Pricing Yourself as a 3d Artist
The ideas below are viable for people on a payroll or freelancers or even stock sellers like me.
A lot of people struggle with pricing themselves, I see that most price themselves too low thinking that it will attract customers. This sounds correct but it has downsides like attracting annoying customers who do not care about quality or value. The main thing for pricing is to find the core problem or need in whatever industry you are in and fulfill that need. If your service, product or expertise is result oriented and meets the demand then you can price high.
On a Payroll
The country and city you live in have some impacts on pricing, is the city an expensive one, are there many similar artists as you, is there a VFX company shortage there? If there are many 3d modelers around and you do not have anything different/unique to offer except standard 3d modeling you might not be able to price yourself higher.
If you start working at a low rate it will stick with you and will be very difficult to increase your wage. You should try to get what you deserve from the firm you will be working for.
Before the interview you should check the past projects/works of the companies you are aiming at, try to find out how much they need the skills you have. (If they are mostly making 2d motion graphics, you might not be able to get a job there as a 3d FX artist)You might try to talk to some people that are working there over on Linkedin about the working conditions both before and after the interview. Additionally you might want to check the reviews and salary numbers on websites like Glassdoor.com or Indeed.com. There are even salary comparisons based on locations.
So after the initial researching, I prefer to set a range for my price where I try to go for the higher number and go down to the lowest number of the range if it is not accepted.
In the interview try to understand how much they need you, if you get the feeling that they need someone urgently you might insist on your higher price. That is also viable if you can find out if they have been searching for someone for a long time.
During the interview, it is best to leave the “money talk” to the end, and if possible I would prefer for the interviewer to start the money talks/negotiations. Remember that the firm would prefer to pay you the lowest possible amount and you would want to get the maximum you can. Let’s say, the interviewer insisted on you to say a number first for your salary (which I experienced a few times), in that case you can go with the highest number on the range that you set before the interview. Always remember that the interviewer will probably be better at negotiations than you since they would most probably have more experience and it is part of their jobs. If you start the conversation about money first, it might give the wrong impression that you are only interested in money. Of course, the wage is the most important part of a job, however, if you can show them how much value and benefit you will be bringing to the firm, this will help you to push for your higher number on your price range while negotiating.
If the salary offer is too low for you, try to praise the firm and say that working here would be amazing but that you’ll need to be paid a bit more. If you have a current job, you might add that you’ll want to earn more than what you get now. Plus -just like I wrote on my story called “How to get a job in the VFX industry” [LINK]- you might specify the unique aspect you have which separates you from other artists and that it pushes your value higher.
You need to learn if you are going to be a specialist or a generalist in that company. Also learn if you’ll get paid for overtimes because there surely will be some extra works and you might be surprised that some places do not pay for overtimes.
Lastly, I don’t know if there is a concept like a “trial period” in other countries, but here in Turkey there is this strategy used by post production houses where they “try” you for a few months without paying. Then if you perform well they’ll hire you. I never accepted such an offer, I would rather work with a payroll or not work for them at all.
Freelance
Firstly, finding out how much you can earn if you are on a payroll is crucial which gets affected by location, your education and experiences.
While freelancing, you have to take care of the business side of things, like communicating with the customer, understanding their demands, marketing, getting payments, even arranging a location or a PC to work on in some cases.
Being specific is essential, because you need to gather as much information from your client as you can. Do not pass off details just to get the job and start immediately, set all the ground rules and estimate the timing as accurate as possible. Write down everything you did on an Excel sheet everyday to the last detail.
As a 3D artist, I prefer working on an hourly or daily rate, because creative works tend to get many revisions or the client just changes their mind as things go on. Therefore, you might get stuck on a huge project that will last forever if you set per project pricing.
Never ever work with a customer that has no social media accounts, has weird mail addresses or that has no information on the web. Also be careful with clients that never did similar jobs or worked with an artist before, since they might expect results too fast or ask too much from you. I say, instead of taking the risk with odd customers, lose a potential work. However, if you still are going to work with this kind of a client, try to ask a portion of your payment up front. At least if the job turns out to be a non-ending slave labor or the client just disappears, you’ll have some of you money in your pocket.
Most importantly, try to work with the same clients that you trust, work on long time projects, try to deliver 100% satisfaction. Especially at first, try to deliver high value instead of thinking about higher pricing. With the trusted customer and your experience, pricing will eventually increase by itself.
Asset/Stock/Tutorial/Scene File/Model/Texture Seller
No matter if you are selling your own goods, property or items as a side job or as your main source of income, there is also a market for it. Therefore, there is the need to price yourself.
These properties and goods can be illustrations, renders, drawings, tutorials, technical setups or scene files, as well as 3d models, textures and printed models. Let’s call them assets from now on. The part where selling assets distinguishes itself from freelancing or being on a payroll is, there is no negotiating for a price. (a few marketplaces give the customer that option but it is very limited and rarely used). For this reason, you have to evaluate the market and then try to set a price for each of your assets without a range. To evaluate the market, you need to analyze the demand and try to figure out what the market lacks. This will lead to pricing yourself higher, just like asking for your higher price range from the client or interviewer because you are doing some unique content. But there is a catch, there is no guarantee that your unique asset will sell.
That’s why, trying to learn where, for what purpose and by whom your sold assets are used, can show you what is in demand in the market. I see many low quality, untidy, confusing assets out there, which makes the customer avoid them. To be successful, you need to gain the trust of the customers by providing a great asset, therefore making them come back to you for more high quality content. Think of it this way; you made a tutorial but it was not good enough and you got bad reviews. But you devoted a lot on your next tutorial and made it amazing, however, since your first tutorial was not good enough, now you can’t sell because you lost the trust of the customer.
Another point here is “quality over quantity” might not work all the time. I mean quality is of course important, but quantity also has a major role here. You can create magnificent assets and sell them, yet someone else who doesn’t have the quality you have, can beat you in the market because of higher number of assets and therefore exposure. So in this field, you need to keep in mind the quality and time. You may make thousands of lousy assets in a short time that are available for sale everywhere but unable to sell, or spend a lot of time to make a few super high quality stuff but get lost in all the other peoples content. Therefore, you need to ensure a demand/quality/quantity balance to fulfill the demand while not losing time with taking the risk of making a great asset that might not sell.
