Charging for Levels of Detail...

[mbowers]

Im contemplating setting up a fee schedule for levels of rendering. I have clients that want something "sketchy" ie Sketchup--fairly quick and dirty, or they want something "collaged" ie Photoshop something with style or panache, and other times i get clients who want photo-realistic, ie Max or Viz, picture perfect. How would you charge for these levels of detail? Consider it all as one flat rate? Charge by the hour at a different fee scale. I have an awkward (although it works for me as a consultant) way of charging for my architectural design, i charge by the square foot. Am i being too complicated? Can anyone help me out? Thanks in advance!

[mtutaj]

I charge the same way for a majority of my work as well. I have also charged by the hour and its been pretty close for me. On the other types I usually base it on how quick they want it and how much time I am going to be working on it and go from there.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Mike

[ccp76]

Im afraid my experience is quite different from yours, but hopefully would help you out, here in Peru i usually charge a flat rate, but there are occasions when the client doesnt want picture perfect renders, so i have found that works starting the cost with a flat rate and charging for aditional items that would increase render times (details in small objects = more polygons, etc), and for huge resolutions, sure this is not the case for everyone, take into consideration, this is Peru, but at the end i guess its up to you how much you charge, and how much you want the job, without lowering your rates to much ofcourse, hope it helps.

 

 

Cedric

[halfworld]

For photoreal images we charge on a per image basis. First image is x ammount, additional images are about 1/3 that price. Obviously the x ammount depends on the size of the job.

 

For non photoreal stuff, we charge a much reduced rate, sometimes we even do it by our day rate. We're actually doing a 'sketch' style job at the moment in exchange for a free trip to a German beer festival

 

Ian

[rotten42]

Im afraid my experience is quite different from yours, but hopefully would help you out, here in Peru i usually charge a flat rate, but there are occasions when the client doesnt want picture perfect renders, so i have found that works starting the cost with a flat rate and charging for aditional items that would increase render times (details in small objects = more polygons, etc), and for huge resolutions, sure this is not the case for everyone, take into consideration, this is Peru, but at the end i guess its up to you how much you charge, and how much you want the job, without lowering your rates to much ofcourse, hope it helps.

 

 

Cedric

 

 

 

I charge out this way too. Start with a flat rate and then add charges for the level of detail.

[mbowers]

Thanks for your insight guys. I typically charge by the hour for architectural design, but in my limited (but hopefully expanding) 3D design and rendering i have found myself scrambling, overworking and undercharging.

[aaron-cds]

i charge by the square foot.

 

I know of at least one other person that does this and I can't figure out the logic. Assuming that these two jobs are the same square footage, would you want the same fee for both?

 

The first has 7 different buildings to model with no shared common blocks. The second has a 10 foot typical bay that was copied around the building and a center element made up of 5 foot components copied along a curve.

 

I think you're cutting yourself out of money when someone comes to you with a complicated project, unless you've got it averaged out.

[mtutaj]

thats where having different styles to pull quotes from helps. Take the last job you did, I keep track of my hours on the jobs, so I took the sq. ft. divide it by what I charged the client, that gives me a cost for that job by sq. ft. then go back one more job, and just take the sq. ft of that project times that sq. ft. rate and see how close it is to your quote or what you billed. Annimations I add additional fees for. and when quoteing when I look at plans and things need to be alot more detailed, I'll boost my sq. ft rate up .10-.20 cents. Its comes back down to what do you feel your time is worth. I've had people come to me for a quote and then tell my they got a quote for $200 so I tell them go with the $200 since I wont got down to that.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Mike

[eksg]

Umm....well....my style was to charge with a minimum rate,no matter how simple,then it would go up depending on the level of comlexity. and ur right about it mr mtutaj,i also meet clients whole say that they're having it for a low price.i also do the same,im tellin them to take that offer coz its better for me to drop a project,than to have a lots of people lurking in my house for me to do some projects in a very low price coz they know that they can get away with it.and always remeber to ask for downpayment,so at least you could treat us for a beer!cheers everyone!!!

 

 

btw,nice works there mr aaron,are those trees maps or 3d models.ciao!!