I also wanted to mention that I am in the US and my clients are mostly in the US too. Cost of living is a lot higher. There's a lot more money in but a lot more money out too. I can't speak personally for anybody's situation outside the US but we have a lot of people outside of the US trying to get US clients in the Discord so if you want a free community to help you, join up 🤙 discord.gg/8AZUVVUBnp
wooow, where u find those people?? bro if u bring a client to me ill give u 1/3 of what ever he pays me, i would concider myself as advanced and i can pritty much do what ever i want in blender but i never made money with it :/ help... pls... lol... :)
Great video and very true on the breakthrough! There are a lot of clients out there who know that they could probably get what they are looking for cheaper but simply do not care. As long as you can meet a bar on quality, deliver on time, and be a pleasure to work with they will keep coming back!
Its far easier to work for advertising agencies or digital studios for example. They know the landscape, are familiar with the costs, and most importantly, they work with the clients budget. Working "B2B" with the client directly can get very frustrating and shady, they are confused, cant understand why a render happens to cost 200 bucks, and so on.
You're doing God's work with this video, for real. It is actually usable business advice from start to finish, and that earned you a loyal subscriber. Thank you so much, I'll be following your content.
I just made my first comission sale today, and I felt underpaid although it was a good amount and I was just grateful to be doing it. Your info has confirmed my suspicion and confirmed my work does in fact have more value than I give it credit for. Thank you.
Just saw a job posting on Upwork asking for a 3 minute 3D animated video, in 4K, of an interior and exterior walkthrough video of a fully furnished home. With people, a swimming pool, landscape, etc. ... And " 16 high quality renderings of internal and externally views with furniture, fixtures, peoples. Create 17 marketing brochures add 16 renderings using 3D studio Max, including plans, graphics and text. " ... And they want "high quality texturing and models" of everything. And they want you to show them progress every 2 days or they will cancel the job on you without pay. And they mentioned they are expecting to add things to the scope at no additional cost. And he said the 3D files and renders,etc belong to him. They are looking for "an Expert" to do this work. For 500 dollars. I was reading the whole post and actually starting to wonder if it was a joke, or a parody of a demanding client.
P.s. Never used that platform, but just wanted to browse briefly out of recent curiosity of what sort of projects were listed on there; maybe just in case there MIGHT have been something cool or reasonable. Absolutely not.
That's pretty bad, unfortunately someone will probably take it on. Upwork and Fiverr is a race to the bottom and I recommend nobody ever use it. It's all about whoever is willing to do a job for the cheapest. Most professionals looking to hire artists understand that it's an extremely cheap platform and going through strong, established freelancers or agencies is a better move. Even though there are some talented people on there, it's so full of garbage and the bar is SO low that most people are smart enough to look elsewhere.
Good luck rendering 3min of this shit in 4k every two days or whatever, you will spend more money on render farm service or if you have your own, on electricity bill
Wow, thanks for sharing your journey and breaking down the different projects, pricing strategies, and the valuable lessons you've learned along the way! It's refreshing to see someone be transparent about the highs and lows of freelancing in the creative industry. The $6,900 project with the sandwich animations was a true breakthrough moment, and your insights on working with clients who aren't spending their own money make a lot of sense. I can totally relate to the struggle of pricing in the beginning stages of a career. Also, that NFT project experience sounds like a wild ride - sorry to hear about the letdown, but your positive attitude toward it is admirable. Your dedication and hard work are evident throughout your projects. The Discord server sounds like a fantastic resource, and I'll definitely check it out for some art and business discussions! Cheers man :)
Thanks for the nice comment! Yeah it's been major ups and downs and I've almost given up many times but it's becoming overwhelmingly clear to me that consistency and resilience is the key to success. Glad to have you here and in the Disc server!
seeing this kind of video is wonderful. I did digital illustration & 3d modeling for 20 years, self-taught and working alone. I was never a good businessman and not good at asserting myself, the few times when someone else set the price for me I made much more $, like 1000/day in 1995 or so. I really would like to go back to this after retiring (I'm almost 62) I worked like a dog at 3d modeling and badly undersold myself. Oh well, there's always a new day. I teach CAD now in a high school and love hands on teaching and modeling, but all the other parts of teaching, like dealing with our insane cultural problems, not so much. Using Blender 3D to communicate designs and to tell stories looks better to me every day. Helpful video!!!
Honestly, in my opinion $1,000/day is amazing money especially in 1995. Totally get the issue with the modern teaching environment and I've heard from the r/teachers subreddit that it's just getting worse and worse. Glad you enjoyed the vid! Best of luck to you
Graphic Designer / marketing contracter here: some great takeaways from this video which apply to ALL freelancing work. The rates you can charge really blow up when you start working with project managers or creative directors within large companies rather than catering to startups and small business. This is where having a bit of a pitch ready comes in handy rather than just relying on a pretty portfolio. Also, I always charge a deposit with any new clients. One final note I think all creatives out there who are on the grind for clients should remember: try to put aside time to chip away at some work for YOURSELF, too. If you expend all your energy creating things for other people to chase a paycheck, the passion and creativity that used to motivate you can get burned out after a few years. Put aside a few hours each week just to make something that YOU find awesome.
Thank you for that part about avoiding burnout. Last night I opened up Ableton for the first time in a while, and today I was learning more about Design For Manufacturing.
I used to do the same work for less money in order to attract clients, but then I realized that I was lowering my standards in the industry. I believe many people do the same, and clients pay us less because everyone is willing to work for lower rates. Therefore, I am requesting all 3D artists to value their work and not charge less for it. This way, other artists will also receive the pay they deserve.
