Your so honest and telling everything an artist need to know. I was asking for this kind of content a month ago. This tell how much your engaging with the community. So thank you for everything!
Yes I don't worry to much about what people know about me and my life :) I'm in a happy position so I dont have any stresses to worry me too much so its easy to be open about things.
In the time I have been learning CGI, the community has often felt like a closed shop. There are some great people and some great tutorials out there, but it felt like there were some things that would not be discussed. It is amazing to see someone talking about this side of the industry.
Three years later, this is still relevant, like all of your videos. Thank you for that! i'm trying to get into 3D after 10 years, using my days off my cooking job. Hopefully, soon I can live from my art again.
Thank you Grant for these frank words. I was a freelancer myself for some time and may have some tips to share. I think it is very important to have a clear, written agreement at the beginning. The offer should also include a definition of what will be done. It is important to communicate that changes will be charged according to time and effort. It is also important to communicate that meetings are part of the job and will be charged. When it comes to court, these documents are worth their weight in gold and simplify the process. Larger projects should be billed on a monthly basis. This way you can be sure that the customer is willing to pay. A customer who is willing to pay anyway has no problems with this. And for those who drop out, it is not a pity! I also see these offers as a kind of filter to separate the good customers from the bad ones. (If they want you because you work cheap, you have the wrong image and will never make a satisfactory income). Unfortunately, many freelancers care too little about the commercial issues. (Thank you, DeepL!)
I make websites and oh man, clients not paying is just a regular thing every year there is someone who just decides not to pay. Last year I lost 2 months of work and work time when client decided to scratch their project and ecided not to pay the money we decided on. The only way is through a court now, they are a large international company and my lawyer told me that eventually the cost of court will be way higher than what they were supposed to pay and I will be the one paying it and it will take years to get resolved. Long story short I scratched 9000$ and was wondering what the hell am I supposed to do. The best advice to freelancer's, every project no matter how small or large get 50% in advance. When it comes to selling on unity store and such for games, one model is usually not going to sell, you need a strategy where yo utake i naccount a game as a whole so models which sell well are the ones which are part of a larger suit (usually). I can sympathize with you on this topic xD.
I used to get half payment of the whole game project wih 3 games. The total was $9,000. I got paid for $4,500. I made all 3 games but they didn't pay the rest. Y_Y My advice is to look the employers carefully. Newly opened companies tend to not pay well. Except the newly opened ones have the big comapny backed them up.
Sorry to hear that, maybe the way forward is 50% up front like you said and having a contract drawn up that the client will have to sign saying that the full work will only be delivered upon receipt of any and all outstanding balances regardless of the outcome (i.e. covering for client idiosyncracies or faltering) and then have the some kind of failsafe within the project whereby if you don't have a certain piece, the overall project will not function or make sense. Of course this is dependent on whata type of project or technologies you are working with.
Thank you for answering these questions that other artists consider taboo. There is nothing sacred in money and though everyone needs it so it seems absolutely normal to be able to talk about it. Thank you !
I always feel these "clients" are thinking any sort of art/creative works should be cheap because they imagine we just pull the result right out of our anus. it's extremely lucky case when I meet a client who has good understanding of what it takes in process to bring out the outcome they want.
Very early on doing graphic work ( menu layouts and flyers ) I learnt to stipulate that edits after a point "will incur costs" I was doing the layout for the tiny cloths you get in glasses for cleaning at one point, adding logos and such and it got to a point that after final sign off any edit would be a flat rate of £50 even for a tiny edit. Saying this at the very beginning saved me so much time as people tend not to mess you about when in costs them to do so.
This is such a fantastic video. To think that somebody that is earning money (at whichever level, or in whichever industry) would give us outsiders a glimpse behind the curtain... I cannot thank you enough for your openness and honesty. I am hoping at some point (possibly in the next few months) to start earning from the CGI skills I have learned over the last two years. I have no delusions about where I am in the grand scheme of things, but this video was very, very much appreciated nonetheless. Thank you.
Watching your tutorials in the last year has helped me become confident in Blender and 3D Modelling myself and I cant thank you and the other content creators that make RUclips tutorials in Blender. My difficulty is trying to juggle the time in my own life to make money from 3D Modelling. As I have a full time job and now a baby. But every spare moment I get I am straight onto Blender trying to make something really big. Thanks for talking about this its a good eye opener to what its like financially to be a freelancer.
Hi Grant - what you've said brings back horrible memories :) and from what you said, you are charging far too little... Do you have a day rate? When you look at contract work some of those guys get 250 to 450 a day! I don't charge hourly now, it becomes so picky... so it's a day rate and half a day (if necessary) :) Thanks for your videos, you've helped a lot!
I would probably put my prices up if I was after more of this type of work but most of the time I'm just keeping my hand into the industry with the odd job :) Good point on the day rates
Thanks for making such an honest and direct video on such an important topic. I've been a furniture maker, sculptor, and potter over the years. The points you make are relevant across those industries. Awesome to see a creator putting out this sort of content.
