There are a couple of things to take into consideration when pricing your work. A good average for raw animation (no post, no sound) is about $1000 a minute which works out to $16 a second. Most animited GIFs, however, are only a couple of seconds long and require post production and optimiazation for good results on a web page. Really it's kind of a discernment on your part where your customers threshold of pain is :) They should wince a little but not kill the job. Just because 3-D modeling is fun and animation is blast is no reason to ever give your work away (Even though it's tempting to do it for free). My shop generally doesn't let an animated GIF (3-d Animated that is) out the door for less than $160 with the average around $250 for a simple 18 to 24 frame (3-4 second) posted and optimized GIF. For complex or detailed animation, modeling work has to be built into the cost. Usually the cost of the animation development (model building, scene setting) will increase the bottom line 3 to 4 times. But this is a 'professional' price. If you're just doing it for fun it's a little more subjective. Charge enough that you don't feel like you are being taken advantage. Or, if you have your eye on a Plug-in for Carrara, charge whatever the Plug-in costs. If this is a direction or side-line business type of thing that you'd like to pursue, I highly recommend getting the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It gives sample contracts, a wide range of considerations for things that will allow you to bill (and negotiate) for more money, when ask for payments or partial payments as well as ways to contractually set yourself up to avoid getting burned. Hope that this isn't more than you wanted to know. Mark