According to GlobalMarketStatistics, the global animation, VFX and gaming industry is set to reach an astonishing USD 487.6 billion in 2025, up from USD 462.2 billion in 2024, reflecting soaring demand for visual creativity and world-building.
With stakes this high, getting your concept art pricing strategy right is critical. It’s the first visual step that sets tone, style, and atmosphere long before production. In this guide, we’ll break down the most common types of concept art services, current pricing and the factors that influence quotes.
Concept Art Pricing in 2025
Below are the most common types of concept art used in game development, with updated concept art rates for 2025.
Estimated ranges for sketches, concepts, keyframes, and high-end promo art.
Concept Art — Cost & Rates
Prices vary depending on level of detail, rendering quality, and whether the artwork is intended for internal development, marketing, or AAA projects.
Type
Price Range (USD)
Character sketch (lineart)
$400–600
Colored character concept
$800–1,500
Environment concept (keyframe)
$1,500–3,500
Large promo concept (AAA)
$4,000–6,000+
Need a custom quote? Email us at hello@rocketbrush.com with your project details and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Prices are indicative and vary by style (casual, stylized, realistic), asset complexity and iteration count. These figures reflect typical 2025 industry ranges and may shift with scope and artist seniority.
At RocketBrush Studio, our flexible rate is $35–37/h, and for larger scopes we apply volume efficiencies that lower the per-asset price.
Different Levels of Concept Art: Choosing the Right Fit
Characters can look very different in early stages of prototyping and concept development | Artwork by RocketBrush Studio
Concept art isn’t one-size-fits-all. The right level depends on your production stage and goals:
Early prototyping: Quick sketches in the $400–600 range help test different character silhouettes, costumes, or environment layouts before committing resources. They’re fast, flexible, and perfect for experimentation.
Mid-production: Colored character concepts ($800–1,500) and environment keyframes ($1,500–3,500) give production teams reliable blueprints. These guide 3D modeling, animation, and level design—keeping the whole team aligned.
Late-stage polish and promotion: AAA-grade promo concepts priced at $4,000–6,000+ are best for trailers, store banners, and press kits. They don’t just look impressive—they shape how your audience perceives the game before release.
Choosing the right tier helps align your spend with production priorities, ensuring your concept art budget delivers maximum impact. These assets are investments in your game’s visibility and branding, so the higher investment often pays off through stronger audience engagement.
Concept Art Cost: What Influences the Final Numbers?
The cost is never a one-size-fits-all equation. Several key factors shape the final concept art price of outsourced assets:
Art style: Casual or cartoony designs usually take fewer hours compared to detailed, realistic rendering. A simple stylized approach may only need bold shapes and flat colors, while a realistic cinematic concept requires meticulous texturing, lighting, and atmospheric depth, increasing hours and overall pricing.
Complexity: A single character with simple clothing is cheaper than an elaborate armored warrior with accessories and props. Complex armor, layered costumes, or large environments demand extra iterations and design research, which increases the budget required.
Purpose of the artwork: Internal design sketches are faster to deliver, while promo-grade art demands multiple passes and detailing. Production art can be functional and minimal, but marketing visuals must be polished to the highest standard, making them the most expensive tier.
Revisions and iterations: More feedback cycles extend production time, impacting the budget. If your team provides vague or late-stage feedback, it can mean redrawing entire compositions. Clear and timely communication keeps rates lower and schedules intact.
Batch size: Larger outsourcing orders often reduce per-asset fees. This works because teams can apply a consistent pipeline across many assets — reducing overhead and keeping the concept art budget efficient.
Cutting Costs of Concept Art: Four Simple Tips
If you’re planning your concept art budget in 2025, a few strategies can help you get the most value from your outsourcing partner:
Define scope early: The clearer the brief, the fewer revisions you’ll need. A good scope should include style references, mood boards, and notes on the target audience. This reduces guesswork and ensures the concept art price stays predictable.
Prioritize assets: Start with key visuals that set the mood, then expand to secondary designs. For example, defining your protagonist and main environments first creates a strong visual baseline that simplifies work on side characters, props, and background scenes.
Batch work when possible: Ordering multiple assets at once can lower unit cost. Beyond cost savings, batching also helps the art team stay in the flow of your project’s style—meaning more consistency and fewer redraws.
Decide on fidelity: Not every asset needs AAA polish. Quick sketches are great for internal communication and gameplay testing, while high-detail renderings should be reserved for investor decks, promotional campaigns, or flagship characters. Balancing fidelity against purpose is one of the smartest ways to keep costs under control.
Why Concept Art Outsourcing Matters
Some of our character concept art we made for TreasureLand’s trailer | Artwork by RocketBrush Studio
Studios of all sizes turn to game art outsourcing for concept design. Hiring external artists gives teams access to diverse styles and professional execution without overloading in-house resources. Outsourcing is especially valuable when you need:
A fresh artistic perspective: External teams bring visual ideas that your in-house artists might not consider. This often helps shape unique worlds and characters that stand out in a crowded market.
Flexible scaling of art production: Outsourcing allows studios to ramp up art creation during crunch periods and scale back when the workload eases, without the long-term cost of maintaining a large full-time art team.
Predictable per-asset pricing: When every sketch, character, or environment concept comes with a clear quote, it’s easier to plan budgets and avoid scope creep in early development stages.
Access to specialists in different styles: Casual, stylized, or hyper-realistic concepts require different skills. An outsourcing partner can provide the right expert for each visual direction, ensuring consistent quality across the pipeline.
For indie teams, outsourcing concept art keeps early production lean. For AA and AAA studios, it ensures large volumes of assets can be delivered on tight schedules.
Turning Concepts Into Real Vision
Every great game begins with a sketch of a hero, a vision of a world, a moment of atmosphere captured in color. And eventually that spark leads to something your whole team can rally around.
Outsourcing gives you the freedom to explore more directions, polish the ones that matter and scale production without slowing down. If you’d like a tailored quote, send references, scope, and deadlines to hello@rocketbrush.com — we’ll help align quality and budget.
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