Construction Design Concepts Visualizer - Good Idea or Not?

[Pierce Andrea]

Hello! I’m trying to gauge public interest in architectural renders and design mockups for real estate and construction companies as that’s something I want to do.

As a 3D artist, I use Blender 3D and take images from a property and use CGI / Visual Effects to create structural or cosmetic changes to that property to show clients what different designs would look like IRL (in the form of an image) as well as architectural renders from scratch.

So, if there are multiple possible designs for a building project, I'll create an image of each of the designs so the client can flip through the options like a catalogue and choose one they like and see what it would really look like. Think of this for different pavement designs on a home / building, different roofing types, different colors / materials for siding, or maybe different fencing options. I would cover interiors as well!

I'm even considering 360 image virtual walkthroughs too.

For each project, I would do this service for the price of ~5% of each project’s total budget.

Does this sound like a valid plan? 

[Ricardo Eloy]

Hey Pierce,

I think this is a valid service, and I'm sure a lot of companies will be interested. The only thing is that 5% of the project's budget seems a bit steep, honestly. How did you come up with that number?

[Pierce Andrea]

Hello Ricardo,

Thanks a bunch for coming forward to give me insight. I'm a bit new to the field as I'm originally a Motion Designer but I am now realizing the potential for business in the Architectural Visualization industry. Therefore, I'm a bit clueless on the financial aspects of this industry. What is the percent / financial range you think would be reasonable for this service? 

[Ricardo Eloy]

You know, this is indeed tricky... Attaching your price to the project's full value may apply to big jobs (like those for real estate developments worth millions, that require dozens of images, video, etc).

The way I see it, this would be a regular, small job in comparison. You could simply charge a fixed amount per image, if you think that makes sense (as you are not creating everything from scratch, if I understood correctly).

That said, I've always thought the fairest way to charge is to have a cost by the hour spent. You can calculate how much your time is worth and then confidently apply it to each job.