This one, that I fell for TWICE, is targeted at the freelance digital artist that is seeing tough times, like everyone else in the country. It starts out with a harmless add on Craig's List, in the help wanted section, advertising for a Photoshop artist, or After Effects guru, or even 3D animation artist.
I answered one ad for a Photoshop touch-up artist and here is how it went...
The "employer" contacted me via e-mail and requested quite a lot of information about myself and asked that I take part in a "test" of my Photoshop skills. The test was very specific and it involved creating an architectural image using several photos, that were provided. The finished image was to be uploaded to their site and would be judged to determine if I would be "approved" as a freelance artist for their company. I spent a solid two days , as the test was quite demanding, creating the final artwork.
As with all spec work, I added a watermark, which at the very least reminds the possible client where the finished artwork came from. This is something that I will ALWAYS do for all my spec work from now on. I suggest to any reader that they do the same, as the following events will show why.
A week later I get another e-mail stating that I had been selected from a huge number of entrants and I should be very proud. There was a small problem with my image, though, and a second trial will help qualify my entry. With this new test they were willing to "pay" me to take the second test. They would credit my PayPal account $100 for my troubles. This entry had to be submitted with no water mark, and all the source files should accompany the entry.
"Fair enough", I thought, until I saw the new "test". This test was much more involved than the last test, including putting together a scene from several location photos, and using my own stock images. The instructions came in a video that was just captured screen video with a rough voice recording that was tough to understand. I went ahead and took the challenge, spending a lot of time till it was perfect.
I sent in my entry. Sure enough, in a week I received an email that said I had been "accepted", along with a few other choice candidates, and would receive my $100 into my PayPal account. They also went on to say that the next step would be an on-line interview and I would be contacted to set up this interview in the near future.
Well, I did get the $100 in my PayPal account, minus the transaction fee. If I add up all the hours that I spent on the two "tests" it works out to be about $3.50 / hour. I never heard from these people again. I e-mailed them, asking about the interview, and I was told that I had been "approved" and I would be contacted soon.
I figured that maybe they were a start-up and things were not progressing as planned. I forgot about it and went on looking for work. I then came across another ad looking for After Effects artists for an outfit in New York that had a satellite office in South Florida (red flag). I sent off my resume and link to my website. The next day I was contacted by email to look on-line at their "test" to see if I qualified for the job. I was given a login and password to access the test. This time the company was not as smart as the previous company. The access to the website was given to all the "applicants" with the same login and password, so I could see all the other "applicants" uploads. I looked at some of the other submissions and thought I could do better.
I spent quite a bit of time trying different method of making fluid movement out of the still storyboard images that were provided. In all fairness, I did an "ok" job. It was still better than any of the other submissions that I looked at. The problem was that the stills were hand drawn images. I had the idea to use morphs to go from image to image to try and smooth out the animation. The morphs showed up the differences in the different cells of any particular character. In order for the animation to be smooth, the characters would have to be re-drawn, with 2D animation in mind.
After I submitted my entry, I never heard anything so I e-mailed them to please let me know what they though of my work. No reply. I sent another e-mail a week later saying that I would prefer a negative response to no response. Still no reply.
I have never had to take an on-line test to get work before, so I though it suspicious that this should happen, with the same results, twice in less than two months time. I decided to browse the internet and see if anyone else had experienced this sort of nonsense.
I found this link that describes an ad for freelance work, that is a little more blatant about the nature of the submissions. I like the author of the website link's reply.
It is a shame, during these tough times, that there are so many that will take advantage of people looking for work. To have a scam that is based on others misfortunes just seems to me to be just one step over the line. It takes scum to a new level.
Sorry that my latest Blog is a rant, but I feel I am doing good if I can help another freelance artist from falling for these sleazy tactics to get free artwork out of hard working artists.
Flame Off
