If you’re about to face a huge project, you’ll need the best of the best to take care of your 3D art needs. When it comes to hiring professional 3D artists for the job, you have two options on your hands.

The first one includes hiring a full-time 3D artist who works for a company, which is usually a more expensive and more professional solution. The second option is to hire a freelancer – a cost-efficient road less travelled by many due to certain downsides that come with it.

While freelancers are easy to hire, as you can check on many hiring platforms online, full-time artists are harder to come by due to busy schedules and lots of projects that their hiring companies work on. Since going through various freelancer-hiring platforms is time-consuming, we at Easy Render decided to give you a hand and help you narrow down your selection.

Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. You need as much information as you can gather to make an informed decision. Any type of 3D project requires expertise, knowledge, and a certain level of skill.

Since this decision can make or break your business, choose wisely by considering the following information. We honestly hope to provide you with enough information to make an educated decision on your own.

Full-Time Employees Have Steady Income

Since full-time employees have a steady income and regular engagement, some may think their business approach is more professional.

That’s exactly one of the biggest benefits of hiring a professional full-time 3D artist. Since they come from the most reputable companies, their professionalism and knowledge are highly trustworthy.

They might be more expensive than freelancers, but at least you know you’re on the right track with a full-time 3D professional. Aside from adding an additional level of professionalism and expertise to the table, full-time employees are fully motivated by their reputations and incomes to complete your project according to your requirements and on schedule.

That’s why many 3D studios have customer reviews clearly and transparently listed on their websites. Well-paid full-time employees are easier to talk to and come with a wider range of technical skills.

Employees Get Benefits They Can Count on

Full-time employees have a range of benefits they can count on during their employment. First of all, they have a certain amount of paid days off for vacations. Then, there are sick days too. Other benefits include retirements, dental, and health insurance plans.

Many 3D art companies offer an array of other less traditional benefits, including a house chef, a company gym and pool, hosting company retreats, or paying for the employees to take art classes. Freelancers don’t get access to most of these benefits.

When it comes to freelancing, health insurance can be easily counted as the biggest loss. In some countries, this type of insurance is very expensive. On the other hand, paying a visit to doctors without an insurance policy can turn out to be even more expensive.

Because of all that, hiring full-time employees may turn out to be a greater expense than leaving the job to freelancers.

Freelancers Work When They Want and How Much They Want

Most of the time, full-time employees have busy schedules and little to almost no control over their own schedules. They are either reluctant to take sick days or be restricted to a certain number of vacation days, depending on how many employees a company has.

While this isn’t common for all full-time employees, it tends to happen quite often. The result is people pushing themselves too much, which can result in errors, miscommunication, and awkward situations.

Since many industries don’t have the luxury of freelancing, this has become quite a normal routine for most people. However, there are those full-time employees who’d manage much better as freelancers. Freelancers have the biggest benefit of being the masters of their own schedules.

They can choose how much and when they want to work. Freelancers don’t need permission to take days off or ask anyone else to take some time off when they are sick. The downside to this – they don’t get paid for those days off. It all comes down to stability vs. control.

Freelancers Can Earn More if They are Good

Since freelancers don’t have office rent, administrative staff, and other expenses to think about, they have a chance of earning more if they are really good. They are well-aware of the fact that they have to work much harder than full-time employees.

That’s why they are incredibly dedicated to their work. Freelancers offer lower prices than full-time employees and are typically more open to innovation and experimentation to come up with the best and most competitive solutions.

Since they are so motivated, easy to find online, affordable, and accessible, they also have an increased level of creative freedom that full-time employees simply don’t offer.

That allows them to develop more sophisticated skills and expertise, resulting in earning more. And if we add the fact that freelancers are far more flexible than full-time employees, they can earn a lot more if the quality of their work is outstanding.

Employees Can Climb Through Organizations

When you hire a freelancer, they get the requirements and the deadline, and that’s it. Once their work is finished, they’re free to move on to the next client. Freelancers don’t work for a company, nor are they required to lead a team or develop creative solutions outside of what is necessary to get the job done.

They are tools used to ensure the given project is made a reality. Things look very different for full-time employees. Since they can climb through their organizations, they need to have successful projects to get promoted.

