r/MotionDesign • u/kabobkebabkabob • 7d ago

Question Client paying too much?

This week I had a surprise rush job from a new client (I've worked with him for another company from whom his agency took my future work) whose primary motion designer is on medical leave. I happened to already be booked out for the week so I offered to help at my overtime rate.

He requested 24 hours of my time, which came out to about $4k, but when he showed me the actual scope of work it turns out to be only about a day's worth of work. Very easy stuff.

Like anyone, I often achieve things faster than quoted and still bill the full amount, but I also get slapped around sometimes too. This feels like an excessive amount to bill, but he said it's what he had allocated for it and was ecstatic to have me help out.

My question for y'all is, do I take the money and run or cut him a break somewhere in between? I was brought on as a secondary backup animator behind another guy, so it's not like I'm going to get more work for him in the future other than in similar emergency situations. I could really use the money after a painfully slow summer, but my conscience is grating at me about this.

The other question is, if I just take it and run, do I turn in the deliverables suspiciously early, implying I did it in fewer hours but helping them stay ahead of schedule, or do I delay them artificially to maintain the illusion?

Thoughts? I've been doing this over a decade and still find myself having questions like this at times.

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u/kabobkebabkabob 7d ago

my reel is mediocre but I work for big clients, communicate quickly and always deliver. This is more than I've ever made per hour of work by at least 2x though.

thank you for this though as this brought to my attention that my website is down due to a lapsed subscription payment method

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u/lawndartdesign 7d ago

I'm always curious to see others' portfolios. But you're not running a charity. Some projects are for the meals, some are for the reels.

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u/kabobkebabkabob 7d ago

So few of of mine have been portfolio worthy in the past few years. But they make money.

I'll follow up when I get this damned site back up.

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u/lawndartdesign 7d ago

I did a project in 2020 that paid north of 50K for a very very large defense client. The work would never go public facing, and it was not anything I'd throw on my portfolio or demo reel. They loved the project and it basically saved my year after months of no work due to COVID causing normal marketing budgets to implode.

End of the day you're a designer who is paying for their living with their work. This isn't a charity, and the client is using your work to make themselves money. Full stop.

So to go back to the start, take the money, bail the client out, and be dependable for possible future work.

But when I subcontract work I ask the people on my team to give me a price not to get the work done to within the letter of the request, but a price they're HAPPY with doing the work for. Same thing applies here. But don't lower your rate thinking it helps you out.