how to hire a roblox 3d modeller (without hiring five)
most roblox studios hire their first modeller from a discord post and their fifth from a spreadsheet of people who never delivered. here is the version that skips the spreadsheet: what to ask for, what a serious answer looks like, and when the answer is a team rather than a person.
start with the job, not the person
"we need a modeller" is not a job. "we need six modular dungeon kit pieces, low-poly hand-painted, under 2k triangles each, sharing one 1024 atlas, delivered as .fbx with collision, by the 20th" is a job. the second version gets you comparable quotes in a day; the first gets you a week of dms.
write the job down before you post it. the brief note on this site walks through the seven lines that matter: what, style, count, budget in triangles and textures, rig, deadline, references.
where modellers actually are
- x (twitter) and the roblox devforum's collaboration board: the widest pool and the least filtering. expect to vet hard.
- discord servers for roblox art: fast to reach, easy to get scammed in. never pay upfront to a handle you met yesterday.
- artstation and sketchfab: strong for realistic and hand-painted work, weaker for roblox-specific constraints.
- a managed studio like bevel: one contract, vetted people, art direction included. more expensive per hour than the cheapest freelancer, cheaper than the third attempt.
what to look at in a portfolio
- in-engine shots, not just renders. a piece that has been in a running game has survived import, collision and lighting. a marmoset render has survived nothing.
- wireframes. clean quads, sensible density, no fans of triangles at the ends of cylinders. if a modeller will not show a wireframe, assume there is a reason.
- texture sheets. one atlas per piece, no wasted space, seams where the eye does not go.
- range in your lane. a realistic-only portfolio will make your stud-style game look wrong, however good the work is.
what a real quote contains
a number on its own is not a quote. a real quote names three things together, and a modeller who names all three has done the job before:
| it names | why it matters |
|---|---|
| a scope | the exact deliverables, formats and budgets. what is not in the scope is a change request, priced separately. |
| a price and its terms | how much, when it is due, and who owns the result. at bevel, the full ip transfers to you, always included. |
| a date | a delivery date, and the milestones between now and then. a date without milestones is a hope. |
the five red flags
- full payment upfront. milestones exist for a reason. a first payment against a first milestone is normal; everything before anything is not.
- no in-engine work in the portfolio, only renders.
- the price came back in ten minutes with no questions asked. either the job was not read or the scope will grow later.
- "i can do everything." characters, rigging, vfx and environments are four crafts. the people who can truly do all four are rare and are not cheap.
- no written scope. if it is not written down, it will be argued about.
when one modeller is the wrong shape
a single prop, one modeller. a rigged, animated character with vfx and a showcase render is four jobs, and hiring four freelancers means you are the producer: you brief four people, chase four deadlines and reconcile four styles. that is the job a studio does.
bevel's shape is one contract with the studio, the owners art-directing every job, and the right hands from the bench on each part. you get one tracker link and one point of contact. the artists get scoped work and milestone pay. the cost of that coordination is in the price, and it is usually less than the cost of a redo.