Hello, I’m about to do my first freelance work which will involve ZBrush. Basically the guy wants me to make 3D stills of a 2D Design for a handbag. He’s asking me for a price. Would anyone have any suggestions?
This is the toughest question of them all and you will usually get an answer along the lines of :
Ask whatever you feel comfortable with and is worth the work you put into it.
You could just time how much time you spend on it (or guess how much time you will need) and then consider how much you would like to earn per hour 
Also take into account complexity of the job and perhaps the resources of the company/person asking you to do the job.
Well I’m a newbie, so is anything from $75-$100 for the entire job be too much for someone hiring a first timer?
newbie or not , are you confident you can create a decent result?
Yeah. I’ve been into 3D Modelling as a hobby for more than a year now. I even sent them (the company) a quick mock up sculpt I made with ZBrush. And now they’ve emailed me back asking for a quote for 3D Art for 1 design/graphic. They also said they may contact me in the future for additional 3D art. So what do you think of the price?
if you ask 75-100$ for it , I would assume you can get it done in less than a day.
So I reckon $60 or less will do? I thought the more complex the job is, the higher the price.
60 or less will do, if it takes you an hour or 2 to finish up.
60-100$ hahaha. There goes the neighborhood. Are we in China or what???
Maybe per hour. You have to account for taxes, tools, growth, happiness. With 60$ after deducting all the cost you have… you end up with 20-30$ in your pocket. Do you really want to work that hard for 20$??? You can go to a construction site and schlepp a few boards for a couple of hours and make the same. And you can keep your brain at home doing it. Now after home recording artists killed the tutorial scene, hobby modelers are ruining the rest of the business or what??? (don’t take that last sentence to serious… but there is a lot of truth to it…). What do you want to earn per year? I mean… in your account after taxes! Add 40% for taxes. Then add the cost for tools and PC’s. Like 500$ for ZBrush and 2000$ for a PC. Plus PS and all the other stuff you need.Then divide that by 250. You don’t want to work more days a year. Now… you never work an hour or two. There is simply nothing less than half a day. And actually… that’s a lie… almost everything takes a few days till all is said and done. So… divide the last result by two and you have the figure for ‘half a day’. Let’s say you wish to earn 80,000 a year after taxes… then add 40% -> 112000. Add 4000 for a fast PC/Mac, plus 5000$ for software/updates -> 121000. Divided by 250 -> 484$ per day. So… selling your modeling for less than 250$ is nonsense. Still 250$ mean not working/communicating/negotiating more than 4 hours over the term of the entire project. And you did not pay health insurance, retirement, transportation, phone, web and other cost. If you do not account for cost like this, please, stay out of the professional business as everybody who tries to make a living and wishes to send their kids to college one day would appreciate fair and correct competition.
Good luck with your job, don’t sell under value!
Cheers
Rainer
PS: Don’t look at the cost of modeling outside the US… sighhhhh
Well for one thing this 3D “model” the company wants, is more of a 3D Logo. And he just want’s stills of it. I am also going to charge him $15 for any additional stills of the same model. We ain’t talking about sculpting a figure here or nothing. If it was, believe me, I would charge more. Also, knowing how long I take at working on models, it might not be such a good idea if I charged by the exact hours. Like I mentioned, they may contact me in the future to make other models. Right now, I’m more concerned about getting my first freelance gig…ever…in my entire artistic life. I’m not starving or anything… yet. 
edit: just forget what i wrote, whats the point anyway.
Remember, i won’t be modelling an entire handbag. Just a design piece that will go on the handbag.
To begin with, let me say that money has never (rightly or wrongly) been
my first consideration for anything.
All of us have different circumstances.
So I am going to proceed on the basis that the money you will receive, whatever the sum ,will not be the difference between your losing a house or starving.
Having said all that, I believe the important part of your question
is “first”. The implied part of that sentence is “second”, “third”, etc.
My suggestion is that you break your ass and produce the absolutely
finest work possible. If the question of money comes up, in this
first case ,let the customer basically decide.
Under the right circumstances I would do it free.
Seriously.
Word of mouth about the quality of your work, the promptness of
it’s delivery and your general conducting of the business, speak better
than any demo reel.
This will be your first reference.
