FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
GENERAL
Q: Hello.
Hi! If you're contacting me directly, don't just say hello. Instead, state your business upfront. Please be aware that I receive a large volume of messages and am unable to chat.
Q: Can I hire you?
Please send me an email with details about your project, what responsibilities you expect from me, and what your timeline is.
Q: What is your rate?
My rate is industry-level and will vary depending on some key factors such as whether the project is commercial, what the job role is, how tight the deadline is, and whether you want to buy the full copyright. My rate is subject to raise as demand increases.
Cost is negotiable. If you are on a budget, please let me know and we can set a scope and/or time limit in order to stay within your budget. I'm able to flexibly adjust the complexity and amount of polish of my art style in order to fit constraints.
Q: How much time should I expect to pay for?
I can give you a rough estimate of how long it would take me personally if you provide me specific examples of what you want. Please be aware that I work faster than average and my own estimates won't represent those of all artists.
I reserve the right to charge a consultancy fee if your request will take a significant amount of time to answer, such as if you give me a long asset list to estimate.
GAME DEVELOPMENT
Q: Can I play your game?
You can check out some games I made during game jams on my itch.io!
You can also see my work in Super Meat Boy Forever, Rival Rush, Midautumn, Frogpon, and Rubi: The Wayward Mira. (More upcoming!)
I hope you look forward to playing more of my games. I'm working hard on them. Thank you for asking!
Q: What game engine(s) do you use?
Depends on what game I'm working on. I mainly like to code my own engines in C++ if it's my own project, but I also use GameMaker Studio 2, Unreal, Unity, and Godot.
Q: What languages do you use for game development?
Mainly C++, C#, and GML.
I also use Python to automate manual labor and for data analysis. You actually can make games with it too, but by nature of it being a scripting language they'll be slow!
I don't think it's as common anymore now that there are apps, but I used to code web browser games with JavaScript. It was one of my earlier introductions to game programming!
Q: How should I learn programming? What languages should I use?
This question is highly subjective depending on what your personal goals are, but one of the best ways to learn is to choose a language that appeals to you and/or is commonly used in your field of interest and create a small project with it. Many fundamentals of programming and software development such as the concept of primitive data types or operators can be learned and applied across multiple languages.
Good luck in your journey as a developer!
ART
Q: How long have you been drawing?
Since 1997. I started out drawing for fun, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do.
I started making pixel art in 2002, before the term "pixel art" was popularized. Back then, we mainly called it "sprite art" since it was mostly found in video games!
Q: How did you learn art? Did you go to art school?
I didn't go to a formal art college, but I learned a lot at The Animation Academy, Guild, from studying Traditional Animation at community college, online resources going all the way back to the forum era, and from many wonderful peers and mentors whom I'm very grateful towards.
Q: What program do you use?
I don't stick to any one program; I use whichever one that feels most comfortable to me for specific tasks. Here are some of the programs I use most frequently.
- Photoshop CS6 for general drawing and static pixel art
- Clip Studio Paint for drawing
- Pyxel Edit for pixel tiles
- TVPaint for frame-by-frame 2D
- GraphicsGale and Aseprite for pixel animation
- Microsoft Paint Vista for pixeling and doodling
- AfterEffects for compositing
Q: What program should I use for pixel art?
There's no "one size fits all" solution to this question. You should use whichever art program(s) you feel comfortable drawing in.
You can create pixel art in any program that has brushes without automatic anti-aliasing/smoothing. Some programs call this "pencil tool", "binary tool", "pixel brush", "aliased brush", etc.
Some programs are made with the intent of being used for pixel art, but may compromise on other features. It's up to you to decide what program(s) you like best.
Q: Where should I go to learn art?
This is highly dependent on your artistic goals, personal situation, and budget. I recommend learning from someone who places importance on the fundamentals of art, since you can apply them to any artistic medium or goal. In addition to this, you can seek online resources and classes from independent teachers who focus on the area of art that you personally are interested in to help push your work in the direction you'd like to go in.
Some recommendations I have for places that teach fundamental skills are New Masters Academy, The Animation Academy, and Proko.
For pixel art, the book Pixel-Logic has a good visual overview of the medium, and there are many more useful resources on Pixelation.org and Lospec.
For animation, The Animator's Survival Kit is a great resource.
Please be aware that everyone's artistic journey looks drastically different, everyone learns differently, and it's important for you to learn what kinds of settings you personally learn best in, whether it's tutorials, live demos, classroom settings, alone in your room, drawing from life outdoors, or some other setting that suits you. Something that clicks for one person won't always click for another.
Good luck on your artistic journey!
OTHER
Q: Help, my question isn't on here!
Please reach out to me by sending me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.