Little advice needed - how much to charge for this job?
polycounter lvl 6
Hey guys, hope I'm posting this in right place,
I need little help figuring out a realistic price for a job I was contacted for. I'm fairly new to freelancing, and I don't want to spook off my client with high and unrealistic price, but I also don't want to charge to low... here are job details:
- I need to model/map/texture 1 low poly character (max 4000 polys),
- then I need to rig it while using as little bones as possible,
- need to animate 35 different animations, which will all be able to blend between themselves,
- it all needs to be exported in fbx and able to work in Unity game engine, I just need to make sure everything works fine once exported.
btw I work in 3ds max and zbrush mainly, if it matters...
I was thinking of charging a fixed price for modeling/texturing/rigging and then to charge animation by the second, or 30 frames of animation. So what do you think, what would be a realistic price for this project?
Thx in advance!
edit: this is the quality that is expected http://imgur.com/s5PFdjQ,TFBKrR3 http://imgur.com/s5PFdjQ,TFBKrR3#1
I need little help figuring out a realistic price for a job I was contacted for. I'm fairly new to freelancing, and I don't want to spook off my client with high and unrealistic price, but I also don't want to charge to low... here are job details:
- I need to model/map/texture 1 low poly character (max 4000 polys),
- then I need to rig it while using as little bones as possible,
- need to animate 35 different animations, which will all be able to blend between themselves,
- it all needs to be exported in fbx and able to work in Unity game engine, I just need to make sure everything works fine once exported.
btw I work in 3ds max and zbrush mainly, if it matters...
I was thinking of charging a fixed price for modeling/texturing/rigging and then to charge animation by the second, or 30 frames of animation. So what do you think, what would be a realistic price for this project?
Thx in advance!
edit: this is the quality that is expected http://imgur.com/s5PFdjQ,TFBKrR3 http://imgur.com/s5PFdjQ,TFBKrR3#1
Replies
In Belgium, a middle rate freelancer could ask something like 30-40 euros/hour which is like 37-50 dollars/hour.
so that would be 20*80=1600USD at max, if you think it is worth more, charge more. we can't tell you what to charge, how much do you need to live, how much do you want to put aside? if you charge in dollar i guess you live in the states, how much do you put into your health insurance etc?
Don't just guess a number, 15-20 sounds pretty low, but i don't know your level and i don't know your circumstances.
But just a hint, from my experience chinese vendors (yes they are supposed to be the cheap guys) start around 200USD a man day, you are 20% below that, sure there is is more managing going on behind them at outsource vendors, still this is where it starts, a good vendor costs more.
Anyhow, I appreciate your input, thx!
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We can not give you such an estimate because there is no universal rule for any of this.
We can't know how long you will take, we can't know how much money you need, we can't know your skill level, we can't know your clients funds.
If you live in Cowville Alabama, or in New York naturally plays a role in how much money you need. Heck even your Neighbourhood can play a role.
We don't know any of these things, and many more play part in the negotiation process you have to go through with your client.
Some people charge by the hour, some people charge per project, per asset whatever works best for them. We usually have a rough estimate about the timeframe we will need and communicate and finetune that with the client.
Based on that we get a budget per asset, if we predicted wrong, we either have a lower hourly rate or are lucky and possibly will have to adapt for the next asset.
Indeed, that's right. In Spain we ask the same.
Another option is to charge per day of work. 250 per day as freelancer is quite common here.
We also have regional charts with prices for the different tasks in graphic design or 3D/CAD, and all of them varies.
For projects paid for a price, don't forget to charge a 50% beforehand.