Twilight Renderings

[glorybound]

Do you guys generally charge more for twilight shots? Once in awhile I get people doing a 180 and want a twilight render, but they are more difficult to pull off.

On a side note, I downloaded a price sheet for ArchCGI, I think they are called, and their prices are good. About twice of what I charge and I don’t think any better than mine, although I’m a looks biased.

[glorybound]

It is https://archicgi.com/ and you can request their price sheet. I hope that they don't mind me sharing. It was nice to see real numbers and not "All rendering $299 with unlimited revisions". I get these emails at least once a week.

[gadzooks]

Do you charge per view Bobby? And how many revisions do you allow for?

[glorybound]

I don't charge per view, I charge per project. I mean, you might consider per view, but it isn't a flat fee per view. The first might be $900 for a front, the second front might be $480 and the back might be $600... something like that. I allow two grayscale proofs and two-color poofs.

[flino2004]

It looks like the prices are going down. I only do renderings for old clients and refers of those old clients but I charge minimum twice of that.

[glorybound]

I charge about half and many complain and go away.

[francomanko]

With what few clients i seem to get, im roughly on par with you Bobby, price wise, although i have a client who i charge even less for....thats because most architects seem to be doing it in house.

[francomanko]

That desert image is very nice......

[glorybound]

most architects seem to be doing it in house.

That's working in my favor. I get calls often where the developer or real estate agent can't use what the architect sent, so they reach out to me. The architect usually gets his ego hurt and doesn't want to cooperate and share the CAD files. I have seen some really bad renderings from the architect that costs the client a lot. I know architecture is touch and they are trying to get profit from where they can, using the SU and selling the rendering for top dollar.

[flino2004]

If your life is set around 100K per year and the fees are going down in price every year one needs more clients to get to your happy number, but this means that you have to work more hours as well. The future is not very promising for architectural visualization in this global market. I know some companies are pretty much CGI pimps, they don't do the job anymore and they hire people in China paying less than $100 per view and charging $1200 to the clients.

[glorybound]

I just looked through my numbers last week and I am up 20% year after year for the last 5 years. Yeah, over the last couple of years I have gotten calls from guys in the US, looking for someone to do their work. When I give them my price they say, "well, I can't make any money that way". Some said that they are planning on just sending things overseas and basically, retiring. I tried a few people, to at least have a backup plan, but nobody could come close to the quality my people expect. Today, I could retire too and send things overseas, but I don't think my business would last. People might be willing to pay less for lessor quality, but they will not pay more for lesser quality. I do get a lot of people saying they tried overseas, but the communication just didn't work. The quality was, "well, just okay, but it took a lot of back and forth to get it just okay". I have been hearing our industry is in trouble since the early '90s, so I am not worried about it much. Tell you what, the software developers have some responsibility. Make software that people can't crack and 100% the $100 rendering people are gone.

[flino2004]

You could be up 20% but the question is how many renderings or projects you did over the years to made 50K... ... I'm translating it from Spanish. "Everybody can make more money working more time, but the goal is making more money working less hours." .... I don't remember where I got this quote... But this is the point.

[glorybound]

Good point, yes. I did more work, made more money, but had more help (modeling things). I have had 20% increases, however, I made about the same money (take home) last year as the year before.

[flino2004]

I see it as a problem then, if you made the same amount with 20% more work so the inflation plus reducing the fees are really affecting you... You don't see it now because you get clients left and right but eventually you won't be able to full fill the demand as one man show with a reduced fee for the same revenue.... The solution is hiring to produce more with less expensive overhead... In other words you are are too expensive to work for you.

[glorybound]

I didn't lower my prices, I paid more for help. Same as if I were to hire an intern.