pricing additional rendering/animation

[accu]

Hi

 

theres 2 parts to this, a still rendering and a animation part

 

Im trying to figure a price for additional renderings. say as an example, i have build a model of a city block for a still rendering, i charge "$x" amount for it. the client then decides he wants another angle. i have previously charge about 60-70% of the first rendering. BUT theres that part of me thats thinking "well im providing him with another rendering, and theres nothing different between the renderings quality wise, so should i make it the same price or just a hair under"........whats everyone take on this?...i think 60-70% is reasonable but maybe im undercharging im not sure.

 

k, for the animation part, same city block example. this one im a bit up in the air in terms of pricing additional movies. resently i did a 1min animation (city block) for $3000+some . client then wanted another 30sec movie...i pull # out of my head and said $1000. how do you guys go about figuring a price? The models already done, setting up camera doesnt take that long, just rendering time. is there some number system you guys use for these situations? is your additional prices relative to the orignal or just "x" x rate or something

 

 

any constructive comments are welcome

 

thanks

[manta]

Well it all depends on various things, when a client says he wants a animation, I can't speak for anyone else but they ussually want thing like cars moving in the streets, and people walking, birds flying, a backgroud of scenery, not just the building floating in space, all these things take time and energy, things that can be in most cases faked in a still shot, now cannot be faked, so if all they want is a camera moving around what you've already done, and thats it, then I would charge them a setup fee and some amount for rendering time, of coarse I'm not going to be doing any editing or compositing, just handing them the raw footage...

[DennisHolland]

You're thinking in the right direction with the move towards your client(s). Price is okay, your negotiation is clever. Any other decision you'll make in the future will be different than this one but if you keep up this way of thinking...you're a winner.

 

Dennis

[thinice]

Accu,

 

I think you are going in the right direction.

 

Having started on my own with one computer 5 years ago and building my business up to small team right now, I have one advise for all the new guys.

 

If you ever want to make any money, when qouting a price to your client, never think in terms of your cost. Always think in term of value to the client.

 

For example, after going through so many permutations, nowadays I charge my animation per minute/second. For a specific project, I give them the minimum duration advisable.

 

If they want it longer without adding new spaces, I make a bit of profit.

 

If they want to add new spaces, I am still covered.

 

If they want more spaces without adding the duration (cheapskates) I advise them not to. If they still insist I normally obliged but they tend to come back to ask me lengthen it.

 

The same with still images. The best way is to charge per image (with discounts for quantities). Forget about the actual amount of work needed for it.

 

If they give a model and ask me to animate it, I would charge the full amount minus say 20% rebate for the models. If they are not happy, they can find someone else but I doubt any visualisation professional would charge any less.

 

I have a friend who charges by the hour and he is doing pretty well. The only problem is that here in Malaysia, he is limited to only a couple of clients who are willing to work on that basis.