I like how you broke down payments from individuals vs. companies with budgets. I work at a company with a budget and I do side projects with individuals paying. Re. side work - I fear upping my rate to the point where they won’t use me but at the same time, I always overwork.
I’ve been commissioning for a year and I can’t tell you how many times clients would try to lowball me. Now seeing people charge $1,000+ I’m definitely upping my prices.
lol ya then Artificial intelligence could find out what it feels like to get ripped off by some idiot captivated by zap words and fads with no understanding of the medium, or the work involved.
Hey man, very nice video. I recently went through with starting my own freelance career, got my first potential job lined up and I am about to negotiate the project with that person so this coulnd't have come at a better time. Cheers to you for motivating me and others in here to set our own career in motion and if this job goes through I'll send a coffee your way.
Yeah about the payment part, I hear you... Been there. I remember when I charged less and didn't ask for an advance on the payment, I would end up being screwed. Then changed to the usual 50% in the beginning, 50% at the end. Of course, some disappeared and didn't pay the 50% at the end. Now use a 50% at the beginning, 50% at the midpoint of the job. It's the "if you are not happy with my performance so far, you can leave. If you are happy to continue then you'll have no problem paying the remaining 50%". If anyone that comes to me doesn't accept this system or how much I charge, I say for them to search for someone else. Best decision I ever made, saved me a lot of headaches with people that are just roaming around searching for someone to take advantage of.
Totally agree. I take full responsibility for getting scammed - it was an expensive lesson but it won't happen again. Thus far, I haven't had any issues doing 1/2 up front 1/2 upon delivery, but I'm worried at some point I'll have someone do what it sounds like happened to you haha And yes, if people don't accept 1/2 up front 1/2 upon delivery or similar, major red flag
I was considering utilizing my skills in 3D and animation as my main way of earning money, but discouraging Reddit info made me pause thoughts of making it my future job. After watching your video, I think it's possible and not as hard as people say, but requires skill and connections, right? So now I'm considering giving it a try for a more enjoyable job, instead of waking up miserable every day thinking about the next day at work..
Where do you do your work and find clients, like what platform I guess? Thanks for this video regardless 🙏 liked n subscribed ofc, you gonna hit 1mil+ subs soon enough ❤️
First time ever here, the video didn't even started, but I subscribed I also work in Blender from the end of November till now and I fall in love with the journey!
Its true what you say about brand owners, they always try to low ball you. Its tough wanting to get the work but not wanting to price yourself out of a job as well.
Thanks for the info man, I'm commiting more to the freelance path now and this was def helpful. Thanks for your honesty about the nft stuff, I almost got caught up in that as well, glad I didn't get into it much
Its also good to know how much studios charge for their work. Often companys will reach out to freelancers because they are so much cheaper. I know that studios can sometime charge up to 4x what I would charge for the same work (granted they are probably a bit better)
Can you please consider doing a video on the best practices for texturing when building a new portfolio? Of course we want a streamlined approach but there are so many ways to go about things, its hard to just focus on one direct way.
hey bro , those characters with a lot of different clothes and textures was not stupid at all , maybe you should post it somewhere so that people can see , i have always been under the impression that earning money in 3D is very hard , but you gave me confidence that it's actually approachable.❤
Hey! Just stumbled across this video and I’m hooked! Awesome explanations! But the only question I have is; do you see all these AI video generators as a threat? I’ve always tooled around with 3D, and would love to pursue something similar to what you do, but I worry if this ‘niche’ will disappear? I’m a creative at heart too, so I know and appreciate the quality that comes from a human touch, but do you think these clients will pivot towards cheaper, automated programs to do this kind of work, or not?
Hey thanks for watching! I wrote a really comprehensive response to someone about this yesterday so if you don't mind I'm just gonna copy and paste it to you haha: There are gonna be many more years of AI being super helpful for renderers before it's actually good enough to replace us and be used by normal people, and even then, it's well-known that when the masses get ahold of something, it quickly runs it's course, and then the pendulum swings the other way. In advertising, traditional TV-style ads were dominant for the longest time. They required a film crew, creative directors, etc. Fast forward to 2021-2023, the most successful form of advertising became basically TikToks. Short videos filmed on the phone by real people promoting products. Tons of small businesses made millions off ads filmed on phones as TikToks because they appeared more authentic. It was a breath of fresh air! But then the corporations caught on and started making ads that looked like they were made by an individual. People caught on, and now the TikTok-style ads don't work as well as they did, and advertising is currently moving back to more of a high-effort, high-production-value angle as people are sick of "fake-authenticity". If AI effectively takes over certain styles of 3D art, it will quickly become massively popular for ~2 years or so, but then since everyone will have access to it, it will quickly not be cool or impressive anymore. People will have to revert to other, more impressive forms of creativity that AI will not be able to produce. ...or I could be wrong. But this is just my guess
Man where are you getting clients like this, The amount you earned in one or two projects, I could literally buy entire new pc for me at where I live. Get me some clients too.
I work in the industry for 18 years now ... motion graphics, 3d viz's, arch viz, doesnt matter... one thing you do with every client. half the money up front or nothing gets started. thats will give u a cushion in case things go south with the client. if they are not willing to do that you already know its a bad client and you send them packing.
