Hello,
I’m thinking about getting into freelance. I have no idea how much should I charge for a project?
For a example how much you would charge for a fully unwrapped highpoly object like this(with 4096x4096 texture). Also I have no idea about hourly rate. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
You should ideally charge as much as you can. You don’t need to charge every client the same amount. Your client probably has an idea about what they’re looking to spend, which depends on their budget. Ask them what they’re looking to spend and then tell them what (if anything) you can realistically deliver for that price.
Also I have no idea about hourly rate.
Clients tend to be willing to spend more for a fixed price than running the risk of paying hourly. Also, people won’t expect to pay somebody from Sri Lanka an hourly rate comparable to somebody in a country with higher cost of living. A fixed price obfuscates this a bit.
4k texture… Isn’t that overkill?
Hmm i’ve never been a great fan of objects with extreme texture detail (that garbage bin is eventually just a small part of a scene).
Perhaps sell in different texture size, and i be curious to know what one would sell best then.
Get experienced first, otherwise you’re just spitting in your own bowl of soup and dissing others who already do this for a living.
Thanks for the reply guys. I have 2 year experience with 3d modeling. But I would really appreciate if someone can give me a Number(cost for a particular project. Some people from US, UK asked me to join their projects)
sigh
First of all, it’s very unlikely that somebody will give you that kind of specific information. Secondly, none of it applies to you. The client and the relationship will have been different. I can’t put a value on your rusty blue mailbox with a 4k texture, because I don’t need it. All the artists on these forums can’t do that, either. They’re on the opposite end. Some guy might’ve gotten something like that sold for XXX$, that doesn’t mean you will be able to.
Everyone charges differently, depending on their needs and the capacity of the client to pay.
Do you need work immediately? Charge less. Do you have clients lined up? Charge more. Don’t significantly charge less than you really need. Calculate your costs of living, then put a premium on top (of your choice).
If you’re just starting out, charge a more modest amount, get some references. (Try to) charge your subsequent clients more. Don’t change rates mid-project, or else you’re fucking up calculations.
Oh wait… you wanted a number, right? Five dollar! Everything five dollar.
Sometimes it is worth checking what similar things cost on Turbosquid. In this case us mailboxes range from 5 to 50 Dollars.
Note that Turbosquid takes a 30 percent cut.
Will to tell you the truth it’s about what you think American how much is it going to glass you to do the job but I will till you this
I worked for a guy who is actually working on a mobile app and he wanted a bg for his app it wasn’t realistic but I charged him for 100$ for each bg
Thanks. Also you could apply for custom offers.
Thanks. But some models were undercut. Royalty rate 40% for non exclusive artists, and 60% for exclusive artists.
Thanks. What do you mean by “bg”
Don’t use Turbo Squid prices. They are constructed on the basis that you will sell several of them over the lifetime of the project. This will be a completely different price for a one-off item where you need to pay for the time/electricity and rent on one sale.
One way to look at it is to charge what you would have made at your day job over the time it would take you to complete that item. You know that what you earn there will pay the rent (hopefully!). Once you are more established, you can put it up to a more comfortable level.
BG = Back Ground.
i think the clients will expect you to charge according to your country rates or a little higher.best reference for you will be somebody working in animation industry from your place.
The thing is your model is not worth more if you can get the same thing on TS for a lot less. Unless of course your client doesn´t know much about 3D. But you probably won´t be selling a mailbox to an end client. You are much more likely to be selling a mailbox to a client who is a studio or some other freelancer who is making some sort of Arch Viz or advertisment animation or something like this And such people usually know about TS and the like and will only commision models like this is they require a unique object. Which agian is unlikely with something as generic as a mailbox.
So this sort of object probably won´t sell at all besides on places like TS.
Okay I’m going to go out on a limb here and give you some actual numbers. I think it’s actually kind of funny how everyone is being to secretive about money. This is information you can just look up on the google.
So for freelance work I almost always think about how many hours it takes me to model/texture/rig/animate something (sometimes all of the above) and multiply that with my hourly rate (anywhere between $30 - $60/hour depending on the client and the job). Also factor in if it’s a rush job, my hourly rate can go up as well. You should also know that I’ve been working in the industry for 20+ years. And that’s just for Assets. When you are doing the whole job like a commercial or print ad or something like that. The cost goes up too because there are a bunch of charges for things like rendering and administrative fees and such.
As far as actual numbers go, for someone just starting out in the US general CG industry, that’s usually about $20/hour. +/- $5 depending on where you are. As you gain more experience and more jobs in your portfolio you can raise your rate.
Now, for someone living in Sri Lanka $20 is 3045.80 LKR (currently). I have no idea what a living wage there is so I can’t comment on that.
I met an American guy once who was living in Beijing China while working in web design for US clients. He was making about $80/hour which by Chinese standards at the time was living like a king. His rent for a pretty sizable modern apartment was about the equivalent of $300 USD a month. He said the same place here in Portland, Oregon would go for about $2500 - $3000 a month. That’s pretty ridiculous when you consider everything.
lol
All I can say is my opinion. That is that I freelanced for a while and made good money, but I never liked it much. I prefer to do my own thing.
But whatever.
Thank you Indy-logic for actually answering OP’s question
We are not secretive but this question is like asking “how long is a rope?”.
No because it takes the same amount of work and gives the client freedom to downscale it. Why would you make textures at low resolution to start with anymore? It’s 2017 people.
Sometimes a texture will not look good if downscaled. If you make low res textures it is sometimes better to design the texture to be good with little detail. If you simply scale down a large texture it will be designed to look good with lots of detail and perhaps the detail will be there but blurry or look bad for other reasons.
Thank you very much for the information. Really appreciate it.