What to charge for 3DS Max architectural modelling...

[NewPenny]

I've been in the visualisation field for over eighteen months. I've been working for a visualisation firm, doing models in Max, with texturing, plus a bit of rendering and post-production. I've just started a new job and they've taken me on as a freelancer 'to start with'. They're paying me £70 per day (£10 more than my last place paid). My dad said I should be asking more like £200 a day.

 

Can anyone offer any advice?

[Krisztian Gulyas]

17k per year is not much. I mean c'mon, for a 3d artist? It depends on your quality of work/renders though but IMO you should ask more ... If they don't want to pay you more and there's no other company that would hire you for more money, 17k is better than nothing. (maybe not 200, but you should get definitely more than 70)

 

ps: I live in Hungary, but I know the average salaries and I think 17k is what a young/inexperienced 3d artist should get per year

[neil poppleton]

200 a day , so 4k a month. You would have to be at the very top of your game to command such a fee. 10 / hour sounds reasonable. All of course dependant on your skills and quality.

[Nic H]

LOL think u got a *few* more years ahead of you before commanding 200 quid a day mate...

that said its hard to comment without seeing work on knowing where youre working

[heni30]

Yeah, it's better to think of your present job as a stepping stone, so............................instead of wasting energy feeling resentful, learn and absorb and suck everything out that you can from your present situation in terms of knowledge, skills, and contacts . Think of it as getting paid to learn; which is not a bad situation.

[Dimitris Tolios]

It clearly depends on the quality and the frequency.

When you say "i am onboard as a freelancer", can mean a lot of things.

 

• Are you there for a single job as their "CAD monkey", i.e. doing the mundane modeling stuff? - even if it is boring, if it is a one time show, you should be getting payed more than what a full time employee of similar skill is getting.
  
• Are you contributing as much as the others or even leading the project? - the more important your are in a project, the higher your pay should be.
  
• Are you actually learning stuff every day as their intern, and getting a little something ontop of that? - I would be the last advocating working for free, but starting in a field is usually rough. If it is what you love, bare with a lower pay if you are getting other stuff out of it - like knowledge, experience and recognition (fancy studios/firms look good in your resume).
  

 

Most likely on-top of the above, "freelancer" means your are not considered a full or part time employee, enjoying other benefits (thus you should be paid more than a full time employee per hour, as you technically cost them less per hour to begin with).

 

Your pay should in effect reflect your relationship with your employer, the value you add to his business (quality of work, experience in problem solving, speed of delivery etc), and in some ways their business practices and how they treat their employees in general. Just like 3D artists vary in merits, so do employers.

 

My dad would be happy if I was making 3x as much as I do too...even 10x or 100x - he would not mind, he is not paying for it.

 

If you want them to value your work more, make sure you do add to the job many times the value you want to earn out of it. As a rule of thumb, an employee requesting $/£200 or w/e a day, should be generating upwards of 3x-4x that value in revenue for a large firm.

Edited February 8, 2013 by dtolios

[NewPenny]

Thanks everyone for your feedback... I can now walk into work not feeling like The Pushover We Can Fleece, while everyone around me's earning 3x my salary. I'm being employed as just a modeller at the minute, but I don't see it as mundane. I studied, and worked in, architecture for many years and take a lot of pride in my modelling.