Is your CG pay up to par?

[kainoa]

nissus...thnx for the advice, with my *great* bargaining skills i would have probably left that part out . btw, i think your work is beautiful.

 

anyways, i think i'll start a new thread about asking for a raise. i know there's resources out there for that, but not one specific to what we do. besides, im 'googled-out' .

[nisus]

Hi kainoa,

 

Glad to hear you liked my tip. And tnx for reviewing our work. Maybe this is not the best b-place - you can always private-message me - to ask for more details about what especially you liked in our work. And of course what you didn't like too. I would appreciate that a lot.

Btw, be prepared we will make a serious webpage-update in a few weeks with over 20 new projects.

 

To John, (and others too of course)

 

I reckon the problem of young trainees entering the market at a fraction of the cost of a professional. It would be great to share our insights about this a bit: how do you compete these? what strategie do you follow? how serious is there thread? what are the pros & cons? tnx.

 

rgds

 

nisus

[John Dollus]

Nisus et al.:

 

We do not compete with trainees. It is frustrating when they suddenly appear and claim to be the only resource for renderings, but it is not really a threat to longterm business. Once in a while, a student appears that actually has talent and I try to encourage that regardless of where they are. Who knows, after a couple years I might want to hire that person and their experience will turn into a revenue stream that did not exist before.

After all, we all have to start somewhere.

 

Of course, most new trainees don't realize that you must pay sales tax on renderings in the state of Missouri, so if their ego gets too big there is always the IRS.

 

John D

[mbr]

I agree that most people on here are getting under paid. A CG artist, 3D guy, whatever, is much more specialized than an architect. 3D is much more complex than ACAD, and should get paid accordingly. I believe that AIGA recommendations (could be incorrect)that the billing rate should be $50-120 per hour. From MR. Mottle himself:

"Yeah I'd be intersted in ths info too. Am just starting to really get into the whole freelance bit in hopes of doing that full time, rather than FT working for somebody else. From my inquiries I've been told anywhere from $50-120/HR US. You should pick up this book Graphic Artists Guild Handbook : Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, 10th Edition) I just bought it on Friday and it has an entire section that talks about Architectural CG renderings, prices to charge, contracts to use, and ethical guidelines to follow on everything from negotiaons to contract disputes."

http://www.cgarchitect.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=000003#000001

So for someone to get paid only $18 per hour seems really, really low to me. I don't know of any architects that can render well, or are interested in learning. Sure, we all had to learn 3D to graduate (I am an architect), but not make photo real renderings.

The last firm I was working for paid their guy over $40/hour (that's 80k/year, roughly). That seems about right to me. They charged about $150/hour for him. That firm has a big 'G' in their name and about 2500 employees across the country (he was the 3D guy at an office of about 200).

So please, people, realize that this is a speciality career, that their aren't many of us that can do this well and we should all be paid accordingly. Architects are a dime a dozen these days, and most do know some 3D, but there is a tremendous difference between ACAD drafting and good 3D. Let's not undersell ourselves.

[markf]

I am self employed on year 7. I charge $75/hr and haven't met alot of resistance to price.

 

I am afraid, if I cut my rate, of doing twice as much work for half the money.

 

Alot of firms seem to have a person who can dabble with 3D. I specialize and thereby provide a better value.

[John Dollus]

By 'dabbling' in 3d, those firms realize a return by assigning more traditional tasks to the employee such as redlining, specifications and detailing. If the firm is on a T&M contract, they actually make more money by having someone sit in a chair for hours on end regardless of the end result (very common for public sector work).

The perceived value is relative.

 

John D

[Vincent Hunter, AIA]

I'm 32 and work in Dallas, Texas. I am a vice president at a 130 person architectural firm and project lead designer. I make $70,000/ per year salary (i've been at firm 9 years) plus bonus' and profit sharing. I freelance CG renderings for my clients at a cost of $3750 per daytime image and $4500 per night time image depending on level of detail. Average of about $75 per hour, in general. This year I've done about $25,000 in freelance.(and yes I have to pay taxes on it)

Also there's NO state income tax in Texas but and 8.25% sales tax.

 

Vince