The Business

[hoppergrass]

For your quality of work, your prices are more than reasonable.

Maybe start thinking about diversify the types of projects with the aim of getting out of the house market.

[glorybound]

This project came to me after they got a $2000 quote for one view, from a guy who wasn't as good. My quote was $1400 and I gave then back view by accident. I think I quoted $1800 for front and back, they ended up not selecting the back in the quote and I missed it.

[glorybound]

For your quality of work, your prices are more than reasonable.

Maybe start thinking about diversify the types of projects with the aim of getting out of the house market.

I do a lot of commercials, I just don't share much of them because they are kind of boring. I would like to do more animations, but I think I might have missed the boat with this realtime stuff I have been seeing.

[hoppergrass]

High quality, marketing animations can be tricky, I am yet to make a profit on an animation, we are just not set up for it both with hardware, ort more importantly, managment structure.

We do very well with the "Lumion" style animations though.

[glorybound]

Yes, that's what I was saying. Unless you are doing some cinematic animation, which takes some knowledge, the real-time is where it is at. Most of these architects are now using, it just like stills, they are not really good. What'll happen is, there in-house real-time won't be good enough anymore, so they'll look outside. This is the same path stills took over the last decade.

[francomanko]

Having just completed a short animation, which was horrendous, i would definitely go down the route of making the scene in unreal, then any animation is pretty much realtime. I dont know how anyone makes any money on animations, especially with the costs of renderfarm services. Here in NZ im not getting anywhere near the quoted prices in this thread and if I had used chaoscloud, I wouldnt have any money left...never again will i render an animation the traditional way, not until theres some decent pricing or indie pricing.

[Neilg]

You need a very strict workflow for animations.
Each shot should be priced as a full still image, plus a premium for rendering overheads. each 'shot' is considered 6-8s if you're doing walkthroughs. work every shot up as a still image until it's final and signed off, then render 5 frames to check for flickering, then render the sequence with final settings once - and only once. cameras and edit should use viewport previews or clay renders that only take 5s a frame.

You should never be re-rendering entire shots, that will instantly kill any profit.
Also know how long everything is going to take to render and schedule it. you can get a lot rendered locally if you prioritize shots to start those rendering a few weeks before final delivery - get sign off in writing, with your contract stipulating that any changes after signoff cost an additional $x to re-render and changes are billed hourly on top of that.
You dont make money by winging it - you have to plan ahead, figure out where you might end up leaking profit and plug it before it happens.

[glorybound]

I passed on the double or nothing proposition. I figured I might not get paid, plus I wouldn't be working on paid work, so I risk losing twice.

[joconnell]

Screw animations, adding in a time factor to a job where a client note could cause an entire multi day re-render is stress you don't need. Also hire a junior and invest a few months training them so you can scale, 15 hours a day is no life for you and is going to screw your health!

[Franx]

Well, 15 hours a day is OK if you work 2 or 3 days a week...But what's the point of working 15 hours a day, seven days a week? What possible life can you have left? Unless perhaps you plan on retiring at 40....

[glorybound]

Well, since I am 50 that isn't going to happen. I have kids to get through college.

[Franx]

I dont want to get in too much in to politics here or come off as an a-hole, but you actually need to work over a hundred hours a week to have your children get a higher education in the states?

[andybot_cg]

I dont want to get in too much in to politics here or come off as an a-hole, but you actually need to work over a hundred hours a week to have your children get a higher education in the states?

It's either that or afford to pay for health care. Yeah, things suck here in the states, especially as a freelancer.

Bobby, I've found that I actually make more money and have better cash-flow doing small quick projects than getting tied up in one huge project, as a one-man freelancer. I'm also a registered architect, so I balance my work with small custom home blueprints for local builders. Definitely keep your prices high enough so you don't get flooded with work and get yourself overworked.

Happy New Year!

[dean_dmoo]

I passed on the double or nothing proposition. I figured I might not get paid, plus I wouldn't be working on paid work, so I risk losing twice.

Yeah the double or nothing stuff is BS. Its quite an easy calculation, but for some reason people still fall for it. Guess they like going to the casino.

I've had it aswell that the offer was that if I lowered my total price by $1000 and the competition was won I would get $2000. So essentially they are asking you to give up $1000 for a, in this case with 3 teams in the comp, 1 in 3 chance to "win" $1000. Better odds going to the casino and putting it on red.

Passed on the option, got paid for the full original price and they won the comp. Everybody happy!

Think it would only be interesting if it would be 10-15% of your fee and if won you get 3 to 4x as much. Anything less seems pointless.

[glorybound]

Yeah, health insurance, life insurance... I have a feeling that the majority might work at the call-center or local grocery store and this is just a hobby for them. It is extra money, so anything is profit. Software isn't legit, so literally, it is a hobby to make a buck. I have tried getting help from about a dozen people over the years and only a couple have worked out. They disappear, their grandfather dies three times and one guy had the worse luck, his same cousin died twice. So many lies they can't keep their lies straight. If you are serious and you want to make a career from it, you have to charge a real fee of you will not survive.