Are you starting a project that requires hiring a 3D modeler for a time, or are you in need of extra hands at your growing 3D design business but aren’t ready for the stress of recruiting full-time staff? Then your best bet for top-quality service from a skilled expert at a lower cost is to outsource. Outsourcing can be beneficial to your business.
You can offload your workload and shift specific responsibilities to an outsourced person or organization, which consequentially helps you concentrate much better and strengthen your core business processes.
The process of outsourcing itself has gotten broader in the last decade as it shoots up in popularity and acceptability. In this article, our focus will be on hiring adept freelancers or experts who are self-operating and are requested to work on specific assignments for as many different companies as possible.
Finding a skilled freelance CG talent can be a game-changing factor for you or your company. A CG artist is vital to your 3D design project. You should hire someone who can fashion out high-quality imagery just as you picture them.
Hiring a 3D modeling freelancer for your 3D design? Here are 10 tips to help you locate the best person for the job.
- Go for skill-based marketplaces/platforms
If you’re looking to hire the best freelance CG talent for your 3D design, you should maximize the power of technology and the flexibility of the internet. You could go hunting through any of the online freelance marketplaces and find exceptional artists just as you require.
You should also use the search option, which will help streamline candidates, according to tags with respect to your choice of inputted words. Some platforms even go as far as helping you with pop-up recommendations of top talents on their site suited to your search.
As easy as that may sound, it’s complicated compared to leveraging skill-based platforms. These particular marketplaces are a congregation of individuals with shared professional interests and are entirely populated with the types of freelancers you seek. For CG design platforms that are home to CAD service companies each member is required to be able to work on a specific 3D rendering engine and modeling program and are also pre-screened before they are brought into the team. Hiring from such a marketplace is more secure and takes the guessing game away from your search.
- Do a review of previous jobs
Hiring a freelance CG artist is no different from the recruitment and selection of a potential employee for a job. It’s wise to carefully analyze your options and do a thorough overview of what’s available to you. Just because they portray a series of well-designed rendered photos on their profile doesn’t necessarily mean they will mesh well with your company. It is ideal that you evaluate the freelance CG artist as you would any full-time employee.
Evaluating in this light implies that you critique their work thoroughly, reviewing their portfolios and appraising their samples. You’ll need to pay attention not only to how the images look but also to the depth of information on display. Some designers are great with exterior designs, and others, interior.
This process could involve audiovisual discussion through mediums like Skype (though not compulsory). You will be able to identify any hurdles ahead and develop a good working relationship much before the work commences.
- Know their style and taste
Designers are humans and have their preferences, styles, and tastes. It could be in color, method of design, or the way they carry out rendering assignments. This is a factor many push to the back when considering hiring a CG artist, but its importance can’t be sidelined. The taste and style of a designer may suit your project requirements.
For a great designer, good taste will be to keep things simple and not overuse any design content or concept. Good taste helps the freelance CG artist to make the best designs possible.
So, when you go through the work samples provided by the potential 3D designer or are browsing through their portfolios, another essential factor to pay attention to is aesthetic. This tells you three things about an artist: their passion, strengths, and weaknesses.
- Read up on feedback
Employing freelancers can be a huge risk, especially on platforms where you don’t get your funds back even if what you paid for wasn’t what was delivered. This implies that you must get it right from the onset when hiring a CG artist.
A basic point of decision for you is to read through the feedback left by previous buyers of your potential designers. Thankfully, all top marketplaces make this public.
There, you could learn a whole lot about the CG artist. Average ratings and feedback could tell how well they are faring and how you’re able to make informed decisions.
RELATED: How to Become a Freelance 3D Modeler or 3D Artist and Find Remote Work
- Referencing is key
Knowing how your potential designer did in their previous job is quite important and could be the deciding factor in selecting a great artist or a flop. Reference calls are part of the recruitment process for an employee who will be handling cogent organizational operations or positions.
It is no different if it’s online or offline, especially if you’re looking at working with a freelancer for a long time. Freelance candidates should supply a shortlist of work contacts at your request. You should contact a few of them and hear their testimonies about your potential designer.
It is essential to go for an experienced CG artist, one who has a concrete overview of your work and has done such a job in the past. It will be insightful of you to insist on references both in work and former employers, as it is expected that an established and experienced freelance designer should have worked with a good number of clients who can say some great things about them.
Doing this helps you to see any red flag about the candidates, something that might not be obvious from their ratings and feedback section but might have surfaced with the previous employer.
