When pricing your interior design services, competitive does not mean equal. Rather than basing your fees on those of your peers, what you charge should reflect the specific metrics of your business. There is a lot of industry noise around pricing, so avoiding non-credentialed, unaccountable, and clickbait-peddling Instagram “experts” is crucial. Instead, follow this data- and market-driven guide to set your interior design studio’s optimal pricing, one that will maximize your revenue and profitability.Define your business’s purposeIn an industry where designers can have drastically different whys, clarify yours. For instance, your business may be the primary means of supporting your household while another designer whose work you admire, and who is operating in your region with similar clients, is doing this “for fun.” Perhaps that designer is billing at an artificially low rate and giving their clients trade pricing with no markups. Your reasons are very different—and you’re not going to be able to compete with that model. It’s futile and expensive to try.Join NowAD PRO members enjoy exclusive benefits. Get a year of unlimited access for per month.ArrowIgnore your peersWhat another studio charges is irrelevant to what you can charge. Some lesser-known studios can get away with charging incredibly high fees, while very well-known studios might experience a lower maximum price threshold. Identify what price the market will bear for your unique interior design services. When studios set prices based on others they deem to be competitors, they are very often leaving money on the table and undervaluing their own services.Don’t reverse-engineer your feeSome studios run through the time-intensive exercise of using their own historical financials to calculate their desired net income or profit and then reverse-engineer pricing that will accommodate their net income target. This approach is flawed. By calculating the least amount of money you can charge, you are once again potentially leaving heaps of dollars on the table. In many cases, the market price of your interior design services can be significantly more than the price you will get by backing into a target net income figure or net margin percentage.Given all these dynamics, never speculate on pricing. Take a data-driven approach, like the one we’ve developed over the last ten years, to maximize your studio’s revenue.To maximize revenue and profit…Bill hourlyFor residential projects, hourly billable professional fees alongside a furniture, fixtures, and equipment markup is the pricing model that maximizes revenue, profitability, and client acquisition, when positioned correctly. When diligent about tracking their time, 99% of studios make more money than they otherwise would by charging flat fees. There are rare instances when a studio can charge stratospheric flat fees and the market will bear it, but these are edge cases.What You’re Getting Wrong With Your Interior Design ContractBusiness advisor Seth Kaplowitz on optimizing your interior design contractWrite a client-friendly contractWhen a studio moves to hourly billing, their contract terms become more client-friendly and drive up their client conversion rate. Conversely, a flat-fee-based contract tends to have a lot of limitations and restrictions that can turn off potential clients. For example, a flat fee contract often stipulates a list of services where additional fees apply. If your client wants value engineering, more than one design concept, or additional specifications for procured items, it costs extra. A flat fee contract can introduce friction and ultimately prevent a client from signing and moving forward. The goal is to eliminate this friction.Taking a “billable hours plus procurement fees” pricing approach, you can reverse-engineer the approximate price per square foot of decorating, design, and full renovation projects for a studio. By defining price per square foot by project type alongside average timeline, your clients are armed with the ability to calculate the approximate cost of the project themselves. This approach gives the client the confidence and feeling of control they need to sign a contract.Test pricing elasticityAfter identifying the approximate price per square foot by project type for your studio, test its limits. Push pricing up and closely watch the client conversion rate. Focus on qualified inbound traffic—leads and referrals from architects, contractors, or past clients—and disregard the subset of unqualified leads from Instagram, which can generally be classified as shoppers, not buyers. Then calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of qualified inbound leads by the number of leads that signed a contract. If this rate is above a desired threshold, there is room to raise prices. They can continue to rise until the conversion rate drops below that threshold, at which point you’ve maximized your pricing. This exercise relates exclusively to a studio’s unique demand curve and what the market will pay for its unique interior design services, avoiding unhelpful peer comparisons.Reanalyze your current approachIf you’re a studio principal, look at the following data sets: #how #price #your #interior #design