Always get up front payment before you start working. Those who would pay you either way will understand and have no problem with it. The only ones who might have an issue are the ones that would have had trouble paying in the first place.
Grant, what a lovely ethic you have, in all the days I've spent on youtube I have never ever seen anyone so informative and helpful, its so refreshing to see this especially on social media. I have definitely never seen anyone discuss so openly about their finance. I am truly grateful for this inspiration. PS - I have worked on Logos and know how deceptively hard they are to do, especially the clean and simple ones, I realised over time that I was not good at them at all.
As a freelancing musician, I can really relate. My biggest mistake has been that I set a price from the beginning. Then the client thinks it's ok to ask for changes after the job is done without paying a penny..
Hey Grant, great foreshadowing! I Watched the mushroom flowers video yesterday, and this one popped up today. (Kinda reverse chronology) I appreciate seeing this retrospectively because I thought I had to really hone in on one specific field, but hearing about your experience with customers, the kind of work you want to do, and how you approach the industry is really helpful for me, and gives me a better idea on how to approach things.
Hi Grant, its great that you have shared your experiences here, but I do have to say that from my perspective as a UK based CGI professional with many years experience, you seem to be under pricing your freelance services by a huge amount (even taking into account the age of this video). You are clearly skilled in your craft, and are one of the most well known Blender practitioners, yet the sort of rates you are charging are what the companies I work with would expect to pay for the most junior, inexperienced artists. I understand that the sort of jobs you discuss in this video only have a limited budget, but honestly, there are plenty of jobs out there (in the UK at least) where the clients are actually prepared to pay considerably more for someone with your skillset. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but It actually doesn't help other freelance artists, who may just be starting out or who may need the work to make a living, when higher profile artists like yourself charge so little. Having said that though, thank you so much for your openness and honesty on the subject, hopefully it has given others some insight into the challenges of trying to make a living as a freelancer.
Really honest and candid video, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Your tutorials are wonderful and learning a little about your freelance work is fascinating.
I have done design work in Photography, Typesetting and layout design, and web development and the common issue I run into, and would run into with 3d modeling is the hourly charge thing. Some projects you end up putting in more hours than you charge for because you feel your initial effort was not good enough for what they are paying so you don't charge all the hours you put in, and some clients also want a set price for things rather than an unknown hourly rate so you have to give them a ballpark of the hours it might take and if you have to put in more hours, you kinda can't change for them! Design and creative work is always dealing with this issue.
I just bought your Blender course "Blender Character Creator v2.0 for Video Games Design Course". I really like your teaching style, the pace and the instructions. Great work!
I never start working without a contract and a pre-payment (upfront). If you have a portfolio with a good quality of work, clients usually are happy to pay upfront and sign a contract. This is IMO the best way to work remotely with clients. Sometimes it is hard to get the job but it is like 5% of all clients.
9:13 I'd definitely love to see more game making related tutorials! My dream is to make a video game and I've been trying to learn Unreal Engine and you are my go to source for anything Blender. Maybe you can share secrets you've learned on exporting and importing Blender assets into game engines? For instance your low poly tree looked different once it was in Unity compared to Blender. I'd love some character rigging and exporting animations? Your youtube channel should have way more subscribers than you have right now. You've been putting out some excellent content and it's only a matter of time before people catch on and your channel blows up!
I'm surprised you charge so less actually. If you'd have your own little "Design Bureau" company you could at least charge 80 - 100 € with your skill set. Either way, very interesting video. Clients not paying in the end is sadly very common and I had this happen to me as well in my day job. I usually ask about three times, send them an official aounding letter but other than that, I basically give up. I don't have the energy and time to sue them, which is actually not even worth it below 1k €. Try to get advances as much as possible, a real business usually has no problem with paying at least a part upfront. And the good customers, yeah, you've got to keep them. Write follow up mails, send small gifts, whatever it takes. You want good customers, not cheap ones. Hehe.
When I started my apprenticeship as a 3D Archviz artist in 2013, the business I worked at took 500 Euros per picture, having maybe 5 of them done a week. In 2022 that same business has built on offering service packaging, making prices go up to almost 2000 Euros a picture. My point is, make sure you take what you are worth and what value you add to the company you work for. Selling yourself too cheaply damages the general business of 3D artists in the long run as clients will come to expect low prices, and not paying extra for additional corrections.
