I've had the 'same' case once, not so much in the gaming-area, just object-visalisation.
They wanted the source-files as well.

I roughly doubled the project-price .....
And never saw them again ..... 

And that's excactly the issue/ risk you'll be taking ?
You'll be, kind of, losing your power of the 'situation'.

I think it's fair to assume not to expect to much loyalty of a customer in general, and particularly these kind of cases ..... ?
They could already have other plans then you, and things/ relations can always change, and with that the loyalty (not) to stay with you.

And on the other hand: if you can make a fair amount of money when handing over the files, 'close' the project and be done with it < is there really something wrong with that ?

So these kind of issues will mostly be up to your own interpretation of the situation/ relationship.
And maybe it only needs some adjusting in your own frame of mind/ expectations, as in: just a different kind of customer ......

good luck !

yep, twice the project price if they want usage rights for the files. If they want to own the files its basically 3 times the project price.
A lot of those big names think they can exploit little companies. and yeah they will put you in the trash if you want to do honest business.... common practice..
reminds me of (off-topic-ish):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfprIxNfCjk    and ofcourse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY&feature=fvst

... all a lack of proffesionality personality .....

 

Maybe you make some "little mistakes" in the source files. Like they did with the concorde blueprints that were to be stolen by the soviets. 

only the concorde ? http://englishrussia.com/?p=10522

I am one of these clients who wants "everything" and I really don't see what the problem is.

I'm paying all the hours it took you to model, light and render the scene, so the scene is mine now.
When I pay an architect or an engineer to do a project for me, I also get all the construction drawings etc. No questions asked.
If you want to ensure that I’ll work with you again, than do a good job for a reasonable price.
Don’t try and force me!

I’ve also heard a potential vendor mention “special lighting techniques” etc. but that is also pure nonsense
The average clueless client might believe that, but everyone who knows how to make nice renders, knows how many invisible factors are included in creating good results.

Personally I can’t think of any special techniques that only I use or know of.
Looking at my models might give you a slight hint of a minute part of my knowledge, but you can much easier find that kind of hint in any of the forums like this one.
This job is all about intuition and experience in knowing which buttons to push to get fast and shiny results.
It takes years to acquire the right skills. Not just looking at another persons model

Sure you can ask the double price and if I’m in a fix I’ll even pay if you force me, but indeed you’ll never see me after that and if anyone asks you’ll be the last person I’d recommend.
If you have the luxury of not needing clients, that might not be a problem, but in any other case I really don’t get it.

Whatever the reason is that I decide to go to someone else instead of him that is what is putting him out of business.
It’s not my responsibility to keep him in business.
If he does a good job for a good price he’ll be my first choice.

Martin, i dont think the architect will allow you to change his plans in any way. You get his drawings as is. If you want to change anything you actually need permission of the architect or let the architect do it.

Of course good communication is key.
My view is that, me getting the model should be the standard and if you want to charge me for the actual model, than you should warn me in advance and maybe I’ll except.
Don’t come afterwards with the comment “Yeah but that’s how it’s always done” because there are no set rules for this.

Martin, from my point of view as a visualiser :
-A client pays me to make a drawing, animation or whatsoever. that's what I deliver. your stating you own the scene because you paid for hours making it but I don't agree on that. the 3D model is just my tool. a part of it.
-there could be discussion of the intellectual property of the model, in case I modelled something that you designed, but that's not the question.
-The equation with the architects goes wrong imho, you pay an architect for his ideas, or implementation of a question (I want a building and this are the requirements), and he hands over drawings, plans to work from, he shares the idea via the drawings.
-think of us as photographers. We take a picture of your idea, plan or whatsoever. Try and ask the photographer for the negative, or highres raw image, I still have to meet the first photographer who will share that with you/ give it away.

Glad to know you are not my client then. If all clients would work this way, artists would have an even harder time to get a decent living out of this.

well, i think the question is WHAT the customer pays for. Is it the pictures/animations, or for the model? I guess we all use photoshop and after effects (or similar) to enhance our renderings, how do you sell those settings?
Suppose you model a new telephone because your customer asks you for some stills. Will you also just give him the model so he can sell it and make more money out of it, or do you sell the model yourself? Ofcourse YOU are not allowed to sell the model because the design-rights belong to your customer.

So very important as you mentioned: before you start modeling, make sure that you talked about this with your customer or put it in your 'algemene voorwaarden' (sorry, don't know the english words for that)

@ Martin V.

Is there a precedent for delivering the source-files by default, then ?
I think not ......

So expecting your 3D-guy/ -girl to deliver them is a bit ..... forcing your opinion upon a group of people who live by different standards .... ?
Bit the same as moving to another country an saying all people act wierd .... while your the one with some adjusting to do ....

So, also to me, it seems obvious we are on the same level as photographers etc.

Everybody outsourcing: better do some more research, this is just totally not true ...
And not to speak of all the tries of companies to do that, that went wrong, or took over year to get this over-seas company to be able to communicate on the same (cultural) level as you and your customer.
I know several stories like this, and they all went the same .....
And besides of object-moddeling I do not now any positive stories.

I do see object-moddeling as a 'discipline' that could be done by 'anyone', but that does not, by far, give you an end-rsult, that's just the beginning.

Large (western)agencies and their fees vs Outsourcing/ Low-budget:
I was once in a bid for a project, where my price was around 10x higher than the outsourcing-guy, guess who got the project ? Right ......
This company was based in a 'outsourcing-country' by the way .....

And in many cases I experienced that budgets 'do not really matter', what matters is:
are you able/ better than someone else to translate the customer-wishes in a physical product that meets branche-standard-quality-level and delivers the right respons on the cutomers' customers.
In short: quality over budget/ money
Simply because quality lasts longer, and in many cases you wish you hadn't gone that path ....

In the end, and I think this is/ should be general: the  only thing that really matters is customer-satisfaction.

Created an account especially to reply on "Martin V's" comment.

In our case it's only artist impressions or animation, no game environment.
When a client of us orders an animation or an artist impression, that is exactly what he (or she) gets. We use several tools for creating an artist impression, like Photoshop and 3ds Max (and with animation even more, like After Effect and several plug-ins). If we have to hand over all the source files, these files would include content we paid licenses for (like Evermotion models). How would our client have the "right" to get these?
And like I said before, If he orders an animation, that's what he gets. He doesn't order a 3ds Max file!

We've been asked several times for the source files of a project, and we never handed them over. If your client still demands the files, collapse all the modifiers and delete content you paid licenses for! If you have a Photoshop file, flatten all the layers!

So always make sure your terms of agreement contain information about source-files and the content a client gets!

Best regards,
FD

I created an account just to make my original comment, so I gues where equally emotionally involved in the matter.   

You have a point where it comes to the licenses, but in my opinion the norm is that the client should be able to get the work files unless…
And that unless should be communicated in advance.
How it exactly works with the Evermotion models is probably stated in their terms of agreement
I guess that if you hand over the model to a client, you can’t use it anymore for yourself.
Meaning that you need to repurchase the model or model collection and bill the client for that.