Pricing?
3 messages in this thread
I was just wandering what the best way to price animations? We are a fairly
new company and have be trying to come up with a pricing plan for clients.
What is the best way you all have found to do it? Also how much do you charge?
Jay,
I am in the same boat. I started my company, Mindscape Animation Productions,
in early Nov. 93 and have been working on setting my rates.
I have read posts here on ASOFT, read articles, and called companies. There
are basically two ways of charging: 1) by the hour, or 2) by the second of
finished animation.
I decided to charge by the hour for small projects (10 to 20 hrs).
Some have posted hourly rates of about $50/hr. Yet, I have talked
with companies that charge $75/hr for someone to use their setup-and
doing all the actual work! Because of this, I am looking at about
$100/hr for hourly jobs. I would add to this rendering and transfer
costs — Usually $0.25 to $0.50 /frame. As for big jobs, I will
charge by the project via a contract, probably for about half of my
hourly rate.
You probably will not get too many people telling you their rates
like this over a forum. It seems to be one of those cyber culture
taboos — like the way we never acknowledge the person in the car
next to us at a stop light. But, since I am just getting started
with Mindscape, I have flexibility and posting numbers will not
impede my efforts. Good luck with your company!! — James —
James,
Thanks for the information on how you are doing the pricing. We
decided to do it by the second of finished animation. We have also
checked articles on pricing methods. We have found that charging by
the second ranged from $100 to over $1400 a second due to the
complexity of the animation. We have set a base amount for the
different complexities. What would you suggest to be the base
amounts?