fralea

That new image they sent you is bizarre and I can't believe they insisted on charging you to put a gradient in the back.

The reason why they wouldn't answer on why the quality had changed is likely because the Kiohda picture is also traced. You can see that the style of it varies widely compared to the drawn samples on their Artstation.

Speaking of, on their Artstation they used filtered Tokyo Ghoul covers as multiple examples of a commission of an "oc character" they sent a client 😧 

My animation collab partner and I worked with this client in June 2018- May 2019 for a similar animation and it was an awful experience.

They were constantly (even before paying) wanting to change the scope of the project to something more than the stated price range, and after they paid, for more than what was paid for. They wanted work before payment (we refused), they kept contacting me on my day off (after being told multiple times not to), sending us reference materials unrelated to the project in order to try and get us to do extra work, trying to get us to take on more projects at once than we were comfortable with, and complaining about being charged extra once they used up their free edits (as outlined in the TOS they agreed to). They even asked me for reviews AFTER they paid me, so I contacted my other clients and a few of them let me send their emails to this client. They were constantly asking for updates and changing their mind about things despite regular WIP being sent, and asked for a refund multiple times before immediately changing their mind.

They also asked me to refer them to an animator who could edit someone else's art, which I informed them was illegal and which I found incredibly concerning.

They originally paid 500USD split between me and my collab partner, which we finally refunded 200USD of after they asked for a refund two days after I posted the first WIP update for the colouring, and giving them the file for the animated lineart.

I believe at that point I had actually had a caution post typed up and ready to post myself, but after they agreed to the refund I decided it was resolved so I shouldn't bother. I'm sorry... if I had done so maybe you wouldn't have worked with them.