Freelance Pricing?

[Rares Halmagean]

I'm new to the game concept art and texturing scene and I was wondering if anyone was familiar with pricing concerning game textures and concept art? How does one go about figuring out the value of texture work? How is texture art calculated(per pixel, per hour...)?

[Jason Manley]

haha...no.

there are no standard rates. each country has a different range. it all comes down to what you can do it for plus whatever profit you feel is fair. do not undersell yourself...ie work for ten dollars an hour or something silly....

Basically take the hourly rate you would be happy with. Double it. Ask for that and if they say no, then come down from there. If you do not want to go back and forth take the hourly rate you are happy with and add twenty percent. if they say yes you just got a raise. if they say no you can come back down ten or the full twenty percent.

mb bills hourly. Our shanghai studio bills less than our SF studio due to costs of living differences...thats what i mean about there is no standard way of pricing...it all comes down to what you can do it for. if it is a higher texture or painting resolution it just takes more time...thus the higher price. there is no per pixel price. funny thought though.


jason

[Farvus]

Right now I'm trying to estimate the average range for my country in proportion to USA. The more I think about it, the more it gets complicated beacause there are additional variables :P.

I also recently found some good blog post about these things.
http://cedrichohnstadt.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/bidding-out-a-project-part-1/

[Rares Halmagean]

That makes sense. Thanks for the input Jason! Thanks for the link Farvus. Any additional input and experiences are welcome. Thanks again guys.

[JL.Alfaro]

I price my freelancing gigs depending on what bills I gotta pay that month..hehe :)

[Puck]

You can't ask for too much money - like Jason says, think of a rate and then double it.
This is because:
a) Unless you have a lot of experience at quoting, the work can often take longer than you think (though this may just be my inexperience).
b) As a freelancer, you're not going to be getting work all the time (again, perhaps this is just me?) so you want to cover your down days (weeks perhaps?).
c) and most importantly, because you're uber talented and the client gets what they pay for. Be confident! you are a professional arn't you? (the answer is yes by the way).

Basically there is no set rate, you base your quote on what the budget is - just don't ever undersell yourself - it hurts EVERYBODY (except the client I guess?).

.... ok, I'll tell you the truth... I normally charge 1c per pixel which gets me about $40,000 for your average 2048x2048 texture. Sometimes I just work at 1024x1024 and then just resize the texture to quadruple my paycheck.

[invinciblewombat]

http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/

a handy little tool to help figure these things out

[Jacob Kobryn]

One of my dad's clients writes and performs club (techno) music. He was called by a restaurant wanting to purchase a 6 hour recording of his mixes. This was the first time anyone ever wanted to purchase his music. He didn't want to seem over expensive and he was battling with issues with his self esteem. He thought it would be worth about $600 ($100 an hour) but he was unsure. Just to test the surface he told them it would cost $3000. They said yes.

Don't undersell yourself and just see what can happen. The above tactic is a good one, try it.

[Rares Halmagean]

Excellent. You guys are a lot of help. Thank You!

JL.Alfaro; That would seem to make sence :D.

lol Puck...I know I was reaching with the per pixel pricing thing.

invinciblewombat: Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

Jake Korbin: You're right. Better to ask high and then go low.

[Digital_Blacksmith]

Hell, I got people to buy 4 weapon concepts for 150 each. Each weapon takes less then an hour to do. You do the math. So in just less then 4 hours, I am $600 richer. But the one thing you have to remember, you cant just run in and say "dude! Im like the perfect one for this job!" Prove it. Have your portfolio set up with your best works, show your future employers some examples of things similar to what they want, kinda like a tattoo parlor, and get your name out there. You cant just start out and expect to make $150 an hour.

So my advice would be dont undersell yourself like everyone says, but don't overdo it unless you got the skills and the resume to back it up.

[Sig.NAL]

Hhhmmm... My boss does graphic design stuff for a few businesses around town and he never charges less than $20 and hour, more if it's more difficult or if he has to run around and talk to a lot of people to verify measurements or find people to actually apply the designs etc.

If i'm drawing up a tattoo for someone, our shop as standard practice charges an initial $20 drawing deposit to even begin work on a drawing, $40 for really large pieces. (There's too many schmucks who'll just never come back, or show up a year later expecting you to have held on to the drawing for their hour and a half duration piece for all that time) Then we go by the hour as far as how long it's going to take to tattoo them. My rate is set at $100 an hour, but that's only for how long it will take to actually tattoo it, so while alot of people think that sounds unreasonable, they don't take into account that i might be spending three to five hours drawing it up. So for a two hour tattoo i'm charging approximately between 25 - 40 buck an hour, but i still have to share the profit with the shop after the fact, and i keep this in mind when people try and talk me down or haggle. I'll politely state my original rate once, and after that i go progressively higher each time they try to 'make a deal'.

If you know what your time is worth DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT! If you're really serious about the work and you're going to put the time in, they'll most likely be satisfied with the finished product and not as concerned with the initial cost as one might think. I've never once heard anyone complain about the cost of a tattoo once they were finished.

[Puck]

... I've never once heard anyone complain about the cost of a tattoo once they were finished.

This is important I think. I've had clients who have questioned my rates and tried to haggle me down - but they only do that the first time they work with me, because after I deliver the assets they are so impressed that they fall over themselves thanking me for my skills and keep coming back for more - literally jumping up and down screaming at how good it looks, and huging me after the screening and recommending my services to all their peers* :)

Well that's the idea anyway - if you charge big bucks and then manage to deliver something kick-arse that totally blows them out of the water, then you will score big respect points - much better than letting the client think you are a 'discount' freelancer that they offload all their extra rotoscoping work on to.

* not indicative of normal freelancer-client experience.