Down the road, when we are talking about the 20th or 30th, take the
skin off their ass:D
Off all the things I have posted here, of all the b.s., I am the most
serious and the most correct about this.
The author Norman Mailer had a book title “Advertisement for Myself”.
This is yours.
Luck!!!
Like I said , it’s a tough questions , the opinions on this are very different.
I’m sorry you wont find a unified answer to this.
In my opinion I would be happy if I got paid like a normal job (taking ICT sector as reference) for the work I did in 3D. (also because i have fun doing it)
There’s also nothing wrong with asking a company what their budget is for the project they are assigning you.
If I saw the exact assignment that was given to you and knew the financial situation of the company (amount of staff , known? , large?), I could tell you how much I would ask for it.
I can tell you that for example where I work (about 120 people staff) they were willing to spend 9000$ on a site with a custom content management system and were willing to wait 6 months on it.
What you create in a business environment is absolutely secondary. Time is what you are charging for. And anything incidental of course… Once you bought software and a system to run it for profit, then you also have to account for the fact that you have to buy a new set every two years. Or the competition will take you for a ride. Keep those issues in mind! Also set up a contract so rights and obligations are defined.
Good luck with your project (it is one… regardless of size)
Rainer
There is one important thing to remember in setting prices.
You are setting a ceiling.
No one is going to understand or let you raise your rates.
So, if you are going to charge next to nothing for your work expect to be starving soon and for the rest of your career.
Sigh, there’s no need for this rudeness, I’m simply asking for advice here. And for one thing, I AIN’T starving! I just want my first paying “art” job. Secondly, as I said, it’s not a very complicated job. The guy does not even want the actual model file. As far as I can tell he just needs simple stills of the 3D model. In other words - PICTURES. And I’m going to charge him extra for every additional picture he needs of that same model. If he wanted the actual OBJ. file so that he can use it whenever he pleases indefinately than that would be a different matter with regards to pricing.
Price points are an experiment to start with. For me 3D is a hobby but I do a number of publications for pay throughout the year that involves mostly assembling other peoples 2D work as part of a desktop publishing project. I have not changed my prices in years but I make far more now because I have become so fast at what I do. When I started I was lucky to clear $10 and hour but now at the same rate I can easily earn $50 to $60 an hour. When I factor in equipment, software, office expenses that reduces to more like $30 an hour which I can live with for small projects. In general though I set prices so I clear closer to $50 an hour after all considerations. Speed, quality and many other things have to be factored in. Remember that an average person can barely draw a stick figure let alone combine natural artistic talent with mastering complex expensive software.
I’d say keep your price down the first few jobs until you know what to expect and have a solid idea what to charge. After a few jobs when you get proficient you can re-assess. Don’t sell yourself short however. A skilled craftsman like an Electrician can earn $40 to $60 and hour these days and skills like that are a good comparison. I use that example because an Industrial Electrician, what I once was, is the equivalent of someone with a Masters Degree and I’d consider the learning curve to be similar.
So it is possible to justify a raise in my rate in the near future? I guess the challenge would be explaining to the client why?
That’s not exactly what I meant. If this is your first client and you are confident you can do the project quickly and it does not involve many hours of work you should first consider what you need to make.
You need to factor in your true costs. Equipment, Software, General Supplies, Office Rent, Utilities and everything else involved. Freelancing you can easily beat any prices a Studio might charge as your overhead would be far lower.
You need to first assume what you would need to clear each hour if you were doing it full time, year round. Also the more work you do the better portfolio you will have to attract future clients. At first you may have to take it in the shorts a bit to build a Portfolio of work and a reputation.
The reason people are hesitant is they are afraid to give you any bad advice and be held accountable. Only you truly know what you need to make and what your skill level is. The term Starving Artist is accurate until you have the name and reputation to begin charging high prices. As time goes on you will get faster and the quality will go up. Right now you need experience and practice. You have to look at it like being an apprentice sometimes even if you are doing the same work.
When I started putting together publication for others, it took me a full week to knock out a 100 pages of content and ad’s and now I can do the same in two days. I charge the same but my pay more than doubled. I’m still at half what others charge and since I do this on the side, separate from my normal business, I can do that and my clients are loyal because they know they get the same quality for a lot less money.