What are the most effective ways to collaborate with artists remotely?

1) leverage your producer/project manager. They are a godsend. 2) go over scope where the art team is involved. 3) design responsibly. Don’t design things without quickly validating with either art directors, tech leads and game directors to ensure visions are synergetic. I haven’t mentioned anything about remote teams. Why? Because WELL ORGANIZED teams work well either in person or remote, with some role and activities as exceptions.

Definition of clear scope is necessary. To achieve something from artist means you need to provide exact details to him/her. Because art is a tricky part and without clear goal definition, it would be hard to achieve what you want exactly.

One thing I've found helpful is to not only tell the artists what needs to be done, instead elaborate them the whole scenario or the concept, idea behind doing something in certain way, alongwith the proper background insights. This aligns their perspective with yours. Also, keep communication open to avoid any gaps.

Document everything - One of my most recent experiences taught me that easy, accessible documentation can be more helpful than a hardcoded/solidified process. This applies to everything: art-style, tech. specifications, references and so on. Remember that a question that can be easily answered must also be accessible

The most effective way is to brief the artist with proper information, For each part that he/she has to do make a time to finish and a time to check that is already agreed upon by both the artist and producer. And the most important thing, you have to give the artist trust, check only when the time is for checking his/her work. Off course you can give him/her a warning if the work does seem not to be finished on the checking time, give him/her some option for the solution not to push him/her to finish on time but you or your producer don't give him/her options for solve his/her problem to finish the job on time.

Communication is KEY. Specially when it comes to freelancers we are not always checking with what they're doing but giving some heads up on what you're working is great for us to keep track of what is happening. We don't have a very tight workflow regarding this but in some projects works very well to have daily meetings (normally early in the day). In others, depending on time zones differences, a slack channel is more than enough. On feedback we try to be as fair as possible. Of course sometimes creatives have their own ideas, and sometimes they're better than ours! But sometimes that's not what client wants so we need to balance everything out. Overall we've had really good inputs from our creatives when we let them create more freely!

Always explain tasks verbally. Provide examples, including what to avoid, to ensure clarity and shared vision. Explain twice if needed ))

I believe that beyond text-based chat, it is essential to arrange for constant conversation to convey a deeper sense of engagement. We should ensure that we don't rely solely on text-based chat and instead have verbal discussions to infuse a fresh spirit into our work with the artist and convey a more genuine feeling. This will help us better understand each other's needs, ideas, and even motivations. Such interactions can foster improved communication and enhance motivation and effectiveness in the project.

Working remotely only works because we are now at this stage of technology and we have all this amazing tools to work with. As a fully remote company we have a file sharing system (Dropbox), where we put our projects (everything that needs to be shared is there). We use Discord to communicate (we use Slack with clients since clients don't seem to be very onboard with Discord!). For project management - we love Notion! Then for Storyboarding, moodboarding and design we use Milanote - very collaborative, the feedback can be placed there and super intuitive to use. And then for video reviewing, our fav. is Frame.io. So yeah, we're tech savvy and proud! It helps we're all millennials...

I think that being able to document important details during our collaboration with an artist can be beneficial in two ways. First, it allows us to share crucial information in real-time within platforms like Confluence. Second, it creates a valuable resource for reviewing and recalling essential content in the future. This approach can enhance the quality of our work and ensure alignment with project requirements.

Familiarize yourself with tools like Miro, Notion, and Asana. Set up a comfortable ecosystem for artists, including structured file directories, naming conventions, and processes.

Not only seek for tools that can aid your design process, but also keep in track bottlenecks on your daily-routine that can be tackled by the development team. In the vast majority of cases, just by talking with each other, you'll find solutions that were not previously considered

Pipeline and workflow depend heavily on scope, timeline and timezone of the artists/clients and us. There is no magic recipe! You have to try it out. For a 2D explainer we normally develop moodboard and storyboard - once approved, illustrator can start with Style Frames (we might be doing Storyboard reviews at this point). When style is defined, we proceed to the next stage - VO research (I like to do music research at this point too) and designing everything, recording VO and approve music. Once approved all design, we start animating - we might have 2 or 3 rounds of review there, then we lock animation and send to sound design. Finally we might need to do cut downs or adaptations - and that's a wrap!

Chaos arises from a lack of processes. Discuss processes, stages, and expectations in advance. Collaborate with the lead artist to tailor processes that suit their workflow, recognizing that development practices may not always align with artistic methods.

Acknowledge the challenges of different time zones in remote collaboration. Respect artists' working hours and boundaries, limiting contact to necessary communication during their work times.

By defining clear goals, feedback instances, and deadlines, you can let artists thrive while maintaining control over the result by providing guidance instead of simply reacting to a result. At first, it's important to know how to work over time restrictions (which should have been a deciding factor agreed between both parts). Some studios define a set of "Golden hours" in which they must be online or at least available. It's generally a good thing, as long as it's useful. Another point, much more open for debate, is scheduling calls. They should all be agreed and added to a calendar, so nobody forgets and (best of all) there are no issues about office hours.

First We should Have a Clear Vision of what is required for the product or project that you need an artist to work on Do try to Provide Clear and Proper details of the art you need for the specific project or product Do describe the Product/ Project to artist so he can visualize its potential and work properly on it Providing some similar references would do a great Job but do tell the artist that keep references as reference So he would not merge any thing from that reference. Get one or two rough samples ready before making any final decisions on the art Keeping the requirements along the way in loop would also be a great idea Communication is the Best Key towards Success of any Project.