Great video. I lost my job during the furlough period in 3D arch vis along with all my confidence. I have only 2 years experience and would like to freelance to develop skills beyond this field, but don't know how or where to start. Would like some advice on how to promote myself, how to make contacts/clients or just any advice on good starting points in general. :)
This was a really cool vid and i appreciate it as i have been considering freelancing for awhile now. i have decided to post-pone it until i have increased my skills a bit more also i would love to see some of these tuts if you have time and if you want to make them: Sci-fi stuff ranging from - bases/landscapes/ships/greebles/armor/weapons/energy shields magic type stuff ranging from - staffs/creatures/runes/items steam-punk in general would be awesome too low poly or high poly doesnt really matter just would love to see how you go about making them
15 pounds an hour seems insanely cheap for western country. Not sure about the tax rate where you´re at but it sounds like you should be charging at least double the amount of what you are charging. UK has an odd wage standard, but for the rest of EU most clients have no problem coughing up a reasonable amount. Lots of info on polycount: wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Freelance I also charge day rates and occasionally by the hour (but then it´s more expensive than the day rate). You need to get payed for the work you do, and you need to take in to account the expenses you have as an artist (work space, software, living cost, ensurance etc). Don´t sell yourself short.
Very true. Perhaps I should charge more. I think generally i'm only taking on really fun stuff and i still feel like i'm learning so I'm not too worried but yes maybe I should rethink my pricing. A lot of the time i take on stuff I'm not good at so that I can learn a bit more about it. so in those cases it seems fair.
Wow thanks for this video. I've been doing freelance 3D for the past 6 months, after having worked in the industry about 10 years. I have been charging quite a bit more than you and kinda feel like an asshole now. Haha! But I've only been busy half the time. Maybe I ought to consider taking some lower paid gigs to flesh out my client base and keep myself busy and my skills sharp. Where do you find most of your work? Or does it find you? This is the part I tend to struggle with most.
At the moment the work finds me. I may eventually start looking for the work if i go full time freelance. I think in general you should be charging more than me as most of my jobs are just for fun generally speaking. :)
I understand when filmed this it was 2018 and now it is 2021, so are you felthy rich yet? LOLOLOL ... I am new to this hole 3D business, I didn't realize there so much and I have found few interest in the 3D art. I am into my 50s and realize most likely late into this game. I would like to some day have my own business and I am seeing this a way out. Lot to learn in a short time (this how I feel). I do have blender , just updated the 3.0 today. We see how this goes. I do not have any expectiantion, and plenty fustratration .. You know .. But I will do it ... So thanks for sharing your story
One more pro for you as a freelance you didn't mention is your native English language. English speaking market for 3d and design is huge and being European speaking English as a learned 2nd language about such abstract things as art is sometimes complicated. I had opportunities missed some time ago because I couldn't communicate well with clients. As English is a corpo language you can have a higher chance to get a job in studios around Europe and some other parts of the globe than let's say a person from Slovenia.
Really interesting perspective and insight to get from you, thank you very much. I admire your work a lot but mostly your personality through it and your vibe as a 'teacher' through any content you share on your experience (tutorials and all). I'm just a simple amateur having my own little unrelated job to the domain of 3D, I've just always been curious and interested about it and dig every content on tutorials and making of, hoping to maybe one day take off into something I enjoy more but I'm afraid of the unpredictable market job finding but of course, more obviously, am not trained as a pro in the field so I clearly understand there is plenty of people more able than me in the domain. Yet, having this insight on your personal experience helps me, just very slightly ;), judging myself and possible expectations I could imagine myself when we know, in the end, it's never quite like we imagine it. Just silently honing my skills in the hope that maybe one day, but in the meantime, it is very enjoyable and interesting to follow you along and I am very grateful for everything you share and all the time you give us all. Thank very much. Good luck in your enterprises.
The fact that a known guy with a following is/was only getting 20 pounds an hour for freelance work deep into his career a few years ago, when there weren't gazillions of entryists pouring into 3D, should be a massive wake-up call for some of you who want to do this full time
So in your experience do you think you earn more from freelancing or selling on asset stores, i feel like if you do a high priced freelance job it may pay off better than sending your models off in a sea of redundant projects like turbosquid, and what asset stores pay the best? Id imagine unitys asset store would pay more than say turbosquid since turbosquid has an insane amount of models. Also which is easier for beginners trying to start earning money off of the hobby like me? Obviously im not expecting a realistic salary off of just models, but do you think itd be better to just rapidly produce basic models for asset stores or to search for specific freelance models for my skill level?
If more free lancers would get there heads out of the clouds and come back down to reality with the rest of us they would have a lot more work. I can afford $20/hr as a solo dev. But you got people out there that want $150/hr like whoa jeez man I'm not some huge studio... Yet!
Thanks Grant , Awesome video and information , I wonder if you can charge differently , like per model. My focus is character creation and maybe motion graphics in future , is it not better if i charge per char model ? Either way , imagine a decent stylized character , how much do you thunk would be suitable for it ? Being inexperienced in freelancing im very afraid of being unfair with the price , or underpaid for a lot of work
Is it normal for a game developer to ask you to do their art for them and all rights go to them? If you made Kratos for example, would you atleast get royalties?
