Outsourcing guidance

Outsourcing seems to be a necessary evil of doing business these days. Every team I have been on has used outsourcing, and every time it has been met with skepticism and disappointment.

I strongly believe that the biggest reason outsourcers fail to deliver useable art is because their clients often ask for 100% ready-to-use assets. In my experience, when you ask for 100%, you are forced to get too granular in your requests and instructions, and this ends up confusing most outsourcing agencies.

I have had better results asking for 75% finished work that can be described in simple terms, and often get back very consistent and reliable assets in the 60%-70% finished range.

I have written modeling guidelines for many of our outsourcing companies, including:

Massive Black

Exigent

Valkyrie Entertainment

Vykarian

Pigment