I have videos about finding clients but it also matters to be selective with clients. Smaller companies will generally have a lower budget. Ultimately I think you usually have to build up a reputation over time through lower pay jobs until you get lucky and make some really strong connections. Highly recommend you join the Discord server too! Lots of good advice in there
Dang on those guys who didn't pay you for your work, 100 hours is a lot. If they were based in the US you could take them to small claims and get your money back. I wanted to ask you, are you seeing a slow down in clients hiring for 3D work?
you should start tracking your time if you are not doing it already. without it those numbers mean very little. $2000 might sound a lot, but if you spend 2 weeks on that its $25 an hour, and if you calculate properly as freelancer you need to factor in a lot of things like insurances, unpaid vacation and sick days, heating, electricity, taxes etc. that way it would end up more like the equivalent of $10 for a permanently employed person, probably less.
Exact ! In France for example, a beginner freelancer earns 350 euros including tax per day of work, so an order that takes 3 days costs 1050 euros. But you remove VAT at 20%, corporate taxes at 42%, fees and charges... 365 days in the year, but prohibited from working more than 160 paid days, on average this gives a net salary of 1500 euros/month... But you work 70 hours/week all year round :)
Totally. Thats what I do now. I was young and naive and the people who ran the project were going to give me a percentage of each NFT sold. It was a major risk and I was blinded lol. never again
Thankyou for the valuable information! What is your opinion on clothing start ups asking for digital fashion but not ready to pay. A hoodie in a desired background : 850 dollars was too expensive for my client. And digital clothing is so complicated
Glad you enjoyed! That's the thing about clothing - usually the clients just don't have the budgets for it. If people are turning down your prices, chances are you're just not talking to the right people yet. Keep it up and it will work out
Hey! I have very minimal experience in this field, and just stumbled across this video between my recommended. (I sometimes do simple renders from time to time, for some models I make) But I had a question, do you model the products yourself too? Or is it purely the rendering? Just curious on what you actually make/do for the final product. Great video btw!
Hey thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed! I generally do all the models myself, except for the one in the thumbnail (the black minimalist smoking pipe render). The client had that model already since they had a web designer throw a glTF file of the product onto the website using three.js Had I been requested to make a model for them, I would have charged more or potentially even outsourced that part of it (I hate modeling haha)
I'm curious about two things...First, as a very noob person in this world of 3D, I would like to know WHERE and HOW to get this type of job? And also, how to avoid being scammed, like with your NFT project. Btw, your channel is amaxzing!
Truthfully, from my experience there's no certain way to get great clients. When starting, I literally just cold DMed people that seemed like good clients (I go into this in detail in this video czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html ) Basically, it just takes time. You're gonna deal with some good clients and some bad clients but ultimately as you grow you'll naturally find better ones. That's what has happened to me at least
It's so weird when people still don' fully understand the metric for the job. "it was easy" you're not getting paid because it's hard. If you're professional it SHOULD be easy. Aslmost everyone can do anything with enough training and things become "easy" for YOU, that shouldn't be a metric. you're simply revealing your skill cap. Because when something becomes hard for you, it's easy for someone else.
The unpaid NFT project sucks but I hope that in a sick silver lining sort of way that they didn't pay you because they lost all of their funds due to negligence. Always ask for a deposit at the least if not paid in full.
Personally, for the 13k scam, I would've done 1/3 of the work and ask 1/3 of the payment already or maybe do it half half because I'd feel soooo bad and devastated not getting paid at the end of all of this. Maybe I just have a problem trusting people but yeah... 13k and 100 hours of work is a lot.
If you were to break down the reason for the price like let’s say some of the 6k renders. Do you just negotiate the price or do you price it off time to render. Cus I know modeling and texturing is one thing. But then the time it takes to render stuff is more stuff
The $6k project did not happen all at once. It was about 3 separate payments of $2k for various things that ended up at the $6k price mentioned in the video. Essentially it sounded like a lot of inefficiency within the company at the time which resulted in a number of revisions. Clearly money wasn't a problem for them at the moment A lot of my pricing is based on the value it can provide to a client. To put it simply, a nice render for a 404 page on a website is going to be a lot less useful than an animation for the product page that everyone sees. That's why I think it's important to do research about your client/brand before quoting
Hey, I would be very grateful if you could tell where did you find your first clients? I've already been learning 3d almost for a year and since then I have only had a few clients. I feel that I have enough skills and works in my portfolio to do much more, but I know only one source for searching clients((
Sue the NFT client for the bill. They literally do not own anything unless they pay you , so they can't legally use your stuff. If you can, contact the other artist involved ( because they probably got stitched up as well ) and group together to bring a case against the developers. For big numbers get some money up front , and stage the deliveries .
They ended up just not releasing the project. We got done with the project right as the market crashed and they knew it wouldnt sell so they just didnt pay and didnt release
@@renderer I guessed as much ... but it's also not your problem ... they still have to pay you . Even if they go into receivership you can still recover some of what they owe you
@@renderer oh and lastly in one of your videos you mentioned how a client screwed you over by bailing on you and didnt pay after you had to shade in a bunch of nft characters. how do i avoid that? and how does the payment work, should i give them the render first or should the client pay first?
You say that it’s worth catching profits where they are, that clothing brands often have low budgets. Can you tell me what field you should strive for in order to receive large checks?
For me, learning a skill isn't a problem. I learned alot of skills but I struggle finding clients. I can learn 3D too but the problem is I dont find clients.
Totally understand, and yeah, that's the most challenging and discouraging part of it. Generally when learning a skill, progress is linear. The more you put in, the more you get out. In my case with these renders, I was stuck doing low-paying projects for a while before I made that one connection that changed it all. The best advice I can give is to relentlessly try, knowing you have a lot of failing to go through, but you end up chipping away at it day-by-day, until you make a major breakthrough I have a video about my experience finding clients if you want some guidance: czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html
loool same! I did a "13k scam" ish thing as well, some shitcoin was asking me to make them a trailer, I made them a 40 seconds trailer, they didnt pay me cash, I keep asking him to, they pay me in their shitcoin which the rugged a few days later. 😂
@@renderer And thats why i learn to charge 50% up front and 50% upon completion haha btw How do you charge for stuff like at 2:50? do you charge by hours, by seconds, by frames etc? Im curious, cause I usually charge by seconds, Wonder if I should start charging by frames instead
Don't feel bad for yourself! You're on your own journey and will get where you need to be when the time is right 🙏 thank you for watching and join the Discord server if you want some personalized help for getting larger clients!
