Working with concept artists: Recruiting

In preproduction, most of my duties revolve around managing concept artists: finding them, negotiating with them, art-directing them, paying them. Over time, I’ve picked up some tricks that I thought I’d share with other animators looking to develop shorts of their own.

Once you have your script finalized (and you really do want to wait until you’re done revising the script before you start on the concept work, otherwise you’re just throwing money away) you’ll need every word of it interpreted in visual form. Every character, every location, every vehicle, prop and piece of furniture needs a design.

Finding character artists isn’t too hard, as many concept artists enjoy doing characters. Environment artists are tougher to find, as environment painting isn’t as glamorous, and tends to be a lot more labor-intensive. But you will need both. (Few artists specialize in vehicles or props; generally your character or environment artists will handle these.)

You’ll eventually need storyboard artists too, but we’ll save them for a later entry.

Finding concept artists

The most effective method for finding concept artists I’ve found so far has been to post help wanted ads on relevant forums. I’ve been able to find most of the people I need using the freelance forum on ConceptArt.org, but there are a number of other job forums out there, depending on the style and genre you’re after:

Once you’ve registered and read the forum rules for posting job listings, you’ll post something like:

The director of Cat Pirates is looking for a character concept artist to design the main and supporting characters for a 5-minute animated short, about cats who plunder the high seas. The style is 3D with a strong claymation influence, especially Aardman Animation.

Please send an e-mail to: catpirates@gmail.com with your rates and availability, and a link to your portfolio.

Within hours, your inbox will start filling up with applicants!

Making the call

Picking the best artist for your project can be daunting. You’ll have a wide assortment of talented people to choose from, and you certainly won’t be able to afford to hire them all. A good rule of thumb: pick the person whose art style matches the look you’re after. If your main influence is Pocoyo, and a candidate’s portfolio is nothing but anime, they’re not going to be able to give you what you need, no matter how talented they are. You’ll either fail to get the desired look, or you’ll waste money trying to steer the artist towards your chosen direction. Most concept artists will insist that they can handle any style, but what’s in their portfolio is a preview of what you’ll be getting from them.

Once you’ve narrowed your list down to a handful of favorites, contact them. Tell them you’re interested, forward them a copy of the script (send an NDA first, if necessary), ask them what they think, and tell them what kind of art you’re looking to commission. That means you’ll need to know exactly what you require. Pencil sketches? Polished full-color renders? Multiple angles? What level of detail? What style? In return, ask them to estimate how long the job would take them, and how much they would charge.

Their responses will help you determine who your best choice is. Things to look for:

  • How quickly did they get back to you?
  • Did they read the script, or just skim it? Did they “get” it?
  • Did they answer all your questions?
  • Are their visual ideas in line with yours?

If a candidate takes forever to get back to you, or can’t seem to give you a firm answer on what their rates are, drop them like a stone. No matter how good their portfolio looks, people who flake out when they’re e-mailing you will flake out when they’re working for you. Professionals work fast, communicate well, and they know how much they charge.