Our digital world has grown rapidly over the past two decades, causing a non-stop surge in demand for designers and modelers. These specialists can be incredibly diverse, working with a multitude of platforms (video projects, games, websites, etc.) and creating a wide variety of art. As such, picking a suitable modeler for your app can be a challenge: you might not be sure which specialists are appropriate for your niche and how to find them. With any luck, our brief guide will help you narrow your selection and hire 3D modeler experts that will get the job done well.
Looking to hire a 3D modeler?
If You Want the Right Models, Get the Right Experts
One major criterion that should inform your selection is experience with the type of game designs your project requires, because if you hire someone who has mostly worked on 2D casual platformers and ask them to design for a 3D first-person shooter, they might not be up to the task. There is nothing wrong with specializing in a particular type of game, but most qualified designers are good at building several of the following essential model types:
Characters
Most of the games developed nowadays feature playable characters and NPCs, so most game artists have some experience in creating them. A skilled 3D character modeler for hire will not only know how to create this character, but also how to make its movements and interactions within the app smooth and realistic.
Environments
Depending on the app being built, environments can demand vastly different amounts of time to make. For example, one might just have a piece of art as the background and a pixel-based map to run around with while another will feature life-emulating nature and physical effects like wind. Unlike characters, environments sometimes blend 2D and 3D art, so several artists might be needed to create them.
Items/Weapons
This is an extremely broad category of design, but there is no getting around it in game production. At the very least, artists will need to create objects that round out the player experience, but it is also common for these objects to be movable, modifiable, and interactive in nature.
Animations
Apart from creating digital designs, artists often need to also set them in motion, whether it is for general gameplay or cutscenes/videos. Thus, this type of work tends to involve higher-poly designs and experience with VFX/video production.
Other Factors for Choosing a 3D Model Artist for Hire
Once you have rounded up some potential candidates, you can look into their background and ask them questions to determine their suitability. Here are some things to pay attention to:
Education. Considering the abundance of guides, courses, and books available to anyone who wants to become a designer, it is not reasonable to limit your search based on a university diploma. Instead, you can focus on the courses and certifications that a person has completed and the companies they have worked with to get an idea of how much industry knowledge they have picked up.
Technical skills. Like education, technical skills are another factor that contributes to experience. Thus, when interviewing or checking on candidates, you should pay attention to the software (Blender, ZBrush, Maya, Harmony, etc.) that they are skilled in using, along with the techniques they are familiar with, like skinning, texturing, rendering, Retopology, and others.
Past projects. This one is straightforward – just look at a candidate’s portfolio to see what types of projects they have worked on and whether their quality was up to par. This is especially useful when you can compare past projects similar to the one you are currently working on.
Timeframes. Everybody works at their own speed, so you should definitely ask your candidates approximately how long it will take them to complete one task or another. These estimates can be reaffirmed with some test assignments.
Possible challenges. Finally, you can ask your candidates about the aspects of their work they find challenging, and make your own observations on the matter. All people are different, so one person may have trouble with communication in group projects, while another might prefer to work in a single art style and struggle with others.
Where to Hire 3D Designer
Nowadays, there are so many places where you can look for new specialists that it can be a bit overwhelming. Apart from time-tested methods of networking and asking around, you can look on various job search and headhunting sites, as well as LinkedIn. However, one of the best ways to get a solid choice of candidates quickly or to hire several people at once is to engage the services of a studio.
3D-Ace is a studio that specializes in custom 3D modeling services, along with art creation, animation, and VFX. Our specialists have years of experience in designs and art for games in different genres and platforms, so you can count on them to cope with most modeling-related tasks in the industry. If you are looking for experts like this to push your project forward and deliver spectacular visuals, you can contact us to begin discussing potential cooperation.