Yeah was definitely a good lesson learned. Now I do 1/2 up front 1/2 upon delivery or no deal. Or, using escrow.com since the scope of the project is big enough
I wonder how AI is going to effect all of this?.. i suspect most companies will TRY and use AI instead of freelancers for a while until they realize that AI sucks at changes and specifics. Then it will come full circle to real people
@@renderer that's actually crazy bro you learn blender in a short period . I started my blender careeer 1 month ago it's going good probably I also learn as soon as possible like you
Hey renderer ! this is completely irrelevant to whats the vid about but help me with a simple qustion as im willing to get into the 3D Modeling world. im ordering a RTX 3070 ( Laptop ) with ryzen 7 32Gb ram and 2 Tb nvme, Generally for gaming but would it give me enough to go Pro into 3D modeling or should i go higher Since i Haven't confirmed my order yet ?!
3070 should be good. I use a 3070ti, 64gb RAM and an i9-12900k in a desktop PC. If that laptop is in your budget there should be no problems really. I should mention, sometimes in larger scenes, I've found that 8GB VRAM isn't enough but there's always been ways around it. Just something to consider
i'm asking question that i always ask my self! AI is doing everything by little time now and , do what blender doing, also other huge staffs, so why we need to learn and losing more time in blender...thanks
First of all, I work with clients in the US since I'm in the US, and I've build up a good reputation for myself amongst many clients. Majority of this is just networking. I have other videos talking about it!
I also wanted to mention that I am in the US and my clients are mostly in the US too. Cost of living is a lot higher. There's a lot more money in but a lot more money out too.
I can't speak personally for anybody's situation outside the US but we have a lot of people outside of the US trying to get US clients in the Discord so if you want a free community to help you, join up 🤙 discord.gg/8AZUVVUBnp
wooow, where u find those people?? bro if u bring a client to me ill give u 1/3 of what ever he pays me, i would concider myself as advanced and i can pritty much do what ever i want in blender but i never made money with it :/ help... pls... lol... :)
Your work is great, Im in the US and its a hustle for sure. Id love to know where and how you approach/find these $6,000 clients.
Great video and very true on the breakthrough! There are a lot of clients out there who know that they could probably get what they are looking for cheaper but simply do not care. As long as you can meet a bar on quality, deliver on time, and be a pleasure to work with they will keep coming back!
That's right!
Crazy to see you here again, thanks for watching my vids 🤝
@@rendererdo u have a portfolio website?
@@renderer& do u use samsung 970 pro for yur editing machine.
& have u ever used code / scripting in some of yur projects?
Its far easier to work for advertising agencies or digital studios for example. They know the landscape, are familiar with the costs, and most importantly, they work with the clients budget. Working "B2B" with the client directly can get very frustrating and shady, they are confused, cant understand why a render happens to cost 200 bucks, and so on.
The Legend replied. Long life to the king 👑
You're doing God's work with this video, for real. It is actually usable business advice from start to finish, and that earned you a loyal subscriber. Thank you so much, I'll be following your content.
I just made my first comission sale today, and I felt underpaid although it was a good amount and I was just grateful to be doing it. Your info has confirmed my suspicion and confirmed my work does in fact have more value than I give it credit for. Thank you.
Just saw a job posting on Upwork asking for a 3 minute 3D animated video, in 4K, of an interior and exterior walkthrough video of a fully furnished home. With people, a swimming pool, landscape, etc. ... And " 16 high quality renderings of internal and externally views with furniture, fixtures, peoples.
Create 17 marketing brochures add 16 renderings using 3D studio Max, including plans, graphics and text. " ... And they want "high quality texturing and models" of everything. And they want you to show them progress every 2 days or they will cancel the job on you without pay.
And they mentioned they are expecting to add things to the scope at no additional cost. And he said the 3D files and renders,etc belong to him.
They are looking for "an Expert" to do this work. For 500 dollars.
I was reading the whole post and actually starting to wonder if it was a joke, or a parody of a demanding client.
P.s. Never used that platform, but just wanted to browse briefly out of recent curiosity of what sort of projects were listed on there; maybe just in case there MIGHT have been something cool or reasonable. Absolutely not.
That's pretty bad, unfortunately someone will probably take it on. Upwork and Fiverr is a race to the bottom and I recommend nobody ever use it. It's all about whoever is willing to do a job for the cheapest. Most professionals looking to hire artists understand that it's an extremely cheap platform and going through strong, established freelancers or agencies is a better move.
Even though there are some talented people on there, it's so full of garbage and the bar is SO low that most people are smart enough to look elsewhere.
Good luck rendering 3min of this shit in 4k every two days or whatever, you will spend more money on render farm service or if you have your own, on electricity bill
@@renderer VERY true.
indians will take it, cleints lookin for the them
Anyone watching this needs to learn from this scam at the end. Down payments and contracts are a very necessary part of consulting like this.
