Rate per hour for flash animator

MikeHoncho

I am doing a project for a client which requires a flash animated website. I have no training in this and was recommened a guy. I met with him and we talked etc. seemed like a decent chap. He has just sent me his estimates and I have worked out based on what he has said that he is charging 120 euro per hour!!!! Nearly 1000 euro per day!

Is this the norm? If not what is an appropriate rate for a flash animator in Ireland? I have found people most cagey in regards to this and would appreciate honest answers. I dont want to be taken for a fool.

miju

it all depends on the actual flash work required , i recently paid someone €50 for feic all work but then again it was urgent and i was happy to pay it in the knowledge itwas done on time and properly so it also depends on how much you value that

it does seem very excessive but without knowing the details of the project it's hard to say , perhaps you told him you've no knowledge in flash and he figures he has you over a barrel?

on the other hand ( im in a nitpicking humor today so dont mind me :-) ) it wasn't exactly the wisest thing to do to take a job that your not skilled in doing

MikeHoncho

Thanks for the reply. Im not a webdesigner at all. I work in advertising and its part of a promotion we just wanted to give it a nice front end on the web. If people are charging an hourly rate then surely the complexity is not an issue. It takes as long as it takes and this is what it costs. 7000 euro for a weeks work (he has told me this is how long it will take). I wouldnt make that in 2 months.

Aoife-FM104

Have a look on www.scriptlance.com and see what you come up with. You'll easily save yourself 6k...

miju

to be honest it sounds like your being ripped right off unless his flash skills are exceptionally good (and i mean godly)

frodo_dcu

I disagree, this guy could be working much longer hours than you know. I’ve done a job like this before with similar kind of figures, but the guy said he needed it done in a week so I spent a full week on it with about 4-5 hours sleep a night and done nothing else. The person was more than happy to pay that price because they looked at it as a price for the job that had to be done and not an hourly rate.

Now on the other hand if he has explicitly said €120 per hour and taking no more then one week to complete then its a different story but I doubt he has.

misterq

There are two factors to be taken into account.

frodo makes an excellent point in that he may well be squeezing more than 35 hours into the week he will be working on it.

The second is that flash is a subjective medium. You can get a very talented person that will give you a brilliant animation or you can get a really so-so person that gives you something only ok. Both can be done in a week.

I presume you have had a look at his portfolio?

And it would be a good idea to go over to creativeireland.com to see if anyone there can give you a rough quote so you can compare prices.

Laslo

Firstly, I think you have to assume that he's charging 120 per hour if he says he is... and not working 16 hour days.

Secondly, 120 per hour is VERY high. An industry-best animator in Ireland shouldn't be charging more than 80/90 per hour. And we're talking super-skilled animator here.

Can you give us an idea of the animation involved/project scope and I can probably find you a much better price... and probably a much better animator! Just depends on the job at hand. As long as it's not character animation/rotoscoping/3D Studio Max-type job then I can probably help.

the Guru

We charge per hour $135 for Flash design to $150 for advanced motion graphics. If this guy is professional yes that can be expected. If your client wants a professional site they will have to pay for it. The amount of people I come across that don't properly budget for their websites. You need to spend money on your site if you want it to be a success.

miju

sorry but this guy charging €120 / $158 an hour guru is taking the piss , going on the op's post if his cost works out about about €1,000 a day then we can safely say he's not going to be pulling all nighters for the week

if you were talking about a doctor i'd say get a second opinion / quote unless this guy is phenomenally good

Adam

*picks jaw up from floor*

*runs off to learn flash*

Laslo

the Guru wrote:

We charge per hour $135 for Flash design to $150 for advanced motion graphics.

Maybe in the states that's the going rate. In Ireland, €100 ($130) would be about as much as an industry-best Flash designer/animator, or indeed RIA or Flex Developer, could charge per hour.

Laslo

Mirror wrote:

*picks jaw up from floor*

*runs off to learn flash*

Go for it. But bear in mind that you won't be able to charge much for a good 6 or 7 years until you're good enough.

DJB

This discussion might be of interest to you over on the irish webmaster forum:

http://www.irishwebmasterforum.com/business-aspects-web-work/835-what-price-do-you-charge.html

It's about the prices of a brochure site but it's the philosophy behind service industry pricing that may be of interest to you. It's all to do with perceived value.

In my opinion, I wouldn't be paying that for a flash developer. Max I would expect to be getting charged is 80 euro an hour. And that price is usually to the end client. I usually pay about 40-50 euro an hour for flash work cause my team don't specialise in it and I get in a contractor to do it. You mentioned that you are in advertising so I persume you are reselling this onto your client or doing it as part of an overall project.

However, in saying that, if you feel that he is the cream of the crop here and that you'll have the best site ever, then go for it. You really want to be sure you are getting the best out there though. That price is the real UPPER scale of the market but be sure that you are getting the quality to match. Check references, portfolio, etc.

Rgds,

Dave