There are many "starving students" out there who could do it for cheap, the hard part is finding somebody with the talents you want. If you find somebody, they'll assign the copyrights for a fairly small amount of money. Students might not finish the project, might lose interest, might have a hard time keeping the same artistic style, or otherwise not give satisfactory results, which can be a problem.

Professional artists and art studios are more likely to have the talent and finish the project, but you pay for it. They're more likely to be able to generate many images with a unified artistic style, which is very important. And they can often finish within a specified time frame, which might be very important to you.


When I needed a set of 50 (much less detailed) stylized images for a project, I made some phone calls and found two college art students who were pretty good. I offered them $200 if they worked together, asking for an exclusive transfer of rights, with them preserving rights to use it in their portfolio. They were happy with the rate (just under $10/hr) doing something they enjoyed and getting real-world credit. It took them several weeks to finish but I was happy with the results. It was much nicer than using stock art and cheaper than hiring out to an established artist or company.


To estimate the cost, figure out how much you are willing to pay at a maximum, exactly what rights you want transferred (I'm guessing you will want full and exclusive rights) and the quality you need. You should also ask a few artists to estimate how long it would take to make the images.

Once you know those numbers it shouldn't be too hard to guess the cost. College students are willing to do work for a few dollars per hour, but often have lower quality work and can only work on it as their schedule and motivation allows. Professionals will charge around 10X more per hour, perhaps a little more for exclusive transfer of rights, but their work is usually higher quality and more timely.

And don't forget taxes. If the artist isn't a registered business you might have to file tax forms. College students usually don't make enough total money to require tax forms and don't like the hassle. A professional might require the tax forms even if they don't make enough money to require it so they can show documented income.

I hope that helps.

>> How about taking some historical photos and adjust them to correspong to my expectations?

If that works for you, then do it.

>> Are those photos covered by some sort of copyrights or are they free for any use?

Any modern color photos are covered by copyright. The 70+ year copyright term means that anything after 1936 is still covered, and Kodachrome color film didn't come out until that year.

Unless the images were expressly placed in the public domain, you need to get permission from the copyright holder.

>> And what about photos found on google?

See above. You need permission from the copyright holder.


>> Today I took a photo of a Volkswagen Factory, did some adjustments and used it as a placeholder. May I use this material in the final commercial product?

Possibly. Depending on various factors, you might need permission to you images of their cars or buildings since your photo might be considered a derivative work, even if you took the photo yourself. You're probably okay, but talk to a real lawyer in your country. There are several cases in the United States where modifying pictures of buildings resulted in successful copyright infringement lawsuits.

Only a real lawyer in your location is qualified to answer that question completely. A short chat with a lawyer friend, or friend-of-a-friend, could give you some answers to your questions.