The Email That Produced an $85,000 Guess
A director needs 12 VFX shots for an indie feature. She emails a VFX house: "We need 12 shots. Some green screen compositing, some set extensions, one CGI creature. Can you quote it?" The house replies with $180,000, priced on worst-case assumptions about shot complexity. The real cost, once footage and specs arrive, is $95,000.
That quote was useless for budgeting. The same email to a second house produces a $60,000 bid on best-case assumptions, and the real cost lands at $120,000. One number was $85,000 too high, the other $60,000 too low, and both came from the same missing document.
This post covers the 6 components a VFX house needs before it can bid accurately, and how to assemble them into a VFX brief that takes one afternoon to write. Run your numbers through the VFX Shot Cost Estimator while you read.
The component list follows the bidding workflow used by vendors represented in the Visual Effects Society and the producer-prep guidance published by Animation World Network. It is what a VFX supervisor sits down with before opening a spreadsheet.
What a VFX House Needs to Price a Shot
A VFX brief has 6 components, and each one removes a guess the vendor would otherwise price at the worst case.
1. Shot list with descriptions. For every shot, give the shot number, scene number, a one-line description, the VFX type (cleanup, wire removal, compositing, environment, creature), the duration in seconds, and a complexity level. A usable line reads: "Shot 012, Scene 4, actor walks through a digital city street, compositing plus environment, 8 seconds, Level 3." The complexity levels post defines the 4 tiers vendors typically bid against.
2. Reference images. One or two stills per shot showing what the final frame should look like. Film stills, concept art, storyboards, or test frames all work. Without references, the vendor quotes the shot they imagine, not the shot you want.
3. Camera information. Camera model, lens focal length, frame rate, resolution, codec, and shutter angle. A shot on an ARRI ALEXA Mini at 35mm, 24fps, ProRes 4444 is a different workload than the same shot at 120fps in RAW. Frame rate multiplies frame count. Resolution multiplies render time. RAW adds a grading pass before comp work starts.
4. Footage specifications. Delivery format, color space, delivery method, and grade status. VFX belongs on ungraded Log or ACES media, with the grade applied after comp integration. If you deliver graded Rec.709 ProRes, the vendor either works blind on baked-in color or prices a fix.
5. Timeline. Footage delivery date, final delivery date, and intermediate review milestones. A 4-week turnaround can cost 50% to 100% more than a 12-week turnaround for identical work because the vendor pays overtime and reorders other jobs.
6. Budget range. A range, not a number. "Our VFX budget is $40,000 to $60,000 for 12 shots" lets the vendor propose work that fits. Without it, they quote their full-rate card and you both waste a week discovering the gap.
Here is the arithmetic behind it. A vendor missing half the inputs pads each of the 6 unknowns by roughly 20%. Six guesses at 1.2x compound to a quote nearly 3x the real cost. The brief exists to remove the padding.
Three Briefs, Three Quotes
The One-Line Email
A director sends a single sentence about 12 shots and asks for a price. The house assumes worst-case complexity on the creature work and quotes $180,000. Actual cost after specs arrive: $95,000. The director spent 3 weeks budgeting against a number that was off by 89%.
The Complete Brief
A producer sends a 6-page PDF: shot list, 2 references per shot, camera and footage specs, a 10-week timeline, and a $50,000 to $70,000 range. The house quotes $62,000. Final invoice: $64,000. The $2,000 variance came from a pickup shot added mid-production, not from a bad estimate.
The Brief With No Budget Range
A filmmaker sends everything except money. The house quotes its standard rate card at $120,000 against a real budget of $50,000. Had the vendor known the ceiling, it would have proposed 2D matte paintings instead of 3D builds and landed near $55,000. The missing line cost both sides a month of re-bidding.
What Each Component Buys You
The table shows what the vendor does with each part of the brief and what happens to the quote when it is missing.
| Component | What the vendor does with it | Without it | Prep time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shot list | Counts work units and tiers complexity | Pads every shot to Level 4 | 1-2 hours |
| Reference images | Matches your intended look | Quotes the wrong shot entirely | 1-2 hours |
| Camera info | Sizes render and comp load | Assumes highest-spec workload | 30 minutes |
| Footage specs | Plans color pipeline and ingest | Prices a reconform or fix | 20 minutes |
| Timeline | Schedules artists against other jobs | Prices rush labor | 15 minutes |
| Budget range | Proposes work that fits the money | Quotes 2-4x your ceiling | 5 minutes |
The pattern is consistent: the components that take the least time to write (timeline, budget range) remove the largest pricing errors.