Correct. I will never let something like that happen to me again lol
Wow, thanks for sharing your journey and breaking down the different projects, pricing strategies, and the valuable lessons you've learned along the way! It's refreshing to see someone be transparent about the highs and lows of freelancing in the creative industry. The $6,900 project with the sandwich animations was a true breakthrough moment, and your insights on working with clients who aren't spending their own money make a lot of sense. I can totally relate to the struggle of pricing in the beginning stages of a career.
Also, that NFT project experience sounds like a wild ride - sorry to hear about the letdown, but your positive attitude toward it is admirable. Your dedication and hard work are evident throughout your projects. The Discord server sounds like a fantastic resource, and I'll definitely check it out for some art and business discussions! Cheers man :)
Thanks for the nice comment! Yeah it's been major ups and downs and I've almost given up many times but it's becoming overwhelmingly clear to me that consistency and resilience is the key to success. Glad to have you here and in the Disc server!
seeing this kind of video is wonderful. I did digital illustration & 3d modeling for 20 years, self-taught and working alone. I was never a good businessman and not good at asserting myself, the few times when someone else set the price for me I made much more $, like 1000/day in 1995 or so. I really would like to go back to this after retiring (I'm almost 62)
I worked like a dog at 3d modeling and badly undersold myself. Oh well, there's always a new day. I teach CAD now in a high school and love hands on teaching and modeling, but all the other parts of teaching, like dealing with our insane cultural problems, not so much. Using Blender 3D to communicate designs and to tell stories looks better to me every day.
Helpful video!!!
Honestly, in my opinion $1,000/day is amazing money especially in 1995.
Totally get the issue with the modern teaching environment and I've heard from the r/teachers subreddit that it's just getting worse and worse.
Glad you enjoyed the vid! Best of luck to you
Graphic Designer / marketing contracter here: some great takeaways from this video which apply to ALL freelancing work.
The rates you can charge really blow up when you start working with project managers or creative directors within large companies rather than catering to startups and small business. This is where having a bit of a pitch ready comes in handy rather than just relying on a pretty portfolio. Also, I always charge a deposit with any new clients.
One final note I think all creatives out there who are on the grind for clients should remember: try to put aside time to chip away at some work for YOURSELF, too. If you expend all your energy creating things for other people to chase a paycheck, the passion and creativity that used to motivate you can get burned out after a few years.
Put aside a few hours each week just to make something that YOU find awesome.
Thank you for that part about avoiding burnout. Last night I opened up Ableton for the first time in a while, and today I was learning more about Design For Manufacturing.
7k for a box turning 360 lol i wanna meet your clients
name your bet 700 or 70 :DDD
thanks for posting this video, i've been making stuff like this for like 20$ for like a year or so
Same
20$ is too little, but 2000$ is vastly too much. I'd pay no more than 100$ for that hat.
I used to do the same work for less money in order to attract clients, but then I realized that I was lowering my standards in the industry. I believe many people do the same, and clients pay us less because everyone is willing to work for lower rates. Therefore, I am requesting all 3D artists to value their work and not charge less for it. This way, other artists will also receive the pay they deserve.
@@3D___Geek the race to the bottom
I like how you broke down payments from individuals vs. companies with budgets. I work at a company with a budget and I do side projects with individuals paying.
Re. side work - I fear upping my rate to the point where they won’t use me but at the same time, I always overwork.
I say it twice, one of the best channels out there, man, thanks for sharing your stories! Sad to hear about NFT scam (as usual am I right)
I’ve been commissioning for a year and I can’t tell you how many times clients would try to lowball me. Now seeing people charge $1,000+ I’m definitely upping my prices.
Imagine if all this AI art came out around the time NFTs were a thing lol
total madness
AI art became a thing BECAUSE NFTs, and NFTs died because AI art
how @@r3d678
That is true, nfts became real just because of very same principles of AI art.
lol ya then Artificial intelligence could find out what it feels like to get ripped off by some idiot captivated by zap words and fads with no understanding of the medium, or the work involved.
Hey man, very nice video. I recently went through with starting my own freelance career, got my first potential job lined up and I am about to negotiate the project with that person so this coulnd't have come at a better time. Cheers to you for motivating me and others in here to set our own career in motion and if this job goes through I'll send a coffee your way.
Yeah about the payment part, I hear you... Been there. I remember when I charged less and didn't ask for an advance on the payment, I would end up being screwed. Then changed to the usual 50% in the beginning, 50% at the end. Of course, some disappeared and didn't pay the 50% at the end. Now use a 50% at the beginning, 50% at the midpoint of the job. It's the "if you are not happy with my performance so far, you can leave. If you are happy to continue then you'll have no problem paying the remaining 50%".
If anyone that comes to me doesn't accept this system or how much I charge, I say for them to search for someone else. Best decision I ever made, saved me a lot of headaches with people that are just roaming around searching for someone to take advantage of.
Totally agree. I take full responsibility for getting scammed - it was an expensive lesson but it won't happen again. Thus far, I haven't had any issues doing 1/2 up front 1/2 upon delivery, but I'm worried at some point I'll have someone do what it sounds like happened to you haha
And yes, if people don't accept 1/2 up front 1/2 upon delivery or similar, major red flag
Just discovered your channel and now binge watching the videos.🍿Thank you for all the valuable insights, much appreciated! 🙂
This is super encouraging as i dont think i'm too far off where you were at the start. Time to get on discord i guess! 😅
I was considering utilizing my skills in 3D and animation as my main way of earning money, but discouraging Reddit info made me pause thoughts of making it my future job. After watching your video, I think it's possible and not as hard as people say, but requires skill and connections, right? So now I'm considering giving it a try for a more enjoyable job, instead of waking up miserable every day thinking about the next day at work..
Well, its been 6 months now. Any considerable results?
Where do you do your work and find clients, like what platform I guess? Thanks for this video regardless 🙏 liked n subscribed ofc, you gonna hit 1mil+ subs soon enough ❤️
Thank you, glad you enjoyed! I have a video about finding clients czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html
First time ever here, the video didn't even started, but I subscribed
I also work in Blender from the end of November till now and I fall in love with the journey!
Its true what you say about brand owners, they always try to low ball you. Its tough wanting to get the work but not wanting to price yourself out of a job as well.
Thanks for the info man, I'm commiting more to the freelance path now and this was def helpful. Thanks for your honesty about the nft stuff, I almost got caught up in that as well, glad I didn't get into it much
Its also good to know how much studios charge for their work. Often companys will reach out to freelancers because they are so much cheaper. I know that studios can sometime charge up to 4x what I would charge for the same work (granted they are probably a bit better)
Your insights are super valuable!
I was aproached about a job a while ago but as soon I heard it was an NFT project I turned it down so fast lol
Yeah, sometimes they pay you great sum of money from nft but most of the times they end up hurting you 😢
what the fuck its that simple yet lucrative? Maybe I should start looking for clients instead of doing it as a hobby.
he: ''simple''
me: having difficulties to delete the blender cube xD
yah do it. i made like 200,000k since I started my Blender journey over the past 2 years.
but.... in ringgits.. so thats like 50k usd XD
Can you please consider doing a video on the best practices for texturing when building a new portfolio? Of course we want a streamlined approach but there are so many ways to go about things, its hard to just focus on one direct way.
hey bro , those characters with a lot of different clothes and textures was not stupid at all , maybe you should post it somewhere so that people can see , i have always been under the impression that earning money in 3D is very hard , but you gave me confidence that it's actually approachable.❤
Helpful video & insight, thank you! 😊
Hey! Just stumbled across this video and I’m hooked! Awesome explanations! But the only question I have is; do you see all these AI video generators as a threat? I’ve always tooled around with 3D, and would love to pursue something similar to what you do, but I worry if this ‘niche’ will disappear? I’m a creative at heart too, so I know and appreciate the quality that comes from a human touch, but do you think these clients will pivot towards cheaper, automated programs to do this kind of work, or not?
Hey thanks for watching! I wrote a really comprehensive response to someone about this yesterday so if you don't mind I'm just gonna copy and paste it to you haha:
There are gonna be many more years of AI being super helpful for renderers before it's actually good enough to replace us and be used by normal people, and even then, it's well-known that when the masses get ahold of something, it quickly runs it's course, and then the pendulum swings the other way.
In advertising, traditional TV-style ads were dominant for the longest time. They required a film crew, creative directors, etc. Fast forward to 2021-2023, the most successful form of advertising became basically TikToks. Short videos filmed on the phone by real people promoting products. Tons of small businesses made millions off ads filmed on phones as TikToks because they appeared more authentic. It was a breath of fresh air! But then the corporations caught on and started making ads that looked like they were made by an individual. People caught on, and now the TikTok-style ads don't work as well as they did, and advertising is currently moving back to more of a high-effort, high-production-value angle as people are sick of "fake-authenticity".
If AI effectively takes over certain styles of 3D art, it will quickly become massively popular for ~2 years or so, but then since everyone will have access to it, it will quickly not be cool or impressive anymore. People will have to revert to other, more impressive forms of creativity that AI will not be able to produce.
...or I could be wrong. But this is just my guess
Crazy helpful thanks for this
Followed great content, and great NFT story haha hope you are using contracts now.
loving this kind of video
Most helpful, thank you!🙏
Man where are you getting clients like this, The amount you earned in one or two projects, I could literally buy entire new pc for me at where I live. Get me some clients too.
Thank you for revealing the exact prices.
I work in the industry for 18 years now ... motion graphics, 3d viz's, arch viz, doesnt matter... one thing you do with every client. half the money up front or nothing gets started. thats will give u a cushion in case things go south with the client. if they are not willing to do that you already know its a bad client and you send them packing.
Totally, thats what I do now. Like I said, I let the numbers get to my head and cloud my judgement. Was young and naive but things have changed ahhaha
Still better than after the work ends the client says "we have a 6 month holding period on giving out payments"
Yeah jeez thats terrible
can you do a video on client communitcation? im not a 3d artist but deal with inefficient communication a lot
Yeah I like that idea. coming soon
Interesting to hear.. Thanks for sharing! :)
another banger. Thank you!
Great Video. How does it work with the files? Does the clients sent you the 3d files or do you have to model them by yourself?
Depends. If they have the product model already you can use it but if they dont you can charge to make one.
HOw to know where the fish are?
I have videos about finding clients but it also matters to be selective with clients. Smaller companies will generally have a lower budget.
Ultimately I think you usually have to build up a reputation over time through lower pay jobs until you get lucky and make some really strong connections.
Highly recommend you join the Discord server too! Lots of good advice in there
Dang on those guys who didn't pay you for your work, 100 hours is a lot. If they were based in the US you could take them to small claims and get your money back. I wanted to ask you, are you seeing a slow down in clients hiring for 3D work?
you should start tracking your time if you are not doing it already. without it those numbers mean very little. $2000 might sound a lot, but if you spend 2 weeks on that its $25 an hour, and if you calculate properly as freelancer you need to factor in a lot of things like insurances, unpaid vacation and sick days, heating, electricity, taxes etc. that way it would end up more like the equivalent of $10 for a permanently employed person, probably less.
Exact ! In France for example, a beginner freelancer earns 350 euros including tax per day of work, so an order that takes 3 days costs 1050 euros.
But you remove VAT at 20%, corporate taxes at 42%, fees and charges...
365 days in the year, but prohibited from working more than 160 paid days, on average this gives a net salary of 1500 euros/month...
But you work 70 hours/week all year round :)
sounds similar to germany, but i dont get the 160 days? 40 euro an hour would be more like 3k net a month with 40 hour weeks i think@@SimonBorro
That $2,000 project took no more than 20 hours. Fortunately I've gotten pretty good at eyeballing projects to get an idea of how long they take
another banger renderer
The same thing happened to me on several NFT projects. Live and learn.
Thank you a lot for your videos! Could you please say how long it took to finish "a recent larger project" if it's not a secret?
Not sure how long in hours, but it was somewhere around 3 weeks of doing work, waiting for feedback, doing work, waiting for feedback etc haha
Thank you for your reply ☺️
OMG! You should always ask for an upfront payment on large scale projects. Not necessarily full payment, at least a percentage
Totally. Thats what I do now. I was young and naive and the people who ran the project were going to give me a percentage of each NFT sold. It was a major risk and I was blinded lol. never again
always get 50% upfront so last project issue is avoided somewhat!
good rates
Totally, thats what I do now
Thankyou for the valuable information! What is your opinion on clothing start ups asking for digital fashion but not ready to pay. A hoodie in a desired background : 850 dollars was too expensive for my client. And digital clothing is so complicated
Glad you enjoyed!
That's the thing about clothing - usually the clients just don't have the budgets for it. If people are turning down your prices, chances are you're just not talking to the right people yet. Keep it up and it will work out
@@renderer hmm yes, thankyou so much for this positive insight!
Good video. Appreciate the info.
Amazing content brother
Hey! I have very minimal experience in this field, and just stumbled across this video between my recommended. (I sometimes do simple renders from time to time, for some models I make)
But I had a question, do you model the products yourself too? Or is it purely the rendering? Just curious on what you actually make/do for the final product.
Great video btw!
Hey thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed! I generally do all the models myself, except for the one in the thumbnail (the black minimalist smoking pipe render). The client had that model already since they had a web designer throw a glTF file of the product onto the website using three.js
Had I been requested to make a model for them, I would have charged more or potentially even outsourced that part of it (I hate modeling haha)
I'm curious about two things...First, as a very noob person in this world of 3D, I would like to know WHERE and HOW to get this type of job? And also, how to avoid being scammed, like with your NFT project. Btw, your channel is amaxzing!
Truthfully, from my experience there's no certain way to get great clients. When starting, I literally just cold DMed people that seemed like good clients (I go into this in detail in this video czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html )
Basically, it just takes time. You're gonna deal with some good clients and some bad clients but ultimately as you grow you'll naturally find better ones. That's what has happened to me at least
It's so weird when people still don' fully understand the metric for the job. "it was easy" you're not getting paid because it's hard. If you're professional it SHOULD be easy. Aslmost everyone can do anything with enough training and things become "easy" for YOU, that shouldn't be a metric. you're simply revealing your skill cap. Because when something becomes hard for you, it's easy for someone else.
The unpaid NFT project sucks but I hope that in a sick silver lining sort of way that they didn't pay you because they lost all of their funds due to negligence. Always ask for a deposit at the least if not paid in full.
Where did you start building your clientele? A portfolio? Or word of mouth? What got you your first gig?
I made a video about this! czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html
Really good video!
You would actually have to deduct your electricity costs per render
Personally, for the 13k scam, I would've done 1/3 of the work and ask 1/3 of the payment already or maybe do it half half because I'd feel soooo bad and devastated not getting paid at the end of all of this. Maybe I just have a problem trusting people but yeah... 13k and 100 hours of work is a lot.
Oh totally, I only do 1/2 or full up front now. This was a learning moment for sure
Great vid! Thank you!
Very helpful, would like to see more out of the life of a freelance 3d artist, hope you reach 100k sub soon🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏽
7000$ for one day of work?
Good. Share your clients please
It definitely was not one day of work. That project still took 25 hours total over the course of about a month. Still good in my opinion
@@renderer $7000 for 25 hours? of couse it's good
Where do you get such a clients?
Would you send your project files if the client asks for them?
Yes
If you were to break down the reason for the price like let’s say some of the 6k renders. Do you just negotiate the price or do you price it off time to render.
Cus I know modeling and texturing is one thing. But then the time it takes to render stuff is more stuff
The $6k project did not happen all at once. It was about 3 separate payments of $2k for various things that ended up at the $6k price mentioned in the video. Essentially it sounded like a lot of inefficiency within the company at the time which resulted in a number of revisions. Clearly money wasn't a problem for them at the moment
A lot of my pricing is based on the value it can provide to a client. To put it simply, a nice render for a 404 page on a website is going to be a lot less useful than an animation for the product page that everyone sees. That's why I think it's important to do research about your client/brand before quoting
Hey, I would be very grateful if you could tell where did you find your first clients? I've already been learning 3d almost for a year and since then I have only had a few clients. I feel that I have enough skills and works in my portfolio to do much more, but I know only one source for searching clients((
I made a video about this! czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.htmlsi=nNoxLpMT2MwdhQmm
Bro great fucking video, damn
Thx for the information but you should talk about the time you spent. Without that Informationen it’s quite useless.
Sue the NFT client for the bill. They literally do not own anything unless they pay you , so they can't legally use your stuff. If you can, contact the other artist involved ( because they probably got stitched up as well ) and group together to bring a case against the developers.
For big numbers get some money up front , and stage the deliveries .
They ended up just not releasing the project. We got done with the project right as the market crashed and they knew it wouldnt sell so they just didnt pay and didnt release
@@renderer I guessed as much ... but it's also not your problem ... they still have to pay you . Even if they go into receivership you can still recover some of what they owe you
so do your clients or company ask you for qualifications in animation or do you not have one and just use a portfolio and or website?
I get most of my clients through word-of-mouth referrals and they mainly view my work on Instagram. Website coming soon
@@renderer oh and lastly in one of your videos you mentioned how a client screwed you over by bailing on you and didnt pay after you had to shade in a bunch of nft characters. how do i avoid that? and how does the payment work, should i give them the render first or should the client pay first?
You say that it’s worth catching profits where they are, that clothing brands often have low budgets. Can you tell me what field you should strive for in order to receive large checks?
Supplements, software, tech, and even food are usually better options
For me, learning a skill isn't a problem. I learned alot of skills but I struggle finding clients. I can learn 3D too but the problem is I dont find clients.
Totally understand, and yeah, that's the most challenging and discouraging part of it. Generally when learning a skill, progress is linear. The more you put in, the more you get out.
In my case with these renders, I was stuck doing low-paying projects for a while before I made that one connection that changed it all. The best advice I can give is to relentlessly try, knowing you have a lot of failing to go through, but you end up chipping away at it day-by-day, until you make a major breakthrough
I have a video about my experience finding clients if you want some guidance: czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html
@@renderer Thank you so much for the input bro. I highly appreciate that. ☺
Great video mate….. any advice on getting your foot on the door as a new 3d artist. Would you do free work just to get a name started?
Do you have a video to how to get clients ? I mean do we approach ourselves or what are the steps
I do! czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html
loool same! I did a "13k scam" ish thing as well, some shitcoin was asking me to make them a trailer, I made them a 40 seconds trailer, they didnt pay me cash, I keep asking him to, they pay me in their shitcoin which the rugged a few days later. 😂
classic... sorry that happened to you
@@renderer And thats why i learn to charge 50% up front and 50% upon completion haha
btw How do you charge for stuff like at 2:50? do you charge by hours, by seconds, by frames etc? Im curious, cause I usually charge by seconds, Wonder if I should start charging by frames instead
I am charging my clients way too less 😭😭😭 I feel like i am cheated there are 4 projects I am working rn and I am feeling like really bad for myself
Hey what's your insta id? I want to talk to you
Don't feel bad for yourself! You're on your own journey and will get where you need to be when the time is right 🙏 thank you for watching and join the Discord server if you want some personalized help for getting larger clients!
Hardest thing is to find and get the clients
exactly
Very good video :)
thank you for this video!
OMG that is the worst - getting stiffed.
How would you have gone that differently now?
Yeah was definitely a good lesson learned. Now I do 1/2 up front 1/2 upon delivery or no deal. Or, using escrow.com since the scope of the project is big enough
the nft one was predictable to bail out
Yeah in hindsight for sure
thanks for this great video bro
I need to find those clients that use money that are not theirs
Can I ask how do you avoid being scammed? How do you send them the result knowing you won't get scammed?
So far, what's worked for me is taking 1/2 payment up front and 1/2 payment upon delivery
@@renderer I see. Thank you
damn these are good prices! im underpaid af. where are you located?
Washington State 🤙
I wonder how AI is going to effect all of this?.. i suspect most companies will TRY and use AI instead of freelancers for a while until they realize that AI sucks at changes and specifics. Then it will come full circle to real people
My recent video addresses this in detail!
how do you guys find the clients?
I have a video about my experience finding clients: czcams.com/video/STHcy8e5_l0/video.html
@@renderer the best
How many years it takes you to learn blender .
I'm on my third year
@@renderer that's actually crazy bro you learn blender in a short period . I started my blender careeer 1 month ago it's going good probably I also learn as soon as possible like you
Bro can you make a roadmap video for learning blender
I like this idea, I think I shall make a video on this soon
Appreciate it👍@@renderer
Hey renderer !
this is completely irrelevant to whats the vid about but help me with a simple qustion as im willing to get into the 3D Modeling world.
im ordering a RTX 3070 ( Laptop ) with ryzen 7 32Gb ram and 2 Tb nvme, Generally for gaming but would it give me enough to go Pro into 3D modeling or should i go higher Since i Haven't confirmed my order yet ?!
3070 should be good. I use a 3070ti, 64gb RAM and an i9-12900k in a desktop PC. If that laptop is in your budget there should be no problems really.
I should mention, sometimes in larger scenes, I've found that 8GB VRAM isn't enough but there's always been ways around it. Just something to consider
hi super new to design, which tools (software) do you use?
Blender for 3D, Illustrator, Figma, and Photoshop for various 2D reasons
you maniac sorted your taskbar icons by color?
hahahha dont expose me
i'm asking question that i always ask my self! AI is doing everything by little time now and , do what blender doing, also other huge staffs, so why we need to learn and losing more time in blender...thanks
Ai cant make animations good enough, they are so bad on it images too, but still most company wants a artist to make it, and not a software
3:00 you got 7k for this? nice. Shows me I'm still to low on my prices.
you could have contacted opensea about ur nfts. and also launch them on ur own as the real artist. to at least let the people know .
They never launched the project. We finished development right as the whole market crashed so they abandoned the whole thing last minute
@renderer 2000 dollars, woah I am paying me $ 30 for $ 35 for animation with video editing, damn! 😧
how do you find this type of customers?
First of all, I work with clients in the US since I'm in the US, and I've build up a good reputation for myself amongst many clients. Majority of this is just networking. I have other videos talking about it!
Always take a deposit and always take payment before delivery.