Hey guys! I’m starting to get back into freelancing again and I just to hear what your opinions are on pricing. Previously, I charged based on each asset on size and importance of the asset. Now, I was thinking of charging based on asset category: small(Environments, etc), medium(slashes, small explosions, shaders, etc), and large(hero fx, etc). But, I also considered charging by hourly rate and wasn’t sure on the usual wages.
How do you experts go about? I’m not necessarily asking for numbers but how you guys generally state your wages.
Seeing as I’m still on my first solo contract I’m far from an expert but the way I calculated my price was by looking at the list of things to do. Made some estimates on how long it would take, told them this is my hourly rate, that means it all comes to this price.
In the estimates I include time for feedback and reworks.
I always changed hourly rates. Imo it’s just best for you as an artist. For example when the client comes running to you five times in a row because the effect ‘just need’s a little bit more of …’ or when the client changes their mind out of nothing. Obviously assuming you know what you’re doing and you deliver consistent high quality results.
Hourly makes sense to me - for example when not only do the FX but also the implementation into the game too (when the company gives you access to the game) you never know how long it will take. Sometimes even simple effects need a lot of time to make work with the gamplay and test everything.
just a side note, to the freelance question. Also make sure that revisions/changes are clearly defined in the contract. say for example your impact fx took 10 hours, but there’s 20 hours more of revisions over several emails. Just something to make sure the client doesn’t take advantage of you, since there are always improvements
In my experience, the simplest way to navigate freelance contracts is to charge a daily rate. I’ve been bidding on effects for years, and still make massive mistakes that bite me hard when under-estimating the difficulty of something, so I’ll always suggest not to charge by deliverables.
The day rate also adds a little flexibility for my clients - I’ll work overtime when necessary and not charge them more, but on the opposite side, it means that they’re not constantly looking at every hour I spend to make sure I’m at 10000% efficiency.
At the end of the day, the trust relationship with your client is the most important part, so i always encourage fostering that over worrying too much about the constructs of the rate. Day rates provide me the most wiggle room to do that.
Tip: Use Toggl.com to track what you are doing. That way it’s easier to judge how much time you Actually spent on the project. I’m not saying you should send the numbers to the client, but it’ll be a good indicator down the line on where you spend time.
Ahh I can definitely see how hourly rates are much more flexible. These were all great tips everybody! Thanks a bunch for your feedback and insight on this! It was always daunting on how I should market myself.
Also an interesting (slightly related) question: When you are working as freelancer for a company in a foreign country, do you take the public holidays from your country, do you take theirs (to be in sync) or don´t take any of them?