Animate for Concept Art: The New Workflow Combining AI By Bart on May 22, 2025 3D News Redefine Concept Art with Animation and AI Guidance using Reallysion's iClone.Hello, I’m Jakub Kaźmierczak, a concept artist specializing in environment concept art and key frames. I have been in the industry for the past 7 years. In my professional career, I work mostly for movies and game cinematics. Some projects being: “Three Body Problem”, “Shōgun”, “Concord”, and “Call of Duty BO6 Libertyfalls”.Integrating iClone into Your Concept Art WorkflowAs a concept artist specializing in environments and keyframes, I’m always on the lookout for tools that can streamline my workflow and help me deliver high-quality work to my clients. One such tool that has become indispensable in my process is iClone, a powerful animation software that complements Character Creator. In this article, I’ll walk you through how I use iClone to create dynamic scenes, particularly for sequence keyframes, and how it integrates seamlessly with Blender to enhance my workflow. Bridging the Gap Between Concept and AnimationiClone is primarily known as an animation tool, but as a concept artist, I don’t consider myself an animator. So, why do I use it? The answer lies in the growing demand for sequence keyframes in my professional work. Sequence keyframes involve creating multiple shots within a single location, and traditionally, this required setting up multiple cameras and manually copying characters across the scene to match each shot. It was a tedious and inefficient process.With iClone, I can now set up simple animations, export them to Blender, and animate my camera to capture all the necessary shots. This allows me to deliver multiple shots to clients with ease, iterate quickly, and focus on the overall design without worrying about the characters’ movements. The best part? You don’t need to be an expert animator to use iClone. Reallusion has made the process so intuitive that anyone can integrate it into their workflow.AccuPOSE: AI-Powered Posing Made EasyOne of the standout features of iClone is AccuPOSE, a posing assistant that uses AI to help you pose characters quickly and efficiently. In the past, I had to pose characters in Blender by moving each bone individually or importing animations and adjusting them manually. With AccuPOSE, whenever I move a bone, the rest of the body reacts to the adjustments and eventually generates a naturally balanced pose.A subscription to AccuPOSE INFINITY offers tons of AI-trained pose presets across different themes that I can directly apply to my characters. This is especially useful for creating combat scenarios or other dynamic poses for keyframes. The result? A significant reduction in posing time, allowing me to focus on the bigger picture.Creating Animations with iCloneTo create animations in iClone, all I need to do is drag motion capture data from the content library onto my characters. I should also mention that Reallusion’s ActorCore offers a wide variety of motions to choose from, and they can all be further edited.If I need to include different animations for storytelling purposes, I can easily drag the next animation onto the timeline and blend the two together for smooth transitions. I can also break the animation and rotate it to change the direction, giving me full control over the scene’s dynamics.For sequence keyframes, precision isn’t always necessary. I’m not creating a full movie — I’m presenting an idea. This flexibility allows me to experiment with different animations and camera angles without getting bogged down in the details.Crowd Simulation: Bringing Scenes to LifeOne of the most impressive features of iClone is its crowd simulation capability. In the past, animating multiple characters was a daunting task that forced me to repeat the process for each character, leading to repetitive poses and a lack of variety in the scene.With iClone’s crowd simulation, I can generate a navmesh from a ground plane, select the characters I want to include, and assign animation sets to them automatically. This creates a dynamic, lifelike crowd without the need for manual adjustments. The result is a scene that feels alive and avoids the monotony of repeated poses.Seamless Integration with BlenderBlender Auto Setup has undergone a significant overhaul, making it easier than ever to link Character Creator with Blender. Gone are the days of exporting and reimporting files; Now, everything works as one cohesive system. With just a click, I can pose, edit, and dress my characters in CC and instantly see the changes reflected in Blender’s 3D viewport. This seamless integration has been a huge time-saver, allowing me to focus more on the creative aspects of my work.Like Character Creator, iClone uses the same plugin to link with Blender. This allows me to export all my animations and see how they fit within the broader scene. The workflow is seamless, significantly speeding up my process and enabling me to make creative changes on the fly. Once the character animations are in place, I can set up simple camera movements, record the scene, and send it to my client for feedback. This iterative process ensures that the final product aligns with the client’s vision.Refining and Delivering the Final ProductAfter setting up the scene and