I have had 2 job offers this week from different companies wanting me to model and render a few stills and animations for their products. As the offers were generated from word of mouth and not from me advertising (wow what a self-esteem boost!) I think I should take my “hobby” a bit more seriously. Especially in light of the suppressed economy. If anyone who reads this has any good advice on the most fair way to charge I would absolutely be greatful for any tips or suggestions you may have. :yes:
I have never made money with blender or had a similar offer,but I think you should elaborate a bit more on what they want to see. I think it would depend on the amount of work etc.
per project basis if its a freelance gig.
do a round estimate for how long the job would take, double the time,
cause its always going to take longer than you think
(+ the client might change their mind about some details in the end), and charge hourly.
mind you before that, is the pre-production/concept stage,
so that is purely up to you & the specific client, in my experience so, any way’s.
Thanks for your responses. I’d like to talk a bit more with you Felix since you have the experience and of course get anyone elses opinion if they want to offer it. I’ll send you a PM felix.
I agree with Felix about clients changing their minds and only want to add to charge by the hour (which you will have to keep track of).
If you have never done the whole process, this will be a great learning experience for you as first, you need to get the concept approved (have the client sign off so that you can proceed).
My only advise to you is that you should try to see the project from the clients side as they (the client(s)) need to feel that they are being helped and not taken advantage of. What I’m trying to say is that if you can suggest something that will add value to the gig, do it as such improvements make you look professional and help earn their trust. That is pretty much what it is all about.
Be especially careful if animals are involved (the 3D kind) as clients love to get quotes for modelling and rigging but when it comes time to render, out of nowhere the question might pop up: “Can we have fur on there”? Trust me, they will try! LOL
Anyway, we all learn from mistakes so just do the best you can and become a blender hero
depending on the length of the job, work out week; day; half-day; and hour rates.
make sure you’re not underselling yourself (between £25-£50 per hour is a reasonably happy medium) so that when your clients come back, they won’t be expecting to pay you with pocket lint and Werthers Originals.
Make sure you know the brief inside out (I can’t emphasise that enough - there’s no such thing as a stupid question if it saves your reputation or 12 hours of frantic recovery work, or both) and that the client is aware what you will and will not do - for example, you might like to let the client have say 3 different iterations of amends before you start charging on a per-amend basis.
Make sure you triple check all your work, and ask the client for an email or note confirming that they’re happy with the work you’ve done once it’s been completed.
oh yeah, and get everything in writing before you start working,
Make sure you know who owns the rights to your work once it’s finished…people pay extra for IP rights these days.
finally, don’t forget that design/concepting/storyboarding is work too - charge appropriately.
[edit] oh and don’t forget that if you can’t do everything, you can always outsource work to someone who can. A render farm might just save your arse…
That’s pretty much what I came up with thanks a lot for your help. I don’t have any experience with renderfarms so if you have anything to add about it that may be good. Anyone with renderfarm experience or any knowledge of free renderfarms (do they exist anymore?) let me know.
i havnt used a renderfarm before but i found a promising one a few days ago, its completely free and has reasonable restrictions(100mb max file size, images that take longer than 5 minutes to render are aborted) the only downside is that its restricted to non comercial work. i havnt read through all the info so maybe there is an option for comercial projects http://rendering-portal.cpc.wmin.ac.uk/