Well normally if they pay you they have the royalties, but it depends on the contract, if you insist on keeping the royalties you may be paid less, but it probably can be worked out with the customer
Do you think learning how to use more expensive software is a good strategy to reduce competition from poorer countries? Some freelance jobs specifically list software that they want you to use like Maya, 3ds Max, etc.
Greetings Grant. I recently started to learn Blender, following your tutorials, from the beginning level. They are so informative, clear, and fun, of course. I was wondering, do you have some lessons about architecture modeling and visualization with Blender? Or if you could recommend some good ones about this topic.
Try searching for "Archviz Blender" here on youtube. I'm also inclined into Architecture Visualization and I was able to find some helpful tutorials and timelapses which I got tips from.
15£ a hour, that would be 150 on 10 hours working day. Seems not enough as an independent. A freelance needs my opinion at least 30£ a hour to have the same income as an employer in a company
12 ponds an hour? Gross? Thats too cheap! Im in israel in the archviz where pay is lower and I charge between 30 to 60 usd per hour and thats not enough either! You need to pay for hardware software and your social so I think 50 usd per hour should be a minimum!
As someone said before, having a portfolio with a good quality work will be a no-brainer. Even for those that don't have enough experience in the market, a portfolio will have more weithg
Wait... Is 3D Artist saturated in 2023? (i mean too many 3D artist and low demand). How much should I charge as an.. intermediate-expert level (because I will be devoting all my energy towards creating a great portfolio) per day?
Not looking for work so don't go on any currently. I would strongly not recommend places like fiver and others were you are competing against people charging minuscule amounts for work. However there are a lot of different websites out there and different forums that people advertise in.
Can you make a video about uploading our 3D models to market places? I have made some low poly models and I need to know people's idea about it. I need to upload free for now. Please do video about it 🤗🤗
Yeah it's low but that's my minimum and its for jobs that i really want to have a go at and sometimes have only a small amount of experience in. So I charge less for those :)
Your so honest and telling everything an artist need to know. I was asking for this kind of content a month ago. This tell how much your engaging with the community. So thank you for everything!
Glad it's helpful. 😃👍
Yer I noticed that with grant also, I made a suggestion, and soon it was done, namely turntable.
You don't find a lot of videos about this topics because is kind of personal, so thanks for sharing it!
Yes I don't worry to much about what people know about me and my life :) I'm in a happy position so I dont have any stresses to worry me too much so its easy to be open about things.
In the time I have been learning CGI, the community has often felt like a closed shop. There are some great people and some great tutorials out there, but it felt like there were some things that would not be discussed. It is amazing to see someone talking about this side of the industry.
Three years later, this is still relevant, like all of your videos. Thank you for that! i'm trying to get into 3D after 10 years, using my days off my cooking job. Hopefully, soon I can live from my art again.
Thank you Grant for these frank words.
I was a freelancer myself for some time and may have some tips to share.
I think it is very important to have a clear, written agreement at the beginning. The offer should also include a definition of what will be done. It is important to communicate that changes will be charged according to time and effort. It is also important to communicate that meetings are part of the job and will be charged. When it comes to court, these documents are worth their weight in gold and simplify the process.
Larger projects should be billed on a monthly basis. This way you can be sure that the customer is willing to pay. A customer who is willing to pay anyway has no problems with this. And for those who drop out, it is not a pity! I also see these offers as a kind of filter to separate the good customers from the bad ones. (If they want you because you work cheap, you have the wrong image and will never make a satisfactory income).
Unfortunately, many freelancers care too little about the commercial issues.
(Thank you, DeepL!)
I make websites and oh man, clients not paying is just a regular thing every year there is someone who just decides not to pay.
Last year I lost 2 months of work and work time when client decided to scratch their project and ecided not to pay the money we decided on. The only way is through a court now, they are a large international company and my lawyer told me that eventually the cost of court will be way higher than what they were supposed to pay and I will be the one paying it and it will take years to get resolved. Long story short I scratched 9000$ and was wondering what the hell am I supposed to do.
The best advice to freelancer's, every project no matter how small or large get 50% in advance.
When it comes to selling on unity store and such for games, one model is usually not going to sell, you need a strategy where yo utake i naccount a game as a whole so models which sell well are the ones which are part of a larger suit (usually).
I can sympathize with you on this topic xD.
That's a really nasty one but it seems to be too common :(
Heh yeah, the worst part was figuring out what to eat next few months xD.
@@ViktorsJournal that's a major problem with freelancing. It's unstable and very difficult at times
I used to get half payment of the whole game project wih 3 games. The total was $9,000. I got paid for $4,500. I made all 3 games but they didn't pay the rest. Y_Y
My advice is to look the employers carefully. Newly opened companies tend to not pay well. Except the newly opened ones have the big comapny backed them up.