- Know the tools they use
There’s a large number of design software and applications, modeling programs, and rendering engines which are available to the 3D rendering freelancer. Interestingly, they all don’t have the same capabilities. Some tools are dedicated to 2D designs, while others are exclusively for 3D, and some can function in both areas.
Some are free, while others are paid. Some are great for modeling, and others for rendering. Every design software has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, there are some essential tools every designer must have. Examples are Photoshop, 3Ds Max, Illustrator CC, Cinema 4D Prime, 3D Blender, FL Studio 11, Maya, Mari 2.0v2, Sketchbook Pro, etc.
It’s imperative that you know the tool your potential designer uses and be sure they are the best, most effective, and advanced at it, so you don’t lose out to competitors on the basis of technology. Though being a great CG artist is not about owning the latest hardware and software, it is something the best of CG artists looks into, considering the constant change that occurs every day in the digital world.
The best is judged by how updated, flexible, and advanced they are. Over the past decades, it has been really amazing how the most impressive software can enhance individual skill.
- Insist on constant and continuous communication
Establishing constant and continuous communication is an excellent step in aligning visions. This means that even if your freelance CG artist is going to be working remotely, it is of utmost importance that you ensure a link to keep up. If there’s a means to meet in person, you should take it, but if there’s none, you should ensure a medium to relate directly on a timely basis. It could be by phone or video calls through platforms like Skype.
Lack of effective communication can cause several problems for the designer and yourself. For designers, this is the primary reason they deliver designs, renders, and CAD animations that are not up to the taste or standard of their employer. They might have done an excellent job but not according to the view or perspective that the employer wants, and this could be a loss on both sides.
The employer almost always loses their funds while the designer just gets one more unsatisfied client. Any designer who isn’t communicative will likely be deceptive when deadlines are due. Seeking clear communication with your potential designer is not about wanting to be on their heels or raising suspicion where there should be none, it is about being concerned about the success of the project at hand.
- Check artists timeline
Getting a great artist is something – finding one whose schedule goes with yours is another. Many experienced and proficient CG artists always have a job or two to do. If your timeline is tight, then you shouldn’t hire a designer who is conflicted, no matter how great he seems to be.
A large percentage of good CG artists manage more than a project at a time; this doesn’t mean they aren’t the best suited for your work, it just implies that they need to be able to balance your assignments against that of other employers.
Evaluate the freelancer’s timeline and working schedule and determine whether you think they’ll be able to meet your deadline confidently. Even the best freelancers sometimes over-commit and end up with too much to do.
- Do not hire on price alone
There are many freelance designers that are ready to do your project for half the cost of a more experienced person. That might be tempting, but it’s best not to employ a CG artist on price alone. After all, cheap could become expensive.
That is not to say that there are no cheap exceptional CG artists on the platforms, some are more affordable yet would deliver excellent designs. They seem cheap because they are looking to build their profile.
For you, what should matter is your project scope – how broad or intricate is the assignment you want to get done? Does it beg for a particular skill set or tool? What level of expertise is needed to achieve the required result? How experienced is the designer you seek? What is your expected turnaround time for the job? These and more are determinants to how high the quotations will be.
To avoid having to spend more than expected due to a poor delivery from a cheap freelance artist, it’s advisable and safer to hire on the basis of experience and not price. Most experienced CG artists feel they have a name to protect and would always ensure they work on the best designs.
- Protect your work from the onset and clearly map out an agreement for the entire project
There you are, narrowing in on the all-important search for a freelance CG artist and you’re eager to begin work with them. That’s great. But you should exercise a little patience. There’s one last thing that sums up the entire project: a concrete agreement.
The agreement should be in two distinct terms. The first, you should agree with your freelance designer on proprietorship; you must be definite about this and ensure you both reach an agreement.
The second term of the agreement should involve timelines – expected project milestones, means and method of payment, the planned set of deliveries, and formats. This protects you and your designer alike. You must ensure to not leave any cogent agreement points behind to avoid contentious issues during the assignment period and at completion. Agreement boosts the credibility of both the freelance designer and you, the employer.
Cad Crowd’s a Home for Freelance 3D Modelers
If you’ve made it this far, you’re undoubtedly looking for a freelance 3D modeler or CG artist to help you out with your project. Whether you’re looking for help designing a video game character or movie, our freelancers can help. They’re pre-vetted and accuracy is guaranteed, and we can give you a free quote!
