How much should I charge? (1st time doing freelance)

[CelebrenIthil]

Hello everyone, I'm finally stopping to just lurk on the forums and made an account because I am in need of your counsel.

I just got asked as a modeler for a low-poly project but it will be my first time being paid for it. I've been asked for how much I demand for various items and I sincerly do not know! I am equally terrified of overselling or underselling myself. :/

I am being asked my price for a character around 800tris, and also give a cost estimation for a bundle of 4 prop sample, ranging from 200 to 700 tris and sharing a 1024 texture.

I know the prices differ from person to person, following skill but I am without any guidelines right now. I guess maybe it could help you guys assess how much I am "worth" if I show you a few sample of what my work looks like:

http://www.celebrenithil.com/Artwork...ctive_Wire.png
http://www.celebrenithil.com/Artwork...s/Countach.png
http://www.celebrenithil.com/Artwork...ops_iPhone.png

They are waiting for my response so all of my thanks to anyone providing me with a response swiftly. I really appreciate any input you guys can give me!

[agamer]

Hi there, i've not actually done any freelance work but the way i would think about it would try to estimate how long you think each peice would take you, then decide on how much per hour you would be happy working for, that should give you a rough estimate. Dont forget to add a bit on for any re work or design changes if your client hasn't supplied a detailed brief ( even if they have! ). you dont want to spend days and days on a bit of work only to realise at the end that you've worked for below minimum wadge! Good luck and grats on getting your first paid work

[CelebrenIthil]

Thanks a lot! I'm a bit apprehensive, I hope this will work out.
I should have paid more attention to my production speed when I was doing my studies... I always got them done on time but I really have a hard time sitting down and thinking "this is gonna take me x hours, and this is gonna take me y hours..." and thus fear I might botch my approximations...

[TekNeek]

What agamer said.
What I do is I decide an hourly wage, I guesstimate how much time something will take, and show it in the contract. Include in the contract that one change per item's permitted, anything else will cost ( so you won't end up in an endless loop of minor changes for free). I also state in the contract that I will send them the project with a big watermark, and the unwatermarked version when I've gotten paid

Has worked for me