Hey folks,
I’m a 3D Artist with over 10 years of experience using Blender. I started when I was 14, so a lot of that time was during school. However, I’ve also spent 1 ½ years in the VFX industry as a Junior Modeling Artist before being laid off during the writer’s strikes.
Currently, I’ve been working as a freelance generalist for about 8 months. I mainly work for small animation studios, YouTube channels similar to Ferns (in terms of size and content style, though not Fern itself), and occasionally individuals.
From the start, I’ve struggled to determine my daily rate. I come from a family with limited financial resources, and, like many artists, I often feel that my skills aren’t quite up to par.
When I Google the typical rates for freelance 3D artists, I often find myself far below the numbers I come across. However, I understand that rates can vary greatly depending on the companies you work with. For instance, I don’t work in advertising or on big-budget productions. Instead, I focus on game trailers (when small animation studios hire me) or educational content for medium-sized YouTube channels (500k–3M subscribers). A typical project for a YouTube channel might take around 10 workdays. My work on game trailers has been longer, lasting 1–2 months (including weekends). These games aren’t AAA titles, but they are also not complete indie games—more like studios with 50–200 people.
Given my skill level and the type of work I do, what would be a typical daily rate I could charge?
Here’s my Website and Artstation to give you a sense of my skill level:
https://malteullrich.artstation.com/
I live in Europe, but work with clients from all over the world, including the US.
Thanks for your insights!