Possible Commission of 3D work?

JOdel

This is a fishing expedition. I've discussed various elements related to it in the forums here before, so some of you have heard of it. But now I'm going to ask about how much it would cost to commission the needed work done by someone else. There are talented amateurs out there who could probably handle this, since it doesn't *seem* to be a particularly complex project.

That much said, I may not be able to find someone willing or able to do all three portions of the project. I'm willing to deal with more than one person. But one at a time, by preference. Probably in the order listed.

The model already exists. Building something from scratch is not a part of the assignment. However, I do not know if it needs to be taken apart and parts of it redone. In any case, I know there is a missing poly which I do not know what happened to. I am reasonably sure that it was in the original model. The model was built in a student version of Maya which has timed out, or at any rate it will no longer open, so I cannot modify or fix anything myself. I think I have the Maya file, but I did export it as an .obj.

There are three components of the project.

1. Rigging the figure.
It's a relatively simple figure, and it isn't *supposed* to be able to move a lot. I only use Studio, so if weight-mapping gets used it needs to be for Studio. Legacy rigging is fine, however. Added rigidity would probably be helpful if that's possible. I don't want it to distort. There are already some distortions just from building it.
Basically the legs need to be able to rotate from their point of intersection with the body. They do not bend, you do not need to give them joints.
The tail needs some limited movement. A bit of a droop. Straight up to show alarm. Possibly some slight ability to flex from side to side, or rotate from the point of intersection. It may need more than one bone for the droop.
It would be nice if the head were able to manage some very limited movement from side to side and up and down. It isn't critical, but it would be nice. If it can't be done without too much distortion then it can be done without.
The ears need to be able to show some kind of expression. This may actually be more properly a part of component #3.

2. Proper UVmapping.
My intention is to apply shaders for most of the texture, since perfectly good shaders are already out there. But I've got a slew of areas which don't take shaders properly. In fact some of them don't take applied .jpgs properly. I've been given to expect that proper UVMapping might be able to solve the issue. It may end up being necessary to actually build texture files before it works correctly. So that could be a part of the deal. Hopefully not, however.
The model, as it exists, has a swarm of matt zones which I built in order to isolate all the problem areas, but the color shot below shows what the different areas *ought* to be when complete.
The blue areas are areas with applied images of a cross-cut log. At present the nose and chin areas will not take an image. It applies the image to *each separate poly*. This will not do.
The green area is bark, a shader will do nicely. The tail may need a separate matt zone since the scale of the bark may need to be adjusted. Possibly the legs as well. At present; the tail, the polys outside the edges of the eyes, the polys inside the area where the ears are attached, and the end of the snout, beyond where the mouth extends will not take the shaders properly.
The magenta is vertical wood grain. Preferably rough looking. A shader would do perfectly well.
The brown uses a metal shader. It works perfectly well as is, but so long as it's being mapped...
The red is also bark, but a different bark from the rest. This area does not take shaders properly.
The yellow is the inner bark. At present this area also does not take shaders properly.
The white (stem) and black (leaf) are small enough that I can't tell whether they take shaders or not. I may end up just using a diffuse color, although it might be nice to have a dead leaf texture to apply to it.

3. Expressions. This part probably will take someone who actually has some kind of a modeling program available. The close-ups show the areas involved. The tail rigging is already mentioned up in component #1. The dark triangle is the missing poly. (there should actually be a oddly-shaped 4-sided poly there. I'm sure there was one once.)
The ears and eyes; The ears need to be able to express some basic reactions. The eyes do not close, but it might be useful to be able to make them squint a bit.
The mouth. I'd like it to be possible for the straight edges to be able to be morphed into a bit of a curve; up-or-down, the curves extending and tapering to the straight line shown at the end of the notch representing the mouth. Ideally the upper and lower jaws' curves would be independent so one could apply them individually. Dials would be nice, but if they can only be applied as presets it's better than nothing.

So. That's the project. What I would like to know is what it would cost to accomplish it.