good price for a client ?

# 1 03-06-2009 , 11:46 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: Bulgaria, Vidin

Posts: 1,310

Hello i found my first 3D job :attn:
So far i've made 3 poses of a dragon only in white background to be good working with the posed model into photoshop. For the dragon skin and rig ( the mesh was given by the client) i gain 25 euros. Now he will need animation of the dragon for a banner and in future for TV ...
Any advices of how much i must get from him ....
lets say for re-rigging the whole model + adding ctrls + animate it ?
I think i may tax him per second ( 24/25 frames )

give some advices please user added image

Art Director
www.sevenbullsgames.com

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# 2 04-06-2009 , 09:33 PM

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Join Date: Jul 2006

Location: London

Posts: 567

TBH not a clue, but congrats either way!!

Chris

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# 3 05-06-2009 , 09:11 PM

Maniacal boy king of Babylon
Join Date: Aug 2005

Location: the netherlands

Posts: 1,605

Hey Coldwave congrats

It depends on where you live i guess, so it's hard to give advice about this.
I wouldn't do something strange as letting them pay per second or something it's confusing and doesn't look professional in my opinion.

first you have to determine what kind of client you' re dealing with is it a small company with no contacts with the rest of the cg industry or a big company with a lot of contacts or is it something in between.

I don't know if 25 euro is much money where you live, but here it's peanuts( i honestly don't want to patronize or insult you in any way, i just don't know how much an euro is worth in bulgaria)

But to paint a picture so maybe you can do a comparison;
Maya(edit; complete) in the netherlands costs E 2225 Ex Vat/taxes,
The average wages of personel is somewhere around E1500(rough estimate)-edit; a month-
and what i hear around me of freelancers is that they ask an hourly fee between E60 and E120 ex Vat/taxes, but there are excessesboth high and low, it depends who you and your customers are; large advertising agencies pay a lot more then the local tv network

And to be quite honest most of them throw 30-40 % on top of that total so if the customer complains or doesn't pay the last term or changes stuff a lot during production or you make an eror in your calculation etc etc.
So the 30-40 % is something you can use as a buffer/overhead or whatever.

Don't underprice yourself you will be used as a personal houseslave if you let them walk all over you, start with a high price(let's say your equivalent of E75 since it's your first gig) and throw a buffer of 50% over the total price, then the customer complains and then you ask the golden question;
" what did you have in mind?"
And they will scale down, but scale down on a highly overpriced offer.
What you can also do is finish an animation with the dragon make a playblast of it show it to them, to win them over some more, but make sure it's good otherwise it could backfire.

Another important thing is that when you reel in this client is that you make a clear schedule and a clear vision of the endproduct so you don't have to fiddle around to much with changing stuff.

Good luck user added image

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Last edited by mastone; 05-06-2009 at 09:14 PM.

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# 4 05-06-2009 , 09:19 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: Bulgaria, Vidin

Posts: 1,310

You are speaking in Euros ? Right ...
Well i know my work and afford but i'm little (blushed) asking higher prices .... but yeah the golden question really grabs me !!! 10x a lot mastone user added image

Art Director
www.sevenbullsgames.com

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# 5 05-06-2009 , 10:09 PM

Maniacal boy king of Babylon
Join Date: Aug 2005

Location: the netherlands

Posts: 1,605

Yes these are euro's but here everything is more expensive, i highly doubt you have to pay E900 a month on bills so you have to put it in perspective.

And don't be affraid(and don't show them you are ) to ask a higher price out of the top of my hat i would ask somewhere around E10-15 Ex Vat an hour when you calculate the total.
I mean they know how you work they actually let you make something which means they are already partial to you, just make sure it's a face to face conversation, smile a lot if they want to go towards pricing issues throw it away with a smile and show them some quality work you have already done always emphasize the quality of your work and they shoul be honored to have you on board (exagerating a bit here of course but you know what i mean)

I mean if they are a big company making your price to low will cause them taking you not seriously i actually know a guy who made an offer on goverment contracted work based on an hourly fee of E150 an insider who wanted him to get the job told him to make a price based on an hourly fee of E300 " otherwise they don't take you seriously"
needles to say it felt like a divorce when the contract finished-men always seem to lose half, LOL-
true story.

just prepare your work and talk the talk and walk the walk.
oh and if budget allows buy some new clothes when you visit them, something that says" follow me i know the way"(Indy joke)

I wish you all the best in your endevour.

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# 6 06-06-2009 , 09:59 PM

As Zbrushiac sounds stupid!
Join Date: Nov 2007

Location: Derby

Posts: 1,241

It depends who your working for.... a big company, or an individual. If your worried about asking for too much money, ask for services or products. For example: I was recently approached by a small Ferrari dealership that was interested in me modeling some art for their website. They asked me for a quote... I gave them a flat rate of $1,500. They weren't too happy, so I said IF they included a Ferrari as part of the payment (even second hand) I would take 50% off of my asking price.... I haven't heard back from them yet, BUT I'm holding strong.... I'm not going to fold. user added image

But seriously.... congrats. I don't have much more advice to add to whats already been said!

Good luck!

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