Akvod said:
dsgrue3 said:
You get what you pay for -
There's a reason not all companies do this. |
Haven't confirmed if they're right, but: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90768
"Excuse the ignorance if this is common knowledge but I know nothing about how the games industry works.
I've just watched the credits roll on Uncharted 3 and I noticed the artist credits. I watched for the art section, and was surprised to see only about 7 environment artists and 2 character artists. I was thinking 'surely they've missed a few people, that would've taken them a millennium to create all that art with under 10 or so people'.
Then I saw the 'additional art' section with loads (and I mean LOADS, there must've been a hundred or more) of Chinese names and what appeared to be Spanish names from about 5 different outsourcing studios.
Is this pretty normal practice on games of this scope? If so, what do the in-house guys actually do? Just clean things up?"
"Yes this is pretty common practice nowadays. Usually the idea is that outsource would do stuff like props, weapons and vehicles that don't have much effect on gameplay and just need to look pretty. Stuff like environments are more likely to be done by in house environment artists because they are so integrated into gameplay and will be constantly iterated.
Environments do get outsourced though, and even when they are done well will usually require a ton of cleanup.
Main characters would be done in house and go through a lot of planning and iteration, but background characters and npcs could be shipped out to outsource as well.
I think that the bigger use of outsourcing is it part replacing the massive hiring at the end of a project, and then the massive layoffs after it is done to create those 6 months worth of extra assets. So instead of hiring 200 temps, they might outsource most of that work so they don't have to hire to that unsustainable level and then lay everyone off afterwards.
This is just my experience, how outsourcing is used will differ from studio to studio. In house guys don't just do cleanup, though that is a part of it, but they usually work on the more important assets that have a direct impact on the game."
If you have the time, may as well check for yourself:
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Very informative. Seems as though most outsource the little things that may be time consuming and non-vital - props, weapons, vehicles. Smart business decision.
