How much would you (should I) charge?

[LuKa]

May I ask you how much wouldyou charge for images like this? I only textured and rendered objects, modelling was not done by me. I only got Rhino files, which I had to import (thanks God for Power Solids) in Max and render them. This is basically my first 3d freelance work. How much does charging differ from country to country?
Should I charge per hour or per rendered picture?

And very sorry for the big post

[geenyus]

Tough question . . .

not to be overly sarcastic, but . . .

. . . whatever they are willing to pay. :P Feel them out.

Good luck!


Edit: I have found that the few jobs I've done like this, the clients have been more comfortable paying per image/animation.

[jujubee]

A reasonable rate for me hourly is $25/hour US. It's actually on the cheap side but it's guarnteed to give me more work down the road. Once you get established you can probably boost your rates.

[J_Bug]

Nice work, hope you get what you're looking for from them

--Jon

[tammo]

this is the most important question: how much do i charge?
if you charge too much you dont get the jobs.
if you charge too less you go bankrupt at the end of the year when you have to pay a large tax amount that didnt think of when calculating your rate.

this rate is much higher if your customer is the direct user of the images.
in your images that would be the glass manufacturer.

the rate is lower if you do the images for a 3d-company that charge the glass manufacturer.

i charge 40 euros per hour but always offer a complete price for the project so no customer will see that rate.

here is a good resource:
http://www.lightwaveoz.org/articles/freelance101.php

[3dform]

Before asking yourself, you should calculate what you need.
Next, just try to imagen what you want to do when you are 40 and over (time goes by very quick, belive me!)
We see a lot of people doing jobs for almost nothing, just to be in that bussiness, they are all joung and stay not longer then 1-2 years then they do webpage, study again or else. These youngster have destroyed the market in germany. Peole call you for a 4-wek commcerial production and offer you 2000 €, if you say yes they tell you after a week that somebody does it half price.
If you are a starting freelancer you will need at least 25 € a hour, else the you can survive. Unfortunally nobody ask you if you are beginner or not, your pictures could be form professional that charge 50-70 € and the client will think: If I can get it for that price, why pay more in the future? The clients can't compare like you, they don't watch only gallery etc..
I know some studios, that work only with students, because they are really cheap.
So, beware of one thing: If you are cheap now, there is absolutly not garanty that you will earn more in the future. That's all based on the market! Times are hard...
Another aspect is, how much does your client earn with your work? Some small clients keep telling you that they have no money and they just give it try. We call them farmers, because they are clever and don't tell the true. If a client has no money, why should he come to you. Some Manager tell you the same story, but have emensive money. Just, imagen that they are in job and just see the money they get at the and of the month. But, you have to pay for your computer, your room, your injurence, rent, tax, hollydays, time when you ill, etc.. You need to earn 2-times more.

regards,

robert

[jujubee]

Acording to Turbosquid- an advance modeller can earn $100,000 a year in Los Angeles (which is nothing for LA.) That breaks down to roughly $50/hour. I make about $28 for production work alone out in the NorthEast US.

[Fermi]

Before asking yourself, you should calculate what you need.
Next, just try to imagen what you want to do when you are 40 and over (time goes by very quick, belive me!)....

Yes, you do beleive Robert, I am over 40 and I am still here working late at night, and the weekends

If you underbill now, it will be very hard if not impossible to recover later, check these articles from David Wright, they may help not with the actual price, but yes how to define it:
http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/DW/default.asp

c'mon after them!

Fermí

[J_Bug]

Hey LuKa,

If you wouldn't mind can you let us know what you ended up charging?

I can understand if you don't want to but I think it may help others in the future.

I've read other posts like this one which never really came to fruition but yours is much more specific with all the exact images you're selling.

Thanks,
--Jon

[Fermi]

And you can do another approach,

Since no concrete price is apearing in the discussion, if you want to arise more concise a discussion about actual money,
Tell us what you are thinking and ask opinion about if you can raise it


Fermí

[LuKa]

Firstly thank you all for your answers. I'd likt to thank to Psy for hosting up my images (although they aren't all Vray's). And sorry for my late reply, I wasn't home this weekend.
Actually I was shoping in Italy, because they have a lot cheaper clothes and food than here in Slovenia. Which kinda triggers the next problem of charging for this kind of work. For example, prices here in Slovenia are more or less higher then prices in Italy (I don't want to mention US, because the mayority of stuff in half cheaper there: electronics, food, gas,...), but payments are lower than in Italy (I'm having Italy just for example). So how would that influence my final price?

So I decided to stay on the lower price for now (I'll charge 25EU/h, because I'm still living at my parents home, so I don't haveto pay for rent ). I just hope this is good enough for my customer (he'll probably think this is too much anyway), but I'll not go under that.

I'll report back with my results, thanks again for answering me.
Have a nice day!