Hi all!
I'm sure you get this a lot, but I need help with pricing my first animation gig. I don't want to over price myself, but my to-be employers know I'm fresh out of school.
I just graduated a couple weeks ago with a BFA in Animation and I was offered to do a 50~ second somewhat abstract animation for a documentary. It's largely going to be animating in Photoshop/Flash, with a lot of post work in After Effects.
Browsing around the internet, the best advice I've seen is to break down a production schedule and charge hourly. The problem is, I don't know what my hourly wage should be.
Thanks in advance!
Here's some questions to ponder:
How long is the work going to take you?
How many man-hours will you spend to get 50 seconds of animation done? < Clue: if you did a final final for get your BFA, then use that timeline as a guage as to how long it will take)
Once you have that amount of time figured out---and add about 25% more time for revisions, trip-ups and mistakes, and the like--then figure out the following:
What are your daily costs to live? Rent, food, utlities, bills, clothing, fun etc.... Add it ALL up.
Easiest way to do this is to look at your MONTHLY costs and then divide that by 30(days).
Let's say it works out to being about........$170 a day ( $5100/month), then round it up to $200 a day. Because round numbers are just nicer.
That's your basic cost to live ( plus contingency), you NEVER work below that rate, otherwise you are assuredly losing money.
You only need to do this once, unless your life-style or home situation changes, then you just revise it as needed.
Now, take that basic amount and increase it by another 50% to 100%---or $300-$400. This becomes your WORKING rate, which is flexible enough to adjust up or down a bit to entice a client. You can adjust upwards if the work is more complicated, such as having multiple characters, or requring additional animation passes such as effecst.
Yes, this means you'll be looking at charging at least a couple grand a week for your 'first job'--animation is labour intensive and it isn't cheap.
I seldom work hourly because my productivity frequently depends on more hours than in a reasonable working day. Thus I often charge weekly.
You NEVER tell the client your basic costs to live. Ever.
It's none of their business anyway, and if you slip and leak it to them they will ALWAYS seek to lowball below that amount.
You will also always regret lowballing yourself and doing the work for less, just to get it in the door.
Don't kid yourself.
Your being just out of school doesn't matter.
If they want really cheap, they probably want really shitty, and the job likely isn't for you.
If they are demanding and paying you peanuts, you WILL regret taking the job.
Be prepared to justify your costs to a client that balks. Again, don't cite your basic living costs, instead cite equipment, materials, time, skills, things like revisions, urgency, etc etc.
If you have this reasoning worked out in advance you can often appease a client with the honesty. It's just business, after all.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)