Re: FLASH: Number of Flash Comps for Clients?

[Marc Hoffman]

At 05:51 PM 5/13/99 -0400, you wrote:

>This is to you pro Flash people who design for corporate clients on a 

>regular basis:

>

>How many comps do you typically provide for clients in the first round of a

>Flash project? Do you execute still comps in Flash or do you show

>illustrator or Photoshop files? If you do the comps in Flash, are they fully

>animated or just stills with explanations of how things will work when it's

>done? If you execute the comps in Flash, how much time to you typically

>allow for the creation of the first round of comps?

>


In my practice, this varies depending on the client and the job.  What I

prefer to do is to offer the first consultation (no longer than an hour)

free and all work after that is billed at my hourly rate or based on a flat

fee.  Flat fees can get you into trouble, but I often use them when a

client is very budget-minded or when the job is particularly attractive to

me and I know it will build my portfolio and my business.  If a client just

wants to see the quality of my work before commiting to hiring me, I have a

portfolio to show.  Sometimes I will do a small mock-up in Flash

specifically to land a job, but this is always at my initiation -- I simply

won't do free demos on request, because of the high rate of exploitation

when clients expect that.


Once I begin work, depending on the size of the job and how clear the

client has been about the project, I try to provide at least one early

version for feedback. This saves me production time, saves the client

money, and avoids the mutual shock of the finished project being "wrong"

for what the client had in mind. For a job that I expect will take me 40

hours, I would probably provide a mock-up withing the first 4-8 hours of

work.  Usually this will contain the full depth of features -- that is, it

will have the kind of interactivity and graphic complexity I expect to have

in the final version -- but will be very limited in breadth (so that it

might show only one of ten menu items, or the first two frames of a tour).

The idea would be to give the client an accurate feel for the final piece

without putting too much production time into it.


BTW, I generally require enough of an advance to cover the first round of

"proofs," and the explicit understanding is that the advance is applied

toward my time on the project, so if there's a cancellation I will keep the

amount that pays for the hours I've already spent.



Marc Hoffman

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com (mailto:marcdartfrogmedia [dot] com)

Play a virtual marimba at: <www.dartfrogmedia.com/dartfrog> (featured 

in the book Flash 3 Web Animation by Ken Milburn).

Flash3 Portfolio: <http://www.jps.net/dartfrog/sampler>.


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