Sorry to hear that, maybe the way forward is 50% up front like you said and having a contract drawn up that the client will have to sign saying that the full work will only be delivered upon receipt of any and all outstanding balances regardless of the outcome (i.e. covering for client idiosyncracies or faltering) and then have the some kind of failsafe within the project whereby if you don't have a certain piece, the overall project will not function or make sense. Of course this is dependent on whata type of project or technologies you are working with.
Thank you for answering these questions that other artists consider taboo. There is nothing sacred in money and though everyone needs it so it seems absolutely normal to be able to talk about it. Thank you !
I can really understand the cost of living argument. Someone living india will be happy to earn 15pound a day
indeed
acha laga bhai tumhe yaha dekhke. Animation is still alive in india xD
At what point you reached the blender currently?
@@kosmikdrive8845 I know ins and outs of blender . I am comfortable in creating lowpoly art
@@parshantpanwar
great. Keep going 👍
I always feel these "clients" are thinking any sort of art/creative works should be cheap because they imagine we just pull the result right out of our anus. it's extremely lucky case when I meet a client who has good understanding of what it takes in process to bring out the outcome they want.
Very early on doing graphic work ( menu layouts and flyers ) I learnt to stipulate that edits after a point "will incur costs" I was doing the layout for the tiny cloths you get in glasses for cleaning at one point, adding logos and such and it got to a point that after final sign off any edit would be a flat rate of £50 even for a tiny edit. Saying this at the very beginning saved me so much time as people tend not to mess you about when in costs them to do so.
This man is so humble! ❤
Plus your videos are really very informative as well as interactive .😊
This is such a fantastic video. To think that somebody that is earning money (at whichever level, or in whichever industry) would give us outsiders a glimpse behind the curtain... I cannot thank you enough for your openness and honesty. I am hoping at some point (possibly in the next few months) to start earning from the CGI skills I have learned over the last two years. I have no delusions about where I am in the grand scheme of things, but this video was very, very much appreciated nonetheless. Thank you.
Thanks :) Many people have said this so i'll probably do a couple more every now and again to keep people up to date :)
The best ever. There is no one in this world that can really tell you what they do...even their own personnel life. This is so educational.
Thanks glad it's useful
Watching your tutorials in the last year has helped me become confident in Blender and 3D Modelling myself and I cant thank you and the other content creators that make RUclips tutorials in Blender.
My difficulty is trying to juggle the time in my own life to make money from 3D Modelling. As I have a full time job and now a baby. But every spare moment I get I am straight onto Blender trying to make something really big.
Thanks for talking about this its a good eye opener to what its like financially to be a freelancer.
Hi Grant - what you've said brings back horrible memories :) and from what you said, you are charging far too little... Do you have a day rate? When you look at contract work some of those guys get 250 to 450 a day! I don't charge hourly now, it becomes so picky... so it's a day rate and half a day (if necessary) :) Thanks for your videos, you've helped a lot!
I would probably put my prices up if I was after more of this type of work but most of the time I'm just keeping my hand into the industry with the odd job :) Good point on the day rates
i love how transparent you are and how you show the reality of freelance work
This stuff is fascinating to me. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for making such an honest and direct video on such an important topic. I've been a furniture maker, sculptor, and potter over the years. The points you make are relevant across those industries. Awesome to see a creator putting out this sort of content.
Always get up front payment before you start working. Those who would pay you either way will understand and have no problem with it. The only ones who might have an issue are the ones that would have had trouble paying in the first place.
Very interesting Grant! Many thanks for sharing your experience. I'm one of your student (environmental artist course) and I learned a lot from you.
Grant, what a lovely ethic you have, in all the days I've spent on youtube I have never ever seen anyone so informative and helpful, its so refreshing to see this especially on social media. I have definitely never seen anyone discuss so openly about their finance. I am truly grateful for this inspiration. PS - I have worked on Logos and know how deceptively hard they are to do, especially the clean and simple ones, I realised over time that I was not good at them at all.
Look up the dunning crugar effect. Then your feelings make sense
Thanks Grant. That's a deep comment...I have learned over the years to rely on my heart, to me it's a life compass.
Grant, I looked up the dunning crugar effect, and now nothing makes sense?
As a freelancing musician, I can really relate. My biggest mistake has been that I set a price from the beginning. Then the client thinks it's ok to ask for changes after the job is done without paying a penny..
Hi Grant! I just start freelancing 1 month ago and this kind of videos are really helpful. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to hear it
I know, I'm watching this two years on. So many of your early experiences with client management mirror my own. Great video!
I really like your tutorials and soliloquys, very insightful and personal in a refreshing way, may your channel grow sir
Thanks :)
Hey Grant, great foreshadowing! I Watched the mushroom flowers video yesterday, and this one popped up today. (Kinda reverse chronology) I appreciate seeing this retrospectively because I thought I had to really hone in on one specific field, but hearing about your experience with customers, the kind of work you want to do, and how you approach the industry is really helpful for me, and gives me a better idea on how to approach things.
