3d animation, and how much should I charge

[Arkmand]

Hello everybody, I hope it’s ok to post here, my name is Armando and this is the kind of animations I do.

http://www.vimeo.com/1494457

I hope you get interested. I made most of this work when I was working at a
video production house, this is the first time I try to sell by myself.

And because I want more than one person asking me for an animation,
I would like you to tell me how much should I charge, how much
do you think is a fair price.

I hope you can help me by choosing one logo animation of the reels and tell
me how much do you think it should cost or how much were you likely to
pay for it (take in account a duration between 10 and 15 seconds).

Any extra advice will be appreciated.

[Rob]

damn, looks professional in my opinion.

I don’t know anything about animation rates but you can call other places that do professional animations and act like a client. Then ask them how much it would cost you and there ya go…you now have an idea of how much pros charge.

[SteveMann]

When you get an RFQ, estimate the time you will spend on the project, add 10-15% because we all underestimate a project, then multiply by the hourly rate that you feel like you are worth. Don’t include rendering time because you could be working on another project while the first renders.

I know that I’ve seen the scuba divers clip somewhere – where was it?

Also, no one is going to take you seriously with a yahoo email address. Your name is unique enough that you may be able to get it in a dot-com address. I recommend GoDaddy.com.

[addisonn]

wow that video is amazing!!! all i know is you should charge ALOT!!

[chrisColorado]

SteveMann knows!

DUDE THAT IS AWESOME, I’M ALMOST THERE. My After Effects demo will look a lot like that. What software did you use?

I kind of understood the spanish, too.

I’m glad to know i’m not the only one here who uses vimeo.com

[Arkmand]

Thanks for your words.

SteveMann. The scuba divers animation was for Polo-polo a mexican comedian.
chrisColorado. I used 3dsmax, Blender, After Effects and a bit of Combustion for transitions.
addisonn. I would like to charge a lot too.

I am currently following your advices, in fact I found concrete information about price
ranges here http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/784826.html
Of course, those prices apply between very big companies, and the quality they offer is
for blockbusters vfx films.

In other site I found a company that is more aimed to what I want to offer (but, honestly
the quality they offer is below mine), they make animated logos for a price between $450
and $550 and they charge $350 for the design if there is no logo artwork. I think is a good
price and match the hourly rate I want, but would you be interested in an animation for this price?

All I want is to have continuous work. I want my quality/price relation be attractive even
for people who don’t think an eyecatching logo is necessary. I want amateurs, prosumers and
pros asking me for some work. And I don’t want to wait more.

I would like to start right now, (with that yahoo email address :-P, while I earn some money to
setup a decent website, and set better prices), so lets talk about numbers!.

Would anybody here be interested in a custom logo animation for $250?
(if not, more advices/rate examples will be appreciated)

[Rob]

“Would anybody here be interested in a custom logo animation for $250?”

Are you asking for our opinion? If you ask me, I think 250 is low; really low. I don’t know much about the animation branch of our industry, but I would assume it takes many hours of work. I wouldn’t be surprised if people payed over 500 for animated logos depending on how complex it is. But like I said, i dunno much about this area.

[chrisColorado]

yeah that isa little bitlower than some. but you should probably start low and work up.

I design my own logos, since I know Blender, Anim8or, Lightwave 3D and After Effects. But thanks for the offer, Arkmand.

I’m glad to see you use Blender. I’m workingon the chapter about Blender for my freeware book/blog right now and youare one of many I’ve found who use Blender as well as pro favorites like 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave 3D, Cinema 4D…

[Ryan3078]

I would either charge by the hour, or offer different packages for those with different budgets. Maybe a basic package that’s a custom text logo with a graphic, then more expensive options with more opportunity for custom work. Keep in mind who you want your client to be, too. If you’re looking to work with independent filmmakers, then they won’t have much money to spare, and you’ll have to adjust your level of effort to accompany how much they pay.

But personally, I’d just create 5-10 different levels of creative packages, and price according to that, like you’ll see with wedding videographers, and their levels of packaging.

[Arkmand]

Thanks all for your help!

[Author]

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