Sunborn — the studio already infamous in China's freelance art community — has once again been publicly dragged on Weibo. This time, the accuser is an artist known as '小罗老师' (Teacher Xiaoluo), who posted a series of white-background red-text callout posts (a format colloquially known as '大字报', or big-character poster) detailing three separate commissions gone wrong. The trigger: the latest incident involved a new character design for Neural Cloud (云图计划).
According to the artist's own account and community summaries, Teacher Xiaoluo took on three Sunborn commissions total, each with its own horror story. The first was for Girls' Frontline 2 — accepted for the exposure despite rock-bottom pay. After rounds of revisions, the final artwork was altered so much that the artist's personal style was completely unrecognizable, defeating the entire purpose of taking the job for name recognition.
The second was for Girls' Frontline 1. The original brief specifically called for a short-haired design, which the artist delivered. But near the deadline, Sunborn suddenly demanded a switch to long hair. After a heated back-and-forth, the short-haired version was preserved. However, as of the time of the Weibo post, this commission still hadn't been published, and the pay was still pitiful.
The third and final commission — the one that broke the camel's back — was for Neural Cloud. The artist completed the sketch, got Sunborn's approval, and moved on to full rendering. After finishing the first ascension art, Sunborn demanded a complete redraw of the face. The artist wanted to bail, but too much work was already done: both sketch phases approved, first ascension nearly complete, second ascension only needing final polish. The result? A 60% pay cut.
But here's the part that sent the community into a frenzy: the version that actually shipped in-game used the ORIGINAL face — the one before the demanded redraw. In other words, Sunborn made the artist redo it, then shipped the old version anyway. Peak corporate nonsense, or as one commenter put it: 'the artist went through hell for nothing.'
The artist also posted screenshots of conversations with Sunborn's team, including their side-by-side comparison of the approved sketch versus the shipped design. However, the original NGA poster noted it might be a case of 'both sides are wrong' — implying the situation isn't entirely one-sided.
The top-voted comment on NGA (Floor 18) served as the ultimate TL;DR, summarizing all three commissions in devastating brevity: 'Took on three Sunborn jobs. Pay was trash, demands were insane, reputation didn't grow one bit, got passive-aggressively snarked on the last one, and the pent-up rage finally exploded.' It earned 13 upvotes and shot to the top of the thread.
Community reactions were sharply divided. Floor 1 bluntly called Sunborn 'the worst kind of client: pays nothing, demands everything.' Floor 2 rattled off a hit list of artists who've clashed with Sunborn before — 音符 (Yinfu), 木石油 (Mushiyou), 猴妈 (Monkey Mom), 水乌龟 (Water Turtle) — lamenting that 'Sunborn is permanently at war with the artist community.' Floor 16 delivered the most savage sarcasm: 'Sunborn has fought with countless artists, but whenever something blows up, it's definitely the artist's fault. Every single artist is the problem.'
The other camp wasn't having it either — but their target was the artist. Floor 5 argued: 'Yeah Sunborn is trash, but you agreed to the job — if the pay was too low, don't take it... Posting this public callout feels unprofessional.' Floor 8 was even more blunt: 'You're a freelancer, act like one. The client calls the shots. If you don't like the pay, walk away.' Floor 9 roasted the white-background red-text format itself: 'This reeks of Weibo activist poster energy.'
There's also a timeline twist worth noting. Floor 13 added a key detail with comparison images: the artist's Weibo post was deleted as of May 27. The callout was up, then pulled — possibly due to pressure, possibly a moment of 'maybe I went too far.' The reason remains unclear.
Floor 17 provided the receipts that really hit hard: one image showing Sunborn's demand for a face redraw after the sketch was approved, another showing the final in-game build — which is nearly identical to the pre-redraw version. They also showed the in-house artist's polish-over of the work, and the final tally: only 40% of the agreed fee was paid (a 60% deduction). 'You be the judge,' the commenter wrote.
This is far from Sunborn's first public falling-out with freelance artists. From previous incidents involving 音符, 木石油, 猴妈, and 水乌龟 to this latest blow-up with Teacher Xiaoluo, Sunborn's conflicts with the artist circle have practically become a recurring tradition. Floor 12 summed it up perfectly: 'We're so back. The familiar smell. This is the real Sunborn.' Whether this was a case of a stingy client with impossible standards or a thin-skinned freelancer overreacting — that's for the internet to endlessly argue about.
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