amazing artists on that site
looking for a chance to work on a real project. Some of them are amateurs
trying to break into the industry, some are seasoned veterans that have worked
for major game publishers. I'm sure you will find something within your
budget.

Deviant art has some talented artists, but conceptart.org is where most of
it's serious members end up.

There are a few other similar forums, but I can't remember what they are.
Maybe there's some other artists on HN that can name them.

<http://www.conceptart.org>

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ronyeh
Thanks! Awesome site.

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VPrime
Check out <http://www.polycount.com>. Its a community of VERY talented artists
dedicated to game art. Most of the people make 3D models for current/next gen
console games, but there are a bunch that do mobile (both 2D and 3D). Some of
the best artists on the internet that also have experience and passion for
games.

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sakibniaz
I would probably go for odesk. Tried it before, saved a lot of money but
choosing the right person to do the job is critical.

