Charging for Custom Furniture Assets

[Glen Campbell]

If a client requests certain items of custom made furniture which aren't available from the usual asset websites, do you charge extra for modelling these or do you just absorb the cost within the final quoted price?

[TomD_Arch]

Depends on a couple of factors.  Did you have an agreement ahead of time about the specifics of what furniture was going to be used in the scene?  If not you can share with them some options you may already have that come close, tell them it will take time to model it and give them a fee for the time, or just go buy it and considered it an investment into your library.  Is this a new client, or repeat business and how do you think they will react to the request for a fee change?  Will they be upset? 

[Scott Schroeder]

Yep, it is all what you have in your agreement that will be what the client falls back on. If you do not have anything in your agreement, you can float the idea to the client and see what their reaction is.

We typically absorb the cost as the furniture that is usually picked comes from a manufacturer that has models on their website. While they aren't great models, they act as great visual aids to make modeling the furniture go fast. This then adds to our library so taking a small hit on the cost is a library building cost as well, so it works out.

If we ever had a piece that was fully custom, had no reference models available, and would take more than 2 hours to make then we may specifically charge for it.

[Glen Campbell]

Thanks for the responses. Pretty much what I thought. TomD_Arch, this will be for new clients. I'm increasingly getting more work with interior fit-out companies in the commercial sector, which require a lot of custom cabinetry and furniture. I was not sure in this case, whether to charge extra for custom modeled assets or just include or hide the cost within the final price. Velvet Elvis, I'll take your point about models which take longer to than 2 hours to model into consideration for the next project.