A motion design revision isn't a video editing revision. Changing a cut takes minutes. Changing animation timing on a rigged character or a 3D camera move means re-keying, sometimes rebuilding expressions, then re-rendering — which can eat hours of unbillable machine time nobody accounts for. Price 2 revision rounds into every quote, treat any request that touches rigging, re-renders, or new scenes as a new scope, and charge $50-$200 per round beyond that.
Why "small" requests aren't small in After Effects
In video editing, "tighten this section" means trimming a clip on a timeline. Takes minutes. In motion design, the same sentence from a client can mean something completely different depending on what's underneath the animation. If the timing change is just an eased keyframe nudge, fine — five minutes. But if it's on a rigged character, or if the timing change cascades through an expression that's driving six other layers, you're not nudging a keyframe. You're rebuilding part of the rig, then re-rendering to see if it actually reads right.
That second part is the one nobody bills for: render time. An overnight 3D render on a complex job can run eight hours, and that machine isn't available for anything else while it churns — including other paid work. The client sees "make it snappier." You see a lost evening.
Stop losing money to scope creep.
RevCue catches out-of-scope requests the moment they land — and generates a change order automatically.
Try RevCue free →The feedback-clarity trap
Most advice aimed at motion designers right now is about getting clearer feedback — frame-accurate comments, pinned notes instead of "it feels off." That's real and it helps. But clarity and scope are two different problems, and solving the first one doesn't touch the second.
A perfectly clear, frame-accurate note can still be the 6th unpaid revision this week. Knowing exactly what to change doesn't tell you whether you should be charging for the change.
That's the gap almost every review tool ignores: they make feedback specific, not scoped.
What 2026 rates actually assume
| Deliverable | Typical Rate |
|---|---|
| Hourly (entry to senior) | $60–$175/hr |
| Simple motion graphics (icons, text) | $3,000–$5,000/finished minute |
| 2D character animation | $5,000–$10,000/finished minute |
| Social media animation (single asset) | $500–$2,000 |
| Logo animation | $1,000–$5,000 |
| Additional revision round | $50–$200 per round |
| Senior day rate | $300–$1,500+/day |
The standard structure in almost every pricing guide is the same: 2 included revision rounds, then $50-$200 per round after. That's not a controversial number. The problem is almost nobody tracks which round a client is actually on, or catches the moment a "revision" request quietly becomes a new scene, a new style direction, or a rebuild.
The retainer version of this problem
Retainers make it worse, not better. A monthly retainer without a hard cap on deliverables and revisions per cycle isn't a retainer — it's an open-ended subscription to your labor that happens to have a fixed price. The fix is specific: cap deliverables and revision rounds per month in writing, with a stated overage rate, before the first invoice goes out.
How to actually catch it before the re-render
The fix isn't a better contract clause — most motion designers already have one and it still gets ignored mid-project because nobody's tracking rounds in the moment. The fix is something that flags a request the second it crosses from "revision" into "new scope," before you've already spent the evening re-rendering. RevCue does exactly that — client comments get checked against what was actually scoped, and a request that's really a new ask gets flagged with a change order ready to send, before the render starts, not after.