the cost of a mainstream CG shot?

# 1 09-01-2010 , 12:28 PM

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after watching avatar, I was wondering if you guys had an idea on how much a typical Hollywood mainstream CG shot would cost. I'm talking about the CG of the shot only as in, the typical cost ILM or digital domain would charge for a shot like the ones seen in transformers and Avatar

Thanks,
Danotronxx

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# 2 09-01-2010 , 02:47 PM

The Nurb Herd
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depends on the shot.

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# 3 09-01-2010 , 03:13 PM

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what would be the range?

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# 4 09-01-2010 , 03:26 PM

The Nurb Herd
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no idea! I think jobs are usually quoted on the whole job rather than shot by shot. Its all about bidding tho, ILM will bid for shots against digital domain.

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# 5 10-01-2010 , 12:27 AM

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Yeah it depends on the shot, how much cg is needed and the length of the actual shot.

I recall a couple of years back that ILM charged, 100,000 bucks for a couple of seconds, dont quote me eactly but it was going into the large thousands

Jay

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# 6 10-01-2010 , 01:46 AM

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yea but, wouldn't I.L.M. and dream-works, possibly have the same advantage that say, Nike have...they can over charge just because of who they are, the person getting the work done is paying more for the name in some cases then they are the work its self.

I.E. would you really go to I.L.M. to get a scene of like a dancing polar bear, when the cheaper freelance artist could do just as good of a job with half the price with an extra day or so to work on it?

Just a question mate.. I know when it comes to like, buying shoes, I'm just fine with the 20$ wal-mart brand that looks just like the 150$ Nike's and lasts just as long...make sense?

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# 7 10-01-2010 , 10:00 AM

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Well if you had the money you would always buy the best based on someones track record wouldnt you.

theres no way a freelance dude would pull the same rabbit out of the hat as ILM, dreamworks etc....just no way. Unless he had the same resources and the money and time to do it. Its as Hammer said, they all bid against one another per shot. Some little freelance guy wouldnt get a look in.

Jay

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# 8 10-01-2010 , 06:07 PM

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then might i ask, so someone like Dylan Cole, just Lucked into being the lead Matt painter for LOTR trilogy?.. since he was basically unheard of before that, and if i recall he was freelance at the time. He's even said " It was luck".. in interviews..
I ask only because my friend, you know better then most that one day i hope to be in the feild freelance similar to Cole and Alp, ect.

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# 9 10-01-2010 , 06:42 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
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Ah now you see thats where your definition of 'freelancer' becomes a little more exact.

the likes of cole weren't exactly unheard of up until then they would have done the work to get there, its just the films were big and those guys were in the right place at the right time, as cole says its luck, no way, you need skill as well, cos luck alone just doesnt cut it. He's being sincere....

But also at the same time you need to bear in mind that its not just one person who makes up a shot for lets say lord of the rings, star wars etc. Theres a ton of stuff that goes into it, and the Dylan Coles and the Alp Altiners of this world are just a part of it. Like myself, I am just the modeller dude at work, then theres the texture artists, the riggers, the lighters, the fur groomers, cloth dudes, the pre viz dudes, the render Wranglers, tds, matte painters and so on, all these areas are all taken into account when one single shot is being budgeted, you could have up to 60 people on one shot alone. For a feature film its not that simple to give it all to one guy to do, thats just not how it works.
Im a freelancer, just part of the team...

So you want to matte paint then? I would really begin to get stuck in with it....

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the cost of a mainstream CG shot?

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