Hi Grant, its great that you have shared your experiences here, but I do have to say that from my perspective as a UK based CGI professional with many years experience, you seem to be under pricing your freelance services by a huge amount (even taking into account the age of this video).
You are clearly skilled in your craft, and are one of the most well known Blender practitioners, yet the sort of rates you are charging are what the companies I work with would expect to pay for the most junior, inexperienced artists.
I understand that the sort of jobs you discuss in this video only have a limited budget, but honestly, there are plenty of jobs out there (in the UK at least) where the clients are actually prepared to pay considerably more for someone with your skillset. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but It actually doesn't help other freelance artists, who may just be starting out or who may need the work to make a living, when higher profile artists like yourself charge so little.
Having said that though, thank you so much for your openness and honesty on the subject, hopefully it has given others some insight into the challenges of trying to make a living as a freelancer.
Yeah it's changed a lot since then. 👍
THANK YOU! you really make a difference in my Blender performance, it was very difficult for me to begin .
Really honest and candid video, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Your tutorials are wonderful and learning a little about your freelance work is fascinating.
I have done design work in Photography, Typesetting and layout design, and web development and the common issue I run into, and would run into with 3d modeling is the hourly charge thing. Some projects you end up putting in more hours than you charge for because you feel your initial effort was not good enough for what they are paying so you don't charge all the hours you put in, and some clients also want a set price for things rather than an unknown hourly rate so you have to give them a ballpark of the hours it might take and if you have to put in more hours, you kinda can't change for them! Design and creative work is always dealing with this issue.
I just bought your Blender course "Blender Character Creator v2.0 for Video Games Design Course". I really like your teaching style, the pace and the instructions. Great work!
Glad you enjoy it!
Hi Grant, I really appreciate your work and tutorials, it's really good of you to do this.
Thank you for making and sharing videos like this! It's very good for new and young artists to hear business experiences in the real world.
I never start working without a contract and a pre-payment (upfront). If you have a portfolio with a good quality of work, clients usually are happy to pay upfront and sign a contract. This is IMO the best way to work remotely with clients. Sometimes it is hard to get the job but it is like 5% of all clients.
Yes indeed
best RUclipsr, hats off to you man, really interesting videos.
Thanks :)
9:13 I'd definitely love to see more game making related tutorials! My dream is to make a video game and I've been trying to learn Unreal Engine and you are my go to source for anything Blender. Maybe you can share secrets you've learned on exporting and importing Blender assets into game engines? For instance your low poly tree looked different once it was in Unity compared to Blender. I'd love some character rigging and exporting animations? Your youtube channel should have way more subscribers than you have right now. You've been putting out some excellent content and it's only a matter of time before people catch on and your channel blows up!
Thank you for what you do. Sharing your knowledge and experience.
Thanks :)
Dude, your channel is the shit.
Really brave video to put out and can completely relate to this.
Transparency is an admirable attribute.
Thanks :)
You know, what @ Grant? I love you bro, thanks for sharing.
I'm surprised you charge so less actually. If you'd have your own little "Design Bureau" company you could at least charge 80 - 100 € with your skill set. Either way, very interesting video. Clients not paying in the end is sadly very common and I had this happen to me as well in my day job. I usually ask about three times, send them an official aounding letter but other than that, I basically give up. I don't have the energy and time to sue them, which is actually not even worth it below 1k €. Try to get advances as much as possible, a real business usually has no problem with paying at least a part upfront. And the good customers, yeah, you've got to keep them. Write follow up mails, send small gifts, whatever it takes. You want good customers, not cheap ones. Hehe.
indeed
You're the best, Grant!
When I started my apprenticeship as a 3D Archviz artist in 2013, the business I worked at took 500 Euros per picture, having maybe 5 of them done a week.
In 2022 that same business has built on offering service packaging, making prices go up to almost 2000 Euros a picture.
My point is, make sure you take what you are worth and what value you add to the company you work for.
Selling yourself too cheaply damages the general business of 3D artists in the long run as clients will come to expect low prices, and not paying extra for additional corrections.
Thank you for this inside information great to hear!
Thanks
ive just started a little collab with a dev team, so this info is quite helpfull! thanks grant
Good to hear
Great video. I lost my job during the furlough period in 3D arch vis along with all my confidence. I have only 2 years experience and would like to freelance to develop skills beyond this field, but don't know how or where to start. Would like some advice on how to promote myself, how to make contacts/clients or just any advice on good starting points in general. :)
I don't always like and subscribe, but when I do, it's because I'm really digging it.
This was a really cool vid and i appreciate it as i have been considering freelancing for awhile now. i have decided to post-pone it until i have increased my skills a bit more
also i would love to see some of these tuts if you have time and if you want to make them:
Sci-fi stuff ranging from - bases/landscapes/ships/greebles/armor/weapons/energy shields
magic type stuff ranging from - staffs/creatures/runes/items
steam-punk in general would be awesome too
low poly or high poly doesnt really matter just would love to see how you go about making them
I'll definitely have a look into these things and see if i can come up with anything
Finally someone being honest. good vid!
Thanks
always THX so much💙🧡
and thanks again :) :)
I'll make a game with you! I'm still doing some tutorials though and I will post and show you my reel once it's ready
You are very humble I would say 🥰
15 pounds an hour seems insanely cheap for western country. Not sure about the tax rate where you´re at but it sounds like you should be charging at least double the amount of what you are charging. UK has an odd wage standard, but for the rest of EU most clients have no problem coughing up a reasonable amount. Lots of info on polycount: wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Freelance
I also charge day rates and occasionally by the hour (but then it´s more expensive than the day rate).
You need to get payed for the work you do, and you need to take in to account the expenses you have as an artist (work space, software, living cost, ensurance etc). Don´t sell yourself short.
Very true. Perhaps I should charge more. I think generally i'm only taking on really fun stuff and i still feel like i'm learning so I'm not too worried but yes maybe I should rethink my pricing. A lot of the time i take on stuff I'm not good at so that I can learn a bit more about it. so in those cases it seems fair.
also thanks for the link that's very useful :)
BTW your video tutorials are awesome!
Cheers, much appreciated!
This video was very informative and I wish I would have found your channel a few years ago.
Thanks for your advice. Really helpful.
Thanks
Yes you can ask for the money up front that's the business i always do it that way.
Wow thanks for this video. I've been doing freelance 3D for the past 6 months, after having worked in the industry about 10 years. I have been charging quite a bit more than you and kinda feel like an asshole now. Haha! But I've only been busy half the time. Maybe I ought to consider taking some lower paid gigs to flesh out my client base and keep myself busy and my skills sharp.
Where do you find most of your work? Or does it find you? This is the part I tend to struggle with most.
At the moment the work finds me. I may eventually start looking for the work if i go full time freelance. I think in general you should be charging more than me as most of my jobs are just for fun generally speaking. :)
Interesting video,and can u do a video about different kind off job roles in 3d modelling and skills necessary for them :-)
Yes that was one of the next ones on my list
Geant abbitt ,thank u so much
I understand when filmed this it was 2018 and now it is 2021, so are you felthy rich yet? LOLOLOL ... I am new to this hole 3D business, I didn't realize there so much and I have found few interest in the 3D art. I am into my 50s and realize most likely late into this game. I would like to some day have my own business and I am seeing this a way out. Lot to learn in a short time (this how I feel). I do have blender , just updated the 3.0 today. We see how this goes. I do not have any expectiantion, and plenty fustratration .. You know .. But I will do it ... So thanks for sharing your story
I probably sight to do an update on this but I can charge more for my work now
Very helpfull . Thanks for yor time spent for create youtubes.
Smart! Thank you!
Thank you for sharing your experiences
:)
Great videos...all of them !!!
Thanks :)
One more pro for you as a freelance you didn't mention is your native English language. English speaking market for 3d and design is huge and being European speaking English as a learned 2nd language about such abstract things as art is sometimes complicated. I had opportunities missed some time ago because I couldn't communicate well with clients.
As English is a corpo language you can have a higher chance to get a job in studios around Europe and some other parts of the globe than let's say a person from Slovenia.
Good point
Thank you, very interesting video.
Really interesting perspective and insight to get from you, thank you very much. I admire your work a lot but mostly your personality through it and your vibe as a 'teacher' through any content you share on your experience (tutorials and all). I'm just a simple amateur having my own little unrelated job to the domain of 3D, I've just always been curious and interested about it and dig every content on tutorials and making of, hoping to maybe one day take off into something I enjoy more but I'm afraid of the unpredictable market job finding but of course, more obviously, am not trained as a pro in the field so I clearly understand there is plenty of people more able than me in the domain. Yet, having this insight on your personal experience helps me, just very slightly ;), judging myself and possible expectations I could imagine myself when we know, in the end, it's never quite like we imagine it. Just silently honing my skills in the hope that maybe one day, but in the meantime, it is very enjoyable and interesting to follow you along and I am very grateful for everything you share and all the time you give us all. Thank very much. Good luck in your enterprises.
thanks :) and good luck to you too :)
The fact that a known guy with a following is/was only getting 20 pounds an hour for freelance work deep into his career a few years ago, when there weren't gazillions of entryists pouring into 3D, should be a massive wake-up call for some of you who want to do this full time
yeah its better now but its not easy out there :)
@@grabbitt an update video on how you and the market have changed would be great
That’s honest, personal and very candid. Did you do any collaborative work with anyone else
not at the moment. I probably should update this video
Grant Abbitt Would you collaborate with anyone
Grant Abbitt please i want to contact you about a freelancer job , please sir respond
you can find my email through the channel but its grant.abbitt@gmail.com
Hi. thankyou for the useful information.
Thanks great info
Thanks for sharing.
thanks for this, i just did my first commission (for a kinda high price) and i dont know if im pricing stuff correctly
We need more people in the world like you!! very big fan possibly even the biggest fan
So in your experience do you think you earn more from freelancing or selling on asset stores, i feel like if you do a high priced freelance job it may pay off better than sending your models off in a sea of redundant projects like turbosquid, and what asset stores pay the best? Id imagine unitys asset store would pay more than say turbosquid since turbosquid has an insane amount of models. Also which is easier for beginners trying to start earning money off of the hobby like me? Obviously im not expecting a realistic salary off of just models, but do you think itd be better to just rapidly produce basic models for asset stores or to search for specific freelance models for my skill level?
If your making models anyway for practice you may as well sell them in my opinion. But you will earn more from freelance work
If more free lancers would get there heads out of the clouds and come back down to reality with the rest of us they would have a lot more work. I can afford $20/hr as a solo dev. But you got people out there that want $150/hr like whoa jeez man I'm not some huge studio... Yet!
Thanks Grant , Awesome video and information , I wonder if you can charge differently , like per model. My focus is character creation and maybe motion graphics in future , is it not better if i charge per char model ? Either way , imagine a decent stylized character , how much do you thunk would be suitable for it ? Being inexperienced in freelancing im very afraid of being unfair with the price , or underpaid for a lot of work
the best way is just to consider how long they take you and how much is a fair price for your time from that point of view. I think anyway :)
Glad to be here
Glad you are here :)
Is it normal for a game developer to ask you to do their art for them and all rights go to them? If you made Kratos for example, would you atleast get royalties?
Interesting question. Yes I think this is fairly normal in the games industry but I'm not positive of that :)
Well normally if they pay you they have the royalties, but it depends on the contract, if you insist on keeping the royalties you may be paid less, but it probably can be worked out with the customer
15? bro that's too low. I charge 65 USD/hour.
yeah its gone up since :)
That's a relief! I was beginning to despair!
i cantell you for a fact the guy in brasil isnt just printing out the low poly models they are SELLING the model inform of a pepakura file.
Guys, this man is speaking the language of the Gods!
Do you think learning how to use more expensive software is a good strategy to reduce competition from poorer countries? Some freelance jobs specifically list software that they want you to use like Maya, 3ds Max, etc.
I'm not sure it will make that much difference
Greetings Grant. I recently started to learn Blender, following your tutorials, from the beginning level. They are so informative, clear, and fun, of course. I was wondering, do you have some lessons about architecture modeling and visualization with Blender? Or if you could recommend some good ones about this topic.
Try searching for "Archviz Blender" here on youtube. I'm also inclined into Architecture Visualization and I was able to find some helpful tutorials and timelapses which I got tips from.
How many people are subcontracting? I'd say charging double the hourly rate you'd normally get would be a decent starting point.
Interesting 😃. I'll give it some thought
Hi Grant, I just want to ask you, how you find clients when you get started because I am struggling a bit. I do 3D work too. Thank you!
See my blog post on that and recent interview with Rick
I hope your charging more now!
15£ a hour, that would be 150 on 10 hours working day. Seems not enough as an independent. A freelance needs my opinion at least 30£ a hour to have the same income as an employer in a company
thank you
12 ponds an hour? Gross? Thats too cheap! Im in israel in the archviz where pay is lower and I charge between 30 to 60 usd per hour and thats not enough either! You need to pay for hardware software and your social so I think 50 usd per hour should be a minimum!
The originality of your vid is addictive lol
As someone said before, having a portfolio with a good quality work will be a no-brainer. Even for those that don't have enough experience in the market, a portfolio will have more weithg
Definitely
Brother anxiously waiting for your response
Wait... Is 3D Artist saturated in 2023? (i mean too many 3D artist and low demand). How much should I charge as an.. intermediate-expert level (because I will be devoting all my energy towards creating a great portfolio) per day?
thanks for the valuable info. can I ask what websites or places you prefer to get the jobs from?
Not looking for work so don't go on any currently. I would strongly not recommend places like fiver and others were you are competing against people charging minuscule amounts for work. However there are a lot of different websites out there and different forums that people advertise in.
Can you make a video about uploading our 3D models to market places? I have made some low poly models and I need to know people's idea about it. I need to upload free for now. Please do video about it 🤗🤗
Good info. I was surprised to hear a charge of 15 pounds an hr. Seems too low. I get the whole international competition and outsourcing.
Yeah it's low but that's my minimum and its for jobs that i really want to have a go at and sometimes have only a small amount of experience in. So I charge less for those :)