How much to charge?

Hi there,
I am a healthcare provider who started messing with Blender a few years ago bc I was tired of trying to explain things to patients and I needed visual help. I’m really not very good at Blender compared to most of you.
Anyway, some of my videos had gotten the attention of some people in healthcare and I have a couple healthcare organizations/colleges asking me to make videos for them and they will pay me.
Given my lack of skills in Blender, but also that I don’t have much extra time on my hands to be taking on projects unless they’re worth my while, what would be a reasonable amount to charge? Does one charge per hour or per project?
Here is a sample of some videos, to give you an idea of my skill level…or lack of :wink:




Thanks!
Kevin

Moved from “Jobs > Paid Work” to “Misc: > Off-topic Chat”

I took a look at your videos and I must say that I found them, first of all, very informative. I am a runner and then I looked at them with great interest, especially the one related to shoes. That said I find that they are good videos, although, of course, there is plenty of room to improve them. But this improvement depends partly on your skills, and partly on how much time and budget you want to spend on them.
If the budget allows it, you can ask someone else to help you to make them more professional, in terms of 3D models and video editing.
As for the price, an hourly rate of 25/30 $ could be reasonable. If they want to know how much the video will costs, try to calculate the hours of work necessary to realize it.
Someone with more experience than you ask for a certain amount for each second of animation. But maybe it’s harder for you to calculate.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. I will take all that into consideration.

Also, I looked at your showreel and it’s really impressive!

Thank you!
Feel free to contact me if you need! :wink:

These are decent animations. If you’ll forgive some unsolicited advice, I’d recommend simplifying them down a bit to draw attention to the animation itself. white backgrounds, gentle gradients, less physics simulations for small details (like the paper falling). Most medical animations I have seen are much cleaner, but the quality of the rendering itself is comparable to what you have here.

Now, as far as pricing, there are two sides to this, and your miles may vary:

On one hand, I would advise a little higher than $25-30/hour, maybe more like $35-50. You’re dealing with the medical and education industry, so there’s likely some cash available. Professional animation will be even higher than that, so you’re still positioning yourself as a value proposition. Often, professional clients have an expectation of professional pricing, and coming in with a low-ball quote screams amateur hour.

On the other hand, It’s quite possible that the people asking you to make animations aren’t considering hiring you vs. hiring someone else. it’s more likely they are considering hiring you vs. not making animations. In that case, it’s really easy to scare those clients away by quoting professional or near professional pricing. in that case, I might go with beawolf’s advice.

It’s always a bit of a crapshoot with pricing. Since this is a side gig, and you seem plenty busy with your day job, not landing a CG client isn’t a huge issue. So shoot for the moon, this is a specialist skillset in a specialist profession. There isn’t a ton of people out there who have a grasp on anatomy and are capable CG artists. You are one of them. But if you hate your day job and would love to be doing CG for a career, then it might be worth making less money to have some clients under your belt.

One last piece of advice, get written permission to use any work you do for your personal promotion. doing a job on the cheap because it will look really good on your reel can really backfire if you don’t get permission to put it in your reel.

Good luck out there, it seems like you are in a good position within your niche and I believe you are fully capable of pursuing these opportunities.