I've been contacted by a reputable design studio in America who is looking for us to quote our daily or weekly rate to make some webisodes (online cartoons, think Southpark style low end animation) flash cartoons.
Our main business is illustrations and flash characters and animation for web sites but this would be a first and though we can easily do it and do it good, I've never priced a job like this before
I would be interested to know how other people charge for animations? Because there is so much involved, character designs and the animation process I was thinking the best way to price this was on dayrates.
What do you suggest. Pretend you and another artist had to animate a 2D one minute cartoon with four characters like that of South Park, with perhaps 2 or three different backgrounds (basic). How would you go about quotating for this?
All advice much appreciated
the simplest way to quote for this is decide the number of days you will need to do it or hours. price your costs (for your time and your associates) and then see how much of a profit you can latch on to that without the number being indecent.
i am working on a set of webisodes for a major ad agency and thats how i priced it. i didnt go overboard on the profits bit and the agency didnt even negotiate on the numbers, they went ahead right away, my formula was basicall number of days, number of people, cost per day, cost of utilities + profit.
You also have to factor in whether or not you will be using the same characters throughout the contract, because eventually you develop a library of reusable characters and components, that will speed your work later.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Hi Skinnylizard
I would be interested in hearing what you priced as a hourly or dayrate and how you came tothat figure
thanks
Dude, he gave you the formula. Your rate is probably going to be different than his, because your costs are most likely different.