Freelance Noob Questions,,,

Josh_Singh

Well It's looks like Im about to get my first real freelance gig. And It occoured to me I need to know how to protect myself. So I come here and ask you who have gone before:

1. Should I ask for money up front? It's seems logical, but how do I ask?

2. Should I make my own terms of agreement form? or are there any already made to help freelance 3d artists?

I want to be as straight forward as possible but I dont want him to think Im a prick.
How do I do this????

Rick Stirling

It depends on who you are working for. They may already have systems in place. Can you tell us more?

FatAssasin

Half up front and half on delivery is reasonable. I've never signed a contract with my clients, but have always gotten paid. Maybe I'm just lucky. But then again, I only deal with people that sound professional and know what they want. If you get a bad feeling about them, or they sound flakey or unreasonable in their demands, then don't take the job, or at least charge more up front and make doubly sure you get some money before starting anything.

Wesrox

First Id ask if they had any systems in place as Rick said.
Then if they didn't Id come up with a straight forward agreement. You could go half and half or you could break it down into development stages at which you would receive x amount at each stage. Make sure you have safe guards. Like x amount of concepts and redesigns. Some companies will take as much advantage with the artist as they can to save money. Hope that helps good luck on the job

palm

Like Rick said. It depend on who you working for. If it’s a studio with a few titles that you know of you don’t need to worry to much and they probably already has some kind of pipeline for freelancers.

If you never heard of the guys you should ask for some of the money upfront. Make a small deadline like one week of work.

Contracts with production cheats etc like Wesrox talking about should ALWAYS be written. Then its up to you to keep all the deadlines etc. So knowing yourself and your abilities is very important so you don’t end up with much more work then you asked for.

/Palm

Josh_Singh

Yeah, Id hate to end up in limbo because the ear needs to be lower or the hair is too dark, ect. ect.
So that brings up another question, what is a good number for x number of concepts/redesigns? It's a small game company on their first title, so I doubt they have any systems in place.
Thanks for your help so far guys!

Eric Chadwick

Buy this book. I can't recommend it enough.
http://www.gag.org/pegs/index.php

Wesrox

I have a slightly older copy of the Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines. Its a great asset to have. Deffinatly worth the 35-40 dollar price tag. I would greatly recommend it to any freelance artist starting out.

Wesrox

I would base my x amount of concepts on how well defined their ideas are for the project. If they have a good idea of what style they want the character in then they have already helped to narrow the choices. The better the understanding of what they want then the less concepts are needed. On this you really have to ask yourself have they given me enough info on what they want for me to visualize something close to their needs. (I ask myself with the information at hand how many trys will it take for me to hit the mark. Then I set that number as my base).

Redesigns, understand this is after concept stages entering closer to final production. At this point you should be dead on or extremely close to what they said they wanted. Again set a number you think is reasonable based on how firm they are in their ideas. Its understandable for them to change their minds about elements within the design and ask for changes. What you have to do is ask yourself how much is too much. The more they want to add the more its going to cost you time wise on the project and time is money.

Be sure to have them sign off on everything, if they sign off on a design and then ask for a redesign depending on the situation you might want to charge them for it. If your trying to build a relationship with the company you might give them one and charge them next time. Really it depends on you.

Please understand this is just the process I use when trying to determine how to price a job for a client.
Just because it works for me doesnt mean it will work for you.
Good luck with the job Ghost_Rider.