Animation Marketing
13 messages in this thread
If you mean how much is charged for laying sequential .tgas to tape,
then I know companies who charge $50 per finished second, some who
charge $1 per .tga file, and one which charges $40 per hour – the
latter being by far the cheapest. There was also somebody on the
forum many months ago offering the service for something completely
outrageous ( I thought) and it was much more than even $100 per
finished second but I don't remember exactly how much. Do you want to
offer the service or do you need the service?
Martin,
Actually, what I was trying to get a handle on is how much I should be
charging for my animation services. I have a Diaquest (DQ422) and have
access to SVHS and MII. there's probably not a lot of people on this forum
that need _my_ help, but I have stirred up some interest with some local
video people. I'm a little foggy on benchmarks, so I have to start
somewhere.
Roger D.
I freelance for a CADD company and they charge $100-$400 per finished
second to tape depending on complexity. I get half of this. If I solicit my
own clients I try and charge $50 per hour but I'm pretty slow and tend to
tweak things for hours, so that's not always possible. Other independents
around here charge $100 to $150 per hour. We did a lot of research on the
competition to decide what to charge so it might be a good idea to do that
in your area. Try finding out who is offering comparable services and what
they charge per hour and/or per finished second and then charge
accordingly.
Thanks Martin, that's what I was looking for. Have you done any work for
broadcast tv?
Roger D.
I have done commercials for various cable station advertisers in the Los
Angeles/Orange County area and also animation for corporate videos for
training, trade shows etc. I haven't done anything for network TV though.
Most cable advertisers don't have much in the way of advertising budgets,
though, so if they really want animation I can easily win a bid against
animation houses with Symbolics or Wavefront type equipment.
Martin,
Through my experience in the building and remodeling business I've had
occasion to do a lot of subcontracting and bidding. So I'm curious how the
bidding process would work in something so subjective as computer art
(animation). Does the process go something like we work for so much an
hour (minutes, seconds, frames), or do they have a creative idea and you
would have to bid on it, sort of like name that tune? Forgive my
ignorance. I very much appreciate your help.
Roger D.
I think it could go both ways, there. Frequently the client knows exactly
what they want and it's just a matter of deciding how long it will take you
to do and then multiplying that by your hourly rate to come up with a bid.
Or saying that's 10 seconds of animation and it's fairly simplistic so I'll
charge $100 per second.
On the other hand, the client might say "create a logo that will knock my
socks off!" and have little or no creative input. I've worked with both and
sometimes you need to spend a long time with the client just clarifying
what they want and doing a storyboard, script etc. before you can give them
a quote.
Generally, I work on the finished second basis, where the variable is the
dollar amount per second which YOU have to decide based on the complexity.
I don't think bidding is an exact art in animation and I don't profess to
be much good at it, so just give it your best shot and start high and
if/when they fall off their chair you can always come down.
Martin,
I got a flyer from a local MAC house offering to lay PICT files to BetaSP
for something like $.50 a frame $200 minimun.
James
I don't suppose that helps if you have .tgas?
Martin,
I just mentioned it to give a relative price for disk-to-tape services. I'm
not aware of any other local service that advertises this kind of service,
although many will offer it if asked.
James
Who was the local Mac shop, James?
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ken,
That was DNA Productions, I believe they branched out of 2D-Cell only to
offer 3D as well.
James
I'll have to check that out. If they have, we may not be able to refer
work to them anymore. For their sake, I hope they stayed in 2d.
Ken Loss-Cutler