I’ve interviewed 6 lead or art directors in the last 2 days.
The first guy seems honest and keeps his word. But my super art friend Jeff said 50% when I passed along the website, which I assume is bad. Pass.
The second guy sounds very professional on the phone which I like. But he said he’d get a quote back to me on art assets, and then didn’t. Plus he wants between 95 and 100K a year which is just too high for an artist at a small company. Pass.
The 3rd guy I think can do the work, but lacks assertiveness and wouldn’t be able to manage people effectively. Jeff said 50% when I asked him about the work quality. It doesn’t look good to me either, but I never know if that’s because of the graphic engine or what. Since Jeff said 50%. Pass.
The 4th guy sounds professional and is more honest than the other guys I’ve spoken to. His art looks good as well. But he also seems slow, saying it would take between 1 and 2 weeks to model a star destroyer, depending on the amount of detail. He’s also weak at 2D art, which is something I need. By slow I mean giving longer estimates than the other guys. I don’t know if 1-2 weeks is actually slow. He sounds truthful and if that’s how long it takes then that is how long it takes. For the 2D art I’ll just have to find workarounds, if I do indeed go with him.
The 5th guy spent the first 15 minutes of the interview complaining about his current managers and also only has 2 years of experience. I don’t think I’ll hire him, except as a junior artist and then only if a more senior artist recommends him. His only redeeming factor is that he’s cheap, and going for cheap has wasted more money than it’s saved with programmers. Pass.
The 6th guy said on his resume that he had extensive experience with C/C++, but on the phone said he wasn’t a programmer at all. The claimed experience came from looking at code or something. I didn’t get a clear answer on that. Everything he said I liked, including his time estimate (1 week for star destroyer), but since he lied on his resume for all I know he lied during the interview too. Pass.
Got another guy tomorrow, best looking art so far. Hopefully that goes well.