capturing the necessary shots, the next step is to refine the keyframes, render out the final images or short videos, and deliver them to the client. This streamlined process allows me to focus on the creative aspects of my work while ensuring that the technical details are handled efficiently.Conclusion: Expanding Your Skillset with iCloneIntegrating iClone into my workflow has been a game-changer. It has allowed me to experiment with new tools, expand my skillset, and deliver high-quality work to my clients more efficiently. As a freelancer, I don’t always have the luxury of sitting next to a director and discussing shots on the spot. Creating simple animations in iClone allows me to communicate my ideas more effectively, especially when working with clients in different time zones.I encourage you to explore iClone and see how it can enhance your own workflow. Whether you’re a concept artist, animator, or somewhere in between, the ability to experiment with different creative tools can open up new opportunities and take your work to the next level.I hope this article has given you some insight into how I use iClone in my workflow. For a more detailed walkthrough, please find the full article here. Happy creating! #animate #concept #art #new #workflow

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesMicrosoft has quietly implemented a policy blocking employee emails containing the words “Palestine,” “Gaza,” or “genocide” on its internal Exchange servers, according to No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestine Microsoft employees. The automated filter, which silently prevents such emails from reaching recipients was first detected on Wednesday—just after Microsoft’s Build developer conference faced repeated disruptions by the activist group.Microsoft has been rocked by internal dissent over its collaboration with the Israeli military and government amid the ongoing assault on Gaza. The company has faced disruptions to its events, including protests from employees over its provision of cloud services and other critical infrastructure used by the Israeli military.Now, the company appears to be tightening its grip on internal discourse. The terms “Israel” and “P4lestine” do not trigger a block, the group said. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Last week, Microsoft attempted to do damage control over its alleged involvement in the genocide. Ahead of the annual Build event, which is aimed at developers and tech enthusiasts from all over the world, the company issued a report claiming that an internal investigation found that Microsoft’s operations did not cause harm to civilians in Gaza.Microsoft’s provision of technology to the Israeli Ministry of Defensewas first reported by Drop Site News, alongside The Guardian and the magazine +972, based on a trove of internal documents. The reports revealed that Microsoft actively pursued contracts with the Israeli defense ministry, offering them tailored proposals and significant discounts on cloud and AI services. These deals, negotiated and escalated over months, positioned Microsoft as a key technology provider during Israeli military operations in Gaza.Microsoft did not dispute the authenticity of the documents or the reporting, but days before its major annual events released a statement saying that it conducted an internal review and “found no evidence that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies, or any of our other software, have been used to harm people.” According to internal documents and emails reviewed by Drop Site, however, just days after the October 7, 2023 attack and the start of Israeli offensive in Gaza, Microsoft started pitching to the Israeli military, anticipating major military spending. Over the next few months, Israeli military became one of Microsoft’s top 500 global customers.On Monday, No Azure for Apartheid said, an employee who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote at the flagship Build conference was fired. On Tuesday, during a speech by Jay Parikh, head of CoreAI, a worker shouted, “Jay! My people are suffering! Cut ties with Israel! No Azure for apartheid! Free, free Palestine!” before being swiftly removed by security.Leave a comment #microsoft #bans #word #palestine #internal

Force of Hobbit Embracer Group says it'll put out 76 different games in the coming year, as it ditches friends for a fellowship and spins off Goat Sim publisher Coffee Stain The lovely, hunky-dory friendship group is no more, Embracer's embracing the whole Middle Earth thing instead. Image credit: Embracer Group/Skydance News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 22, 2025 Damn, the nice little friendship thing Embracer Group had decided to morph into after earning the ire of lots of folks by going hard on the layoffs, closures and sales is no more. The company's decided to ditch the "and friends" tag it had given to different bits of its business, and form a fellowship, as it does yet more corporate shuffling around. It does also plan to actually release some more games. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. As announced by Embracer, the bit of previously dubbed Middle-Earth and Friends will now be known as Fellowship Entertainment. As you might have guessed, that's the part that looks after The Lord of the Rings, as well as housing the studios behind likes of Kingdom Come Deliverance, Tomb Raider, the Metro series, and Dead Island. With Asmodee, the second of the three bits Embracer divided itself into last year, having spun off from the company as of February this year, it's the turn of the third bit formerly known as Coffee Stain & Friends to do the same. Now named Coffee Stain Group, the subsidiary that includes the dev teams behind the likes of Deep Rock Galactic, Valheim and Goat Simulator is being released into the economic wild as a separately stock market-listed company. "The games industry is more competitive than ever, but also more rewarding if you do things right, and we believe this move gives us the clarity and control to navigate the landscape better on our own terms," Coffee Stain Group CEO Anton Westbergh said, "We can now focus even more on what we do best—supporting our developers, staying close to our communities, and building an even brighter future for Coffee Stain." Right, that's enough on the corporate shuffling of people's livelihoods. In the financial results it's published alongside this spin-off announcement, Embracer says that it's got "76 different games" it plans to release in the coming financial year. There'll be "a mix of new IPs, sequels, and remasters", including Killing Floor 3 and the recently delayed Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, with Embracer expecting the latter to "drive notable revenues but to have lower margins due to shared economics with several other partners". Another as of yet unannounced AAA game that Embracer things will have "financial dynamics more similar to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2" is also in the works, but the company reckons it'll have to be pushed back to the 2026/27 financial year to allow for more "polish" The rest of the lineup for the upcoming is being filled by the likes of Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, Metal Eden, and "the next SpongeBob SquarePants game". Spongebob Squarepants tries to get to the Bikini Bottom of where Embracer's friends have gone, maybe? #embracer #group #says #it039ll #put

I used the Bambu Lab X1C to print this Deadpool helmet – and now it's on sale #brilliant #printer #used #print #this

A Dreamcollection Here's a closer look at this week's Japanese top 10: Position Game Platform Unit SalesTotal Unit Sales 1 Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Switch 7,801 NEW 2 Super Mario Party Jamboree Switch 5,872 1,300,401 3 Minecraft Switch 5,869 3,889,763 4 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch 4,756 8,128,580 5 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Switch 4,275 6,327,905 6 Capcom Fighting Collection 2 PS4 4,184 NEW 7 Tokimeki Memorial: forever with you Emotional PS5 3,170 24,202 8 Nintendo Switch Sports Switch 2,714 1,585,602 9 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 PS5 2,160 15,239 10 Pokémon Scarlet / Pokémon Violet Switch 1,932 5,562,300 Hardware sales continue to fall, but with the Switch 2 now just around the corner, that's certainly to be expected. What's interesting is that PS5 sales seem to be falling in conjuntion with Switch sales. It seems everyone and their Grandmas are waiting for the Switch 2. Here's your look at the latest Japanese hardware sales in full: Position Console Unit SalesLifetime Unit Sales 1 Switch OLED 14,460 9,026,236 2 Switch Lite 7,924 6,562,826 3 PlayStation 5 3,497 5,661,973 4 PlayStation 5 Pro 2,259 208,289 5 Switch 2,094 20,101,983 6 PlayStation 5 Digital Edition 790 969,763 7 Xbox Series X 644 320,456 8 Xbox Series S 376 337,136 9 Xbox Series X Digital Edition 362 20,609 10 PlayStation 4 27 7,929,552 < Previous charts What do you make of this week's sales? Let us know down below.Related Games See Also #japanese #charts #capcom #fighting #collection

Formula E has always felt like a sport from the future, with electric cars zipping through city circuits and drivers navigating attack modes and energy boosts with joystick-like precision. So when Nissan's Formula E team wanted to create a campaign for their home race in Tokyo, leaning into the world of retro gaming didn't just make sense—it felt inevitable. The result is 'NISMO Electric Racer Tokyo', a '90s-style arcade game developed by creative agency Dark Horses in collaboration with Japanese-Australian illustrator Kentaro Yoshida. Free to play on desktop and mobile, the game puts players in the hot seat of a stylised Nissan Formula E car, tearing through an 8-bit Tokyo cityscape at top speeds of 322kph, which is the same velocity as the real Nissan E-4ORCE 04. With nods to pixelated classics like Outrun and Street Fighter, the game channels the energy of a bygone gaming era while cleverly linking back to real motorsport. "We've always talked about how Formula E itself feels like a video game," says Dark Horses creative Hannah Rendell. "With its unpredictability, pit boosts, and attack modes, it felt natural to bring those mechanics into a playable world." It's essentially a nostalgic thrill ride packed with thoughtful details. From cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji in the background to lightning bolt speed boosