Average hourly rate for a 3d visual ?

[mooingmilk]

Thanks for all the advice .

 

Its an awkward situation as the person possibly giving me this extra work is my boss at my current full time job.

 

I took a look at :

 

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/skills_and_rates/3d%20artist.do

 

and the average is around £25 an hour so I said £20 but he said that he usually charges £15 I'm a pretty quiet person and was thinking "oh no I hope he doest think i'm a money grabbing so and so" so I said ok and estimated job will take 20-30 hrs

 

do you think this is resonable ? Its an blocked out 3/4 arial view of about 8 houses. Possibly more detailed later.

 

Also considering i've been doing this job for about 1.5yrs and using new software (Viz) for about 3 months.

 

Acutally now thinking about it I feel so foolish asking for so much.

 

Anyway I might hear more about it tomorrow.

[Sawyer]

There is no reason to be embarrased about asking for a price any price come to in GOOD FAITH is valid. You asked the right questions but the main one is usually how much does the client want to pay? Often they have a price in mind and you need to hit that or they'll go somewhere else. No one should hold it against anyone for asking more if they are good, have researched the market and don't have that much more to go off.

 

Honestly it sounds like it might take a bit more time but you may be a fast 3 months.

[alfienoakes]

Originaly posted by Mooingmilk:

 

and the average is around £25 an hour so I said £20 but he said that he usually charges £15 I'm a pretty quiet person and was thinking "oh no I hope he doest think i'm a money grabbing so and so" so I said ok and estimated job will take 20-30 hrs

 

I am still laughing at that one... You don't work for Arthur Daley do you??? (Will explain Arthur Daley if required..)

 

I know its your boss etc.. and sounds like he is squeezing you a bit there..

 

Ask him how nuch he pays his mechanics to service his car..?? Bet thats more than £15 an hour..!

 

At the end of the day, if you want the work, and you are only just starting out, you have to charge what people are willing to pay. We still take the odd job at lower than market value, if its a new client, or a really good job.. it just depends what it is you are doing.

 

Once you get a few under your belt, you can demand a bit more..

IMO....

 

Andy

[FlytE]

To me the cost should be a quoted fixed price. Size of the project aside, those experienced visualisers would arguably be able to produce an image faster than others. It should NOT mean the client pays less for less time taken to produce the result. If you are skilled enough to produce something more quickly then the talent and experience that you bring to a job is what the client is paying for.

 

I wholly agree with slapping on sizable costs for changes. Dont get me wrong, we all know design is iterative.... but 3D modelling isnt really and that should be made clear when a client makes a hundred and one requests and thinks you can change it at the drop of a hat.

[STRAT]

he said that he usually charges £15 I'm a pretty quiet person and was thinking "oh no I hope he doest think i'm a money grabbing so and so" so I said ok and estimated job will take 20-30 hrs

 

 

(btw, he's trying his luck with £15 per hour. monkeys dont get paid that. any self respecting freelancer would laugh in his face, even if he were desparate. he probably knows you well and sees you as a soft touch, being quiet and all that)

 

 

you usually work up to and well over your time estimations, so call it 30 hours (thats only 1 day off a working week) for £15 per hour.

 

that obviously - £450. deduct 22.5% tax (about £100) and that leaves you with not far short of £350 ($620) for about a weeks work.

 

personally i'd politley tell him where to get off. and for goodness sake dont feel obliged into doing it else you'll get walked over. accept £25 or leave it. (personally, i'd not charge by the hour, but a final price for a week's work).

 

but then, £350 is £350. are you happy to do all that work for something a freelancer would get paid maybe 4 or 5 times that?

 

just be more confident and possative with yourself. he's only going to say no.

[Sawyer]

Honestly $25.5 doesn't seem that bad for a first job. It's really low but your new to this right? Don't expect to charge the same as people who have been doing this for years. Think about it - you need to be able to justify charging more when you get better and you will. If you start with an inflated value now in 3 years when you have spent $1000's more on your equiptment training and just time in training yourself and not getting paid you may find yourself overpricing the market when you decide you need to make more money.

My advice and I really mean this is to enjoy the jobs that you don't need to make the big bucks on. In a few years if you keep working you will NEED to make double or more what you made now. Or you wont be afloat at the end of the job. Cut your teeth make some money and at the end you will know what it was worth to you. You will know if you lost money at the end of the day or if it was all profit. Sometimes you do the math and you realise you would have made more waiting tables as a second job. And if you get a second job out of this you can say "I didn't not make what I was worth last time". Which is always better than saying "I think I should make more".

[STRAT]

Sawyer is right really. your first job. get it in. even for a low price. and you'll see cash at the end of it just make sure you're more ruthless as you progress.

[IUI Design]

so I said £20 but he said that he usually charges £15 QUOTE]

 

 

Would you like a Big Mac & Fries with that Sir ?

