How to estimate price? By time? By picture? By character?

[pavaluts]

Hi
A customer wants me to animate 5 pictures(png format) with some text on them. The total length is 2 min.

What is the most fair way to estimate the total cost? Should I ignore the length and count by pictures only? 

There are no any layers so I need to split up all objects and characters and redraw if it necessary.
What would you charge for that type of project?
Thank you.

[frank_d]

1 hour ago, pavaluts said:

Hi
A customer wants me to animate 5 pictures(png format) with some text on them. The total length is 2 min.

What is the most fair way to estimate the total cost? Should I ignore the length and count by pictures only? 

There are no any layers so I need to split up all objects and characters and redraw if it necessary.
What would you charge for that type of project?
Thank you.

Hi there!

seems like you have several animation gigs already set up, pricing and everything.

And most of your gigs seem to cover longer projects than the one in question.

So my question is: what makes this request so different that you are not sure how to quote?

 

[pavaluts]

Because I still doubt about pricing. Sometimes I have a project with 10 pictures and 2 minutes long. Sometimes 5 pictures and 6 minutes long.
Some customers have source files some of them not.
Maybe some of us adjusted proper formula for such orders. 
Thank you!

[chessart_studio]

I won´t say numbers ("the ideal price is this" $$$$) but I will say things you realy must consider and place in balance beforing setting your price:

The first thing in my opinion that is the most important, that have the highest weight to setting price is: 1 - Efforts. If you think you will spend a lot of efforts doing this animation (or anyother service) raises your prices, you thinks its an easy job, lower your prices. Much more harder to do, much more high prices. Much more easier to do, much more lower prices.

Other things you must consider is:

2 - Animation time: how long will last, longer animations requires more efforts, so more expensive. More lenght, more video editing, more expensive.
3 - Frame Rate: Much higher the frame rate, more expensive. Animating in 8 frames per second  (Pokemon´s quality) is much more easier than animating in 24 frames per second (Disney´s Snow White quality).
4 - Number of characters: More characters, more efforts, so more expensive. No matter the lenght. 30 seconds with 10 characters is so much complicated as 10 minutes with just 1 character.
5 - Number of Backgrounds: More backgrounds, more efforts, so more expensive. No matter the lenght. Drawing 10 backgrounds to be shown in 30 seconds is much more complicated than drawing 1 background to be shown in 10 minutes.
6 - Original or free background music: If buyer wants an original bgm, more expensive. If he doesn´t mind you uses a free bgm, lower price.
7- Purpose of animation: Most animations is for commercial purposes. So, more expensive.
8 - Size of buyer: Much more bigger is your buyer, more expensive. No, this isn´t unethical. If Blizzard hires me to animate its new game "World of Warcraft 5" (suposing the will launch it), I will obviously raise too much my prices, Blizzard will earn millions for sure using the animations I did for their game, they can pays me whatever I asks them! If an indie developer, somebody that is just starting in game market and will develop his first game wants to hires me, I will lower my prices to fits his budget.

Edited April 3, 2023 by chessart_studio

[majidshowghi]

My pricing for animation services is structured based on priority, considering factors such as the time dedicated to a project, video duration, and the complexity of characters and scenes.
The latter two factors are inherently encompassed within the time spent on a project.