Michael Long is a Senior Character Artist with experience in stylized and realistic characters, production assets, film/VFX-related work, and game art outsourcing. His portfolio includes work across different clients, IPs, styles, and production needs.
Outsourcing can teach character artists lessons that are hard to learn in a slower internal environment.
Projects change, styles change, clients change, and the expectations can be strict. Artists need to deliver quality, stay reliable, handle feedback, and adapt quickly when the production context keeps moving.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
Main Topics:
- Character Art Outsourcing
- Production Pressure
- Production-Ready Character Assets
- Technical Requirements and Pipelines
- Client Feedback and Revisions
- Artist Adaptability and Reliability
- Work-Life Balance in Outsourcing
Interview with Michael Long, Senior Character Artist
Q: What did working in outsourcing teach you about character art that artists might not learn from portfolio work alone?
A lot of aspects like client expectations, deadlines, quality, and revisions mean something, but managing technical prerequisites became a much bigger focus for me.
A character could be handled by top-tier AAA talent, but if it doesn’t correspond with the technical prerequisites in regards to topology, optimization, material acquisition, etc., then it’s not worth much.
It was never explicitly stated, and aesthetics were always the more apparent, reinforced direction, but technical issues at points clogged up the pipeline.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
Q: In outsourcing, artists often move between different projects, styles, and IPs. What helps you adapt quickly without losing quality?
Several techniques help with keeping consistent quality: gathering references, getting the necessary documentation on style and technical requirements, and actively asking questions. It was sometimes difficult because of how information naturally delineates across individuals, but that’s one of the unspoken tasks of the job.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
Some important habits our team adopted to handle rapid feedback and iteration involved pipeline fluidity. Whether it was a project-wide pipeline or an individual pipeline, practices like matching naming conventions, spatial consistency across varying software, and organized folder structures made life easier.
No matter how you feel towards the processes, they help immensely and remove a lot of headaches that might have been there otherwise.
Q: What makes a character asset truly production-ready?
Visual aesthetics matter a lot to an asset, like with all art. However, the simplest sign of a production-ready asset is seamless integration. When it plugs into the engine, the team can move forward without a single technical hitch. Making a character asset can feel like a Sisyphean process at times, but when it becomes fully functional in-game, that’s the real win.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
Of course, development is fluid, so you have to accept that minor adjustments might still happen down the line. Along with technical requirements, any asset that is truly production ready has to have the universal approval of everyone throughout the chain of command from lead, director, producer etc.
Q: Where do character artists usually underestimate the difficulty of outsourcing work?
Both in-house and outsource teams probably share the same experiences across many aspects of the asset creation process; the true difficulty lies in the relationship between outside and inside help. Both sides can put the same amount of effort and forethought into an asset.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
However, outsourcing will generally have extra layers of decision-making and scrutiny due to the nature of being separate from the client studio. The detachment makes communication and the dialogue between parties less smooth. When the asset is reviewed, the examination is meticulous since it wasn’t created in the same immediate environment as others.
Good art skills can help, but an asset’s final condition and destination are ultimately dictated by the client.
Q: How should artists handle feedback when the client, art director, or production team sees the asset differently than they do?
By maintaining a healthy professional perspective. As a career artist, it’s vital to separate your ego and self-worth from the work on screen. Revisions are a natural part of the collaborative process, especially when feedback filters down through a complex studio hierarchy. Instead of taking the direction personally, it helps to view it as solving a puzzle for the project’s broader vision.
It’s all part of the pipeline.You’re also there to offer solutions even when the client doesn’t know what to change. The client sometimes needs help for those areas in an asset they didn’t plan for or thought about.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
Q: What separates an artist who is “good” from an artist who becomes trusted in production?
A general reliability across the board – from communication and clean files to delivery time, assignment comprehension, and pipeline adherence. If an artist is dependable and technical then artistic gaps can always be coached.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
It’s also worth noting that being a “good” artist doesn’t automatically mean someone wants to – or should – move into management. Leading people requires an entirely different creative and emotional skillset. As you move up the studio ladder, focus shifts from solo creation to managing the team.
Someone who can take an asset from start to finish without minimal feedback or direction.
Q: What should studios understand when they outsource character art?
A good rule of thumb for studios looking to outsource is understanding the limitations and needs that external teams have. People are people, and they need clear direction especially if your internal pipeline is primarily dictated by hearsay and quick demonstrations. It’s incredibly difficult for an external team if techniques are constantly being switched out for other options mid-process.
↓ Character art by Michael Long
If you want the best work from external sources, you need consistent communication through comprehensive feedback and clear documentation. There have been a couple of moments in my tenure where comprehensive documentation and communication were inconsistent, which caused lags where our direction was based on general precognition of our client’s intent.
Outsource studios aren’t microwaves, but rather ovens: you can’t just open the door, slide the food in, click it on, and hope things cook perfectly. You need to actively check up on it.
Q: What advice would you give to character artists who want to survive and grow in outsourcing production?
Embrace adaptability and safeguard your work-life balance. Project scopes shift, client priorities pivot, and sometimes assets you love get redesigned or cut entirely. Instead of letting these industry realities lead to frustration, view them as opportunities to practice resilience.
↓ By Michael Long
Improving your craft happens naturally over time, but maintaining your mental stability requires active effort. The artists who enjoy long, successful careers in outsourcing are the ones who treat the work with high professional standards, but don’t let the inevitable twists and turns of production affect their personal peace.
Conclusion
Outsourcing is not only about making good-looking art for external clients. It is a production environment where character artists learn how to adapt, communicate, deliver under changing conditions, and make assets that work inside real pipelines.
Michael’s experience can help artists understand what outsourcing actually demands, and help studios understand how to work with external character artists more effectively.
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