How to Build the Brief in 10 Steps
- List every VFX shot. Pull flagged shots from your script breakdown or edit decision list. Give each a shot number, scene number, description, VFX type, duration, and complexity level.
- Gather reference images. Pull 1-2 stills per shot from films with similar work, your concept art, or test frames from the shoot.
- Document camera information. Record camera, lens, frame rate, resolution, codec, and shutter angle per shot. The Exposure Calculator confirms frame rate and shutter settings if you need to reconstruct them.
- Document footage specifications. Format, color space, delivery method, and grade status. State explicitly whether the media is ungraded.
- Set the timeline. Footage delivery date, final deadline, and 2-3 review milestones. Build the dates in the Production Schedule Calculator.
- Set a budget range. Run the full post budget through the Budget Breakdown Allocator and give the vendor a range, never a fixed number.
- Compile the PDF. Shot list as a table, references 1-2 per shot, camera info as a table, specs on one page, timeline on one page, budget range in one line.
- Send to 2-3 vendors. Identical briefs produce comparable quotes. Different inputs produce prices you cannot compare.
- Compare bids on the same scope. Verify each quote covers the same shot count, revision rounds, and delivery specs before comparing totals.
- Book a review call. Walk the chosen vendor through the brief shot by shot. The call surfaces the assumptions a document cannot.
The output is a 4-8 page PDF that takes one afternoon to build and converts every reply into a usable number.
Pro Tips and Common Mistakes
Pro Tip: Give the budget as a range with a stated ceiling. Vendors who know the ceiling propose 2D fixes, reduced complexity tiers, or fewer revision rounds to land under it. A fixed number invites either a padded quote or an unusable one.
Pro Tip: Reference images matter more than page count. Two accurate stills per shot do more for quote accuracy than 5 extra pages of description, because they anchor the vendor's labor estimate to a visible target.
Pro Tip: Deliver ungraded media and say so in the brief. Compositing on Log or ACES plates is the standard workflow described in vendor prep guidance on Animation World Network. Graded footage forces a re-prep line item you will pay for.
Pro Tip: State your revision expectation in the brief. "2 rounds of notes per shot" is a pricing input. An unstated revision policy gets priced as unlimited or zero, and neither is true.
Common Mistake: The director sends a one-line email and shops the reply around. The fix: a guess is not a bid. Build the 6 components first so every house prices the same scope.
Common Mistake: Hiding the budget to get an "honest" number. The fix: withholding the ceiling produces rate-card pricing 2-4x your actual money, per the vendor-prep logic above. Share the range.
Common Mistake: No reference images because "the shot is simple." The fix: simple for you means unspecified for them. One still removes the ambiguity that gets priced at the worst case.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get an accurate VFX quote?
Send a written brief with a shot list, reference images, camera and footage specs, a timeline, and a budget range to 2-3 vendors at once. Identical inputs are the only way to compare the bids that come back.
What information does a VFX house need to quote?
Six components: a shot list with VFX type and complexity, 1-2 reference images per shot, camera and lens data, footage format and grade status, delivery and review dates, and your budget range. Each missing item gets priced as a worst-case assumption.
How long does it take to prepare a VFX brief?
Four to 8 hours for a typical indie package of 10-20 shots, once the references exist. Most of that time goes into the shot list and gathering stills. The camera, footage, and timeline sections reuse documents you already have.
Why is my VFX quote so much higher than expected?
High quotes usually trace to missing inputs priced at worst case, a rush timeline that adds 50-100% in labor cost, or a scope the vendor assumed was bigger than you intended. Check the shot list and complexity tiers in your brief before blaming the rate.
Should I give a VFX vendor my real budget?
Give a range, yes. Vendors use the ceiling to propose simpler methods that fit, and the Visual Effects Society bidding guidance treats budget context as standard practice. A hidden budget produces a quote 2-4x your ceiling or a polite pass.
Related Tools and Resources
Price the shots before you write the brief with the VFX Shot Cost Estimator, then fit the number into your full post budget in the Budget Breakdown Allocator. The Production Schedule Calculator builds the delivery timeline vendors bid against. Keep reading with How to Budget VFX for an Indie Film, LED Wall vs. Green Screen, and How to Write a Film Budget Estimate.
The Brief Is the Quote
A VFX quote is only as accurate as the document behind it. Six components, one PDF, 2-3 vendors, and a stated budget range turn a guess into a line item you can plan around. The 4-8 hours a brief takes to prepare routinely saves $10,000 to $50,000 in quote error on an indie package.
This covers single-vendor bidding for indie packages. Multi-vendor shot splitting and VFX producer fees are separate topics. What was the largest gap between a VFX quote and your final invoice, and which missing brief component caused it?