 

 

Ifty

[4DM]

A few points here, Mr/Mrs/Ms Milk:

 

First (boring, and I'm not a mod or anything), but unless you have the misfortune to really be called Mooing, then you should update your user info. with your real name. We are mostly professionals here, it's a small world and it's good to know who people really are.

 

Second, (hopefully more helpful) if you upload some of your recent work, it would be easier to judge how fair or unfair £15 per hr. is in your case.

Some here (UK) might charge up to £3000 for an aerial of 8 houses, others £500. It depends on work quality, your experience, your overheads, etc.

 

Third, do you know if these 8 houses are all unique, or all identical?

If they are all individual you have a lot of work there. If identical, then you have much less to do.

Of course if you are being paid by the hour, you might do very well if they are all different - could take you weeks!

If you have just one house type to model and it is simple, you can get it done it quite quickly, but then not make much money. Have a good think about that.

 

STRAT has a point: in general, it can be useful to keep your prices low when you start out, if you need a foot in the door then that's justified, especially if it reflects the less accomplished quality of the work.

But be careful in the longer term, in the end working for too little devalues your work, and that of everyone in the business.

 

Good luck,

 

D.

[Sawyer]

But be careful in the longer term, in the end working for too little devalues your work, and that of everyone in the business.

Good luck,

D.

 

I have heard this a lot talked about here. To me it seems nothing devalues our work more than an unqualified beginner charging too much. Mooingmilk I don't know the quality of your work so this is not a statement directed to you but if a really green would be illustrator with little or no time under their belts came to me wanting to work for me and asked $25 per hour, I would only pay it if the person had all the software computers and hardware needed to make the project work. $25 per is huge for begining position.

[Ernest Burden III]

Another way to look at this is that there is a minumum quality level necessary to charge a professional rate. Below that quality level and it isn't usable to anyone, even if it was free. So as long as you can meet that base standard you should be charging an appropriate amount for your industry.

 

Who here would accept medical treatment from a not-qualified 'doctor' just because he was cheap?

[Sawyer]

Another way to look at this is that there is a minumum quality level necessary to charge a professional rate. Below that quality level and it isn't usable to anyone, even if it was free. So as long as you can meet that base standard you should be charging an appropriate amount for your industry.

Who here would accept medical treatment from a not-qualified 'doctor' just because he was cheap?

I think thats well put. Remember if you are a mechanic don't think that by calling yourself a Dr you will all of a sudden make more money. Changing hats does not add value. Your skills do.

[manta]

I have heard this a lot talked about here. To me it seems nothing devalues our work more than an unqualified beginner charging too much. Mooingmilk I don't know the quality of your work so this is not a statement directed to you but if a really green would be illustrator with little or no time under their belts came to me wanting to work for me and asked $25 per hour, I would only pay it if the person had all the software computers and hardware needed to make the project work. $25 per is huge for begining position.

 

I used to make $25/hr as a waiter with only a high school education...

[3dway]

Whether it's architectural detailing, or 3d modelling I thought all of you guys knew, you don't charge by the square footage, but by the number of corners.

 

That's kind of a joke, but not really.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

sq. footage is the only way since the design is not even in concept yet,

 

 

the whole charging by square foot thing seems really off to me also. yes, buildings are often broken down by cost per square foot, but that cost is a sum of a number of things. how much it cost for everything from the concrete, quality of finishes, labor, land, etc..

 

i don't think we can directly translate this into price per square foot. we need to price our work based on the complexity of the surface materials we need to custom create, complexity of the geometry to create the space, complexity of the final deliverable item.

 

so, say i am illustrating a dance studio for someone. i tell them i am going to charge them $2 per square foot. they get my proposal back, and decide that for the illustration they are going to make the dance studio 30x20 instead of 30x30. this means my fee for doing the project changes from $1800 to $1200 when i am doing the exact same amount of work for the image because the geometry is just as complex, and the materials that i need to create are just as complex. it is going to take me the same amount of time regardless of whether the room is 20x30 or 30x30.

 

say it takes you 30 hours to produce that image, since the client wanted you to show the space as 20x30, your effective hourly fee just went from $60 and hour to $40 an hour. it is going to take you the same amount of time, so you are making only making 2/3rds of what you actually needed to.

 

typically i price 'spaces' rather than price for square feet. i look at the space or building, and figure how long many hours it is going to take to produce the final image(s)/animation. if they want an exterior, a lobby, and a patient room, then that is 3 spaces. each space will take a different amount of time to create. the hours include my time for creating textures, modeling the space, post work on the image, and whatever else may be needed. then i take those hours and multiply by the hourly rate i need to make a living, and try turn a profit, etc... that is the price for the image.

 

the only advantage i can see to charging by the foot is the building industry is familiar with this term, but i think its translation into 3d space is to vague.