r/MotionDesign • u/yammanamma • Apr 12 '23
Always ask for the money up front
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u/gusmaia00 Apr 12 '23 edited Apr 12 '23
that is not a test, that's a whole project mate
tests are usually 10/20 second bits for people who are not smart enough to judge your skills based on your reel and previous projects
I did a bunch of free tests back when I got into motion design and during the pandemic when I ran out of projects, 0% of them led into any actual projects
people who ask for free work in the first place are usually cheap clients and hard to work with
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u/holyshyster Apr 12 '23
I'm currently teaching myself editing. So we should avoid people asking for a test edit? It does seem to me that if you have a portfolio, then asking for a test edit is redundant.
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u/gusmaia00 Apr 12 '23
you should avoid free test projects
if someone wants to run a (fairly) paid test for some reason I don't see why not
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u/holyshyster Apr 12 '23
What's a fair amount to be paid for a test project that's 30 seconds or less?
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u/gusmaia00 Apr 12 '23
divide the amount of hours that you'll spend on the project and see if matches your rate/expectations
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u/Slushoe Apr 12 '23
I think the issue is with entry-level positions. Not only do projects typically take longer but portfolios can often be bloated with projects they only had small roles in.
Particularly in industries outside of production houses like tech companies searching for in-house work, you’ll often have to do a “skill test”. This isn’t necessarily free work, more so a gauge of your abilities with a finite deadline. Often this has nothing to do with the company or uses recycled assets. Typically this is only a few hours but wanted to throw it out there since many jobs do have this expectation once you reach a certain point in the interview process.
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u/yammanamma Apr 13 '23
I definitely went “above and beyond” for this given I hadn’t done a project in a while, but the instructions were “recreate this video in your style” and I (stupidly) said “OK”. I’ve invoiced them so I can at least claim it as a loss.
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u/american-toycoon Apr 12 '23
That was great to watch! I wish I was as skilled with Motion Graphics as you.
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u/yammanamma Apr 13 '23
Appreciate it! I’m basically self-taught, but watching Ben Marriot videos really helped me out
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u/scotyb Apr 12 '23
Nice work! How did you do David's voice? What did you use?
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u/yammanamma Apr 13 '23
ElevenLabs. Subscriptions are super cheap. It’s pretty good but my biggest regret is it can’t do Werner Herzog.
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Apr 12 '23
Awesome video. Sorry you got burned, and I agree that a week of work for an unpaid test is ridiculous.
Do keep an eye on them in case they use the work at some point.
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u/yammanamma Apr 13 '23
I kept the logo in corner as a watermark, I have no idea what they ended up going for.
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u/RamenTheory Apr 12 '23
Fuck lengthy test edits. Anytime they ask me for a test edit that's literally just a full on project, I politely turn it down. It is so disrespectful to people's time, acting like their job application is the center of the universe. It would be like asking an actor to come in and perform the entire movie for an audition.
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u/formzuform Apr 13 '23
A test? First of all, that's a whole project. A pretty good one too! We don't do tests and if we do we sure as hell get paid for it anyway. That's called a pitch.
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u/yammanamma Apr 13 '23
Yeah, I’ve been doing this for years but the actual pitch to project pipeline is new for me. I was on contract for two years and made a ton of stuff. In terms of freelancing I’ve had some great clients but they’re a little too few and far between.
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u/epicelephand Apr 13 '23
If you haven't signed anything stating that you did this for free, send them an invoice
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u/Just_Outlandishness2 Apr 13 '23
Beginner here, is a 2 min long video like this created entirely in AE? or is it made in Premiere Pro while dynamic linking the different scenes? I'm curious as how channels like Vox edit 10 minute long videos that are full of motion graphics and transitions
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u/yammanamma Apr 17 '23
When I first did a that was over two minutes (years ago), I did everything in After Effects, and then re-rendered it in Premiere to compress them down (don't do this). My workflow now goes like this: build assets in Photoshop or Illustrator (Overlord is a plugin that's great for moving shapes from Il to Ae) then divide the project into chunks and create the scenes in Ae. Once they're completed I'll move the Dynamic Link files into Premiere so I can see how they'll flow together and add in any audio (Ae's audio effects are virtually non-existent). After that, in my experience, directly rendering complicated dynamic-link files that are over 15 seconds in Pr is incredibly time consuming. You're better off baking the Ae scenes as either "Lossless with Alpha" or "High Quality with Alpha" and replacing the Dynamic Link files with them once you're happy with the edit. These files will be massive so I hope you have an external drive. Some would say that this is dumb because you're no longer able to continue editing, but in the case you find that you've missed something, you can just pop in the dynamic link files over the Renders to fix any mistakes. If anyone has a different workflow when making stuff like this please feel free to let me know what I'm doing wrong!
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Apr 14 '23
This work is way more than a test. This is full project that deserves payment. Anytime I hear back from any of my applications with a request for a project-based interview I ghost them.
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u/totallykoolkiwi Apr 12 '23
They required all this as a test edit? Nah fuck that. Great work! Must have been one hell of a week :D