Freelancers don’t have this benefit, and the majority of them provide the same type of service unless they’re prepared to change things for the better. On the other hand, they are free to pursue their own creative projects, aside from the current engagements.

Full-time employees are rarely free to indulge in such a luxury. However, getting promoted means, full-time employees get a chance to fulfil professional progress and provide a wider range of services than freelancers.

More Variety in Projects as a Freelancer

One of the biggest benefits of being a freelancer is that you get to tap into various projects. Full-time employees are usually more skilful in particular areas of their business niche. They get one project and work on it for a determined period.

If you love doing animation and concept art, you get to do both as a freelancer, which is a benefit most full-time employees don’t have. Because of that, freelancers also enjoy the benefit of charging a flat fee for the whole project, no matter the time it takes to complete it.

Freelancers are more commonly hired to handle smaller project-based jobs such as animation videos for small start-ups or a logo design. It also ensures that most freelancers have a wide range of skill-sets, which allows them to get more diverse projects.

Networking is Easier as a Full-Time Employee

Freelancers do enjoy higher levels of freedoms and flexibility, but they don’t get to tap into networking opportunities as full-time employees.

Companies create many different opportunities for their employees to connect to senior professionals in their line of work, exchange experiences and information, gain insight into new knowledge and trends, create new job opportunities, widen their circles of colleagues and people they know, and so much more.

Fortunately, freelancers can create similar opportunities and even their odds on meeting new professionals through hiring platforms like Easy Render. Networking creates many opportunities and possibilities for both freelancers and full-time employees.

Easy Render, for example, works with thousands of freelancing 3D artists from all over the world. The platform allows each freelancer to create their portfolio and promote their works and services. It’s not as effective as getting top-class opportunities from the corporate world, but it does provide satisfactory results.

Freelancers Rely on Themselves

Freelancers usually work alone. If you choose to hire a freelancer, be prepared to accept that there will be no supervision as these 3D artists rely on themselves and their own resources to complete projects.

The only way to monitor their progress is to revisit their works each time they send you an update. You should also know that this way of handling a project may result in getting the end-result that’s completely out of vision.

To avoid spending more money, time, and effort, we recommend that you agree on receiving a more frequent update from your freelancer to ensure you’re on the same page. It will require constant communication, but it’s better to do it that way and avoid additional expenses than receiving something unacceptable.

Office Politics Matter

Working with full-time employees that come from a reputable office has its pros. First of all, you get legal guarantees by signing non-disclosure agreements and contracts.

Most reputable companies have strict office politics that matter a lot when it comes to keeping their fair share of the agreement and delivering the wanted result, protecting the client, keeping their promises, etc.

Office politics also refer to workflow flexibility and multitasking. Full-time 3D artists have a lot of knowledge and experience working on different projects of all sizes. They know what technical specifications make for faster and more flexible workflows. It’s what often makes full-time employees better organized than freelancers.

If some project elements or pieces of information are missing, office employees will make a team effort to build the best workflow, estimate the time it takes to complete the project, and get down to it.

In addition, you get legal guarantees that the final product will meet all your quality standards and project requirements. When it comes to multitasking, many clients choose to hire a studio with full-time 3D artists. These artists can focus on a single task, allowing you to handle multiple projects simultaneously while the productivity and quality remain the same.

Freelancers Work From Home

Freelancers often use their homes as their working premises. Since they can do all the necessary work from the comfort of their homes, they don’t require office space or additional equipment to complete projects.

That allows them to offer their services at much more competitive prices than full-time employees. Then, there’s also the fact that many freelancers come from third-party countries, which makes them instantly more affordable than full-time employees from the most reputable companies.

Freelancers usually practice project-based freelancing – they adjust their fees to the scope of work required at the moment.

Conclusion

As you can see, both options have their pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages. Full-time employees have less flexible schedules and come at a higher cost. On the other hand, freelancers offer competitive prices for their services but deliver unpredictable quality and require constant communication and monitoring.

It all comes down to what you really need. Hiring platforms like Easy Render makes things much easier when it comes to hiring freelancers. You can use the platform’s features to browse the 3D artist network and see what each candidate has to offer.

Simply post a project, agree on the price, and wait for the first results. While working with full-time employees is a usual practice that brings certain stability, freelancing also offers an array of benefits that makes it more attractive to a wide range of potential clients.