What Should I Charge For Custom Animations

I'm starting a custom animation business where people can submit requests for specific, customized, animations through a website. I've seen animations in world sell between L$0 and L$5000+. I'm not sure what I should charge especially since the animations are custom. Any tips or suggestions would be a great help.

Are you going to create and sell that custom animation to just that one person? I'd charge a fee that represents your time and efforts and that it's one of a kind.

Are you going to create the animation and then sell it as general distribution? I'd charge a fee that represents your time but knowing that you will make money on reselling it.

Will it be a still or with moving animation? A still would cost less than a moving animation.

I'm not helping by naming prices, but suggest a figure and if the customer balks at it, maybe lower it. Go around and see what prices are for general animations and gestures as a starting point.

GL!

Thanks for the help! Once everything's setup, stop on by. I'll give you a discount. Thanks again!

I always charge extra for full perms work or work that I agree not to sell myself, as I know that price may well be all I will ever get for my work. Even if I retain rights to sell the product myself, what do I think the actual market is for it? If there probably isn't much, I up the price for the single piece.

When I used to do custom work, I would accomodate that by making it a per second rate, with still poses counting as half a second.


This is why I stopped doing custom work. A lot of people seem to think the price of animations for sale in a store is at all close to what the price would be for custom work.

Also, shouldn't this be in the animation forum?

I price mine based on length, complexity and permissions needed.

Some 30second animations can be quite simple where a 4 second can be seriously complicated.

If its for personal or commercial use is another factor. Personal can be mod/copy/no transfer and commercial has to be full perms. For instance, I've done some animations for machinima that I rate for less because they aren't going to be resold.

Another key factor in pricing is quality. Anyone can come into SL and call themselves an animator but pricing at the top end with no proof of higher quality then the rest won't get you any work.

And Johan is correct. Very few people are willing to pay for the time it takes to make a good custom animation. If you are really set in doing custom work, be sure to have your prices up front so you don't waste your time with people who don't understand.

depends if custom animations is a request and they are the first to have it, or am I giving them a full permission copy to do as they please, or am I going to be able to resell it.
custom animations is one of the hardest things to do imo, and very time consuming... Id much rather take thier request into consideration or work out some split profit venture if they are wanting to use it in something they are going to sell... I also do my pricing on a per case basis.