Payment for rendering time

[akvisuals]

Hello,

I just started to work in upwork platform as a freelancer in architecture rendering. And I wanted to ask you if I should include rendering time for my hourly paid jobs or just the time spent creating the model. Thank you for your answers!

Andrius

[dataextract]

You'll have to discuss about this with your client. Time tracker records the screen, key strokes and client has to approve it.

[petra_r]

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@Ramesh K wrote:

You'll have to discuss about this with your client. Time tracker records the screen, key strokes and client has to approve it.

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 Nonsense.

Clients do not have to "approve" logged time. They are charged automatically for all logged time. They can dispute, but there is no approval process. The tracker does not "record the screen" - it takes screenshots, one during each 10 minute segment provided there was keyboard or mouse activity.

While rendering there is no keyboard or mouse activity so the tracker would not capture anything.

[silw · Accepted solution]

If I were you, I'd take a step back from hourly jobs in the creative market.

Just think about it:

You create an awesome image in 2 hours.

Someone else creates an awesome images in 4 hours.

He earns double your amount for being half as productive.

You basically punish yourself for being efficient.

To go for a fixed budget also enables you to implement factors like rendering-time without the need to justify them.

[akvisuals]

Thank you for your response, but usually payment method is fixed by the client, either it is hourly payments or fixed price

[petra_r]

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@Andrius K wrote:
Thank you for your response, but usually payment method is fixed by the client, either it is hourly payments or fixed price

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 Nothing is fixed until you agree to a contract. You are always free to negotiate different terms!

[ishiffer]

I charge for rendering if it happens during the work day. It ties up one of my computers, and even though I am not clicking away, work is happening. I factor it into the price for fixed contracts and, if it's hourly, explain to the client what's going on. 

For really long renders like animations, or for work that is less urgent, I'll run it overnight and not charge, or charge less. 

[milanchek]

I'm not charging when PC is rendering, I should do it? 

[alfredts]

If it's a quick, less then 15 minutes, render, especially a preliminary one - well I'm watching as it renders and analyzing how it's going, so the timer is running.
Also, sometimes I try to plan the tasks so that I can do something else while I'm rendering. Like work on an asset or just do organization work. (Depending how much RAM is available)

If it's a final render of multiple hours, I render it on a render farm and manually input the amount of hours that is the equivalent of the render farm cost. I hope that makes sense.

[rajesh_71]

I have also this type of question. According to my opinion render time should be a charge because the computer also involves in the rendering for the particular client project. RAM, Graphics card, processor, these all things involved in the rendering, if rendering a long duration, the computer may be heats. so, It should be chargeable. If anyone have a good suggestion, please guide me. 

[jr_counts]

Freelancers should be charging for render time, here's why. 

Rendering is taxing to your computer. Whether you're doing CPU or GPU rendering your putting wear and tear on these components. If you owned a delivery business it would be foolish to not have part of your earnings going towards the wear and tear piggybank for your vehicles. 

You also have to consider that if you don't have a separate server node (render farm) set up then rendering is also taking time away from you being able to do work. That is if you're using CPU rendering engines. If you are using something like Arnold to render it uses GPU rendering which doesn't affect the performance of running another modeling file that is open. 

The last thing to consider is that if you charge a lower rate say $20 for 5-10 renders. You can put that money towards computer upgrades and you'll have a killer system in no time. Also, look at companies that do render services and see their rates. Or you can use their services and charge the client accordingly. 

Bottom line, you should charge. You have to have money to maintain your tools.

Hope this helps.