Hey There Fellow Artists !
so since i’m planning to Run an Online Commissions
however because Making animations would be a part of this commissions so i had to figure out how i can price Animations
and if i can merge both of Length and complexity to make a resonable price for the animations .
and yeah that’s all
and thank You 
I think just try it. You should be able to figure it out very quickly.
The animators I hang out with price per second - ie: 10 seconds of animation, $30/second = $300.
If you don’t know what you are selling is worth, you aren’t ready to sell it. What is your time worth an hour? If you spend an hour on commissions, what do you give up an hour doing? What is the opportunity cost of that hour? How much do you need to make in a week to pay for your bills and lifestyle? How many free hours do you have in a week?
Ponder those questions, calculator in hand, and you’ll arrive at your answer. I know, for example, my time for freelance stuff is worth $50 an hour. I have very limited free time, and to make freelance work worth spending less of that time with my family or doing things I want to do, it’s $50 an hour.
This also informs decisions about getting paid help. For example, my lawnmower broke recently. Some research showed me that it would take at least four hours to diagnose and fix the problem. I found an electric lawnmower on a great sale for $189, which is cheaper than the opportunity cost of four hours of my time, so I bought the electric lawnmower instead
As an aside, I took a quick look at it your Instagram. There are no animations showing there, so you need to be prepared to demonstrate the sort of work you do and what you’re capable of before you start putting up work for hire posts.
What kind of animation you’re referring to ? Character animation is evaluated in seconds per day…
But animation as an end product (animated movie, product animation) is evaluated by length and complexity. It can’t work otherwise.
A 3s shot with exploding dinosaurs and living buildings is going to cost a lot. But 1h of a very simple character talking is super expensive too.
Basically you should take the brief from the client and evaluate how each step cost in order to deliver the final product. Generally we can present 3 options low/medium/high with more or less bang and whistles, so you can start a discussion to adjust according to their budget !
It’s also possible to do the other way around, and work with a budget and see what you can fit in it…
It’s not easy because it’s not just about making the project, but also account for change and back and forth. It’s much simpler to learn all that by actually working for a studio and see how they manage clients. When you’re on your own generally it’s very easy to underestimate the budget at the beginning …
i see so in the end
it Depends on what kind of animation i will do
and discussing with the client will also help Knowing what they want based on their budget will lead to a good choice of price .
Yes each project is different ! It’s always a discussion to see how they can make the most of their money !
Unless you work on a very specific type of project it’s impossible to give a price range before a close study of what the client wants.
Maybe you’ve done 30 archviz project so at some point you can give an hestimate.
Or as Joseph said, you can say my price is … a day or an hour, but for clients since they don’t know how long something takes it won’t be useful.
In a studio you generally name your price based on a daily rate, since they have a good idea of how long something would take. As a freelancer working for non CG specialist, you first showcase what you’ve done. Then it’s already possible to give them a idea of the price of a project. Then you study closely their demands.
But it’s tricky because it can change. For instance I’ve once worked for a project which was a 30s demo of a drone flying in 3 different environments, with the best quality possible. But during the project we had to add some schematics , more information and other situational shots, so basically the budget for the 30s sequence was completely off as we ended up with a ~3mn film.
In these situations it’s very difficult to ask for more money as their budget is already locked. In these situation you must make a very clear invoice that is signed of with the client, that accounts for those situations…
In the end, I think we just managed to make everything fit more or less and lowered the initial quality… Needless to say that this client was particularly bad, but these situation are common when freelancing. But the good thing is when you’re well implemented you can make quite some money but it’s tough !
Price the project by the project, not by the “length” of the thing that finally comes out of it.
The project begins with the client’s first vaporous idea. And then it continues through the entire production process until the end. This is a “voyage of discovery” for both of you. And, you need to prepare both clear expectations, and a graceful way out.
You could also try to have two pricelists: one for basic animations, (like “this object moves here, this light changes, the camera moves ecc”) and one for complex ones, like motion graphics or even character animations.
Once you have a separation by level of complexity, you can charge by time
Very early in my (computer software …) consulting career, I encountered books by Herman Holtz (nee: “Hermann Holz”) which I now suggest that you find and read. The title was “Consulting Contracts.” In particular, he discussed things that I successfully adapted and used. There was a “General Services Agreement (GSA)” umbrella contract, under which “Task Orders” were issued.
Each “Task Order” was very specific, and the first one always consisted of mapping out the next few ones. (And, if we never meet eye-to-eye, we part as friends but you pay for one.) This cycle was repeated as necessary – and the GSA told the client to expect that. (He couldn’t say he didn’t know. And, he never did.)
The GSA umbrella contract specified the means by which the client could review the work-product of any order, and it specified a warranty in great (and confining) detail. If I screwed-up the code, I had to fix it for free. (I rarely did.)
The GSA was a very important legal umbrella: it strictly defined and constrained the Task Order system: “details, details, details!”
What this system does, most of all, is to engage the client in the process. While you define the Task Orders. The client is not simply paying lots-of-money for an ill-defined conclusion. He is right in there with you. Including the negotiation of the next Task Order that he will actually agree to sign. (Yes, the GSA said that, and how, the Task Orders would be negotiated.)
The client was never out of the loop, nor, off the hook. Not only was he informed, but he had to make decisions by agreeing to mine. (And, I had to make decisions he would agree to!) Everything was documented.
I’m sure that Herr Hol(t)z’s books are now out-of-print, but they can surely still be found.
Many of my clients later commented that the “Task Order system” and the “GSA” was what made my company stand out. “Businesslike!” Well, I am very pleased of every single project that I ever completed – over, fully, thirty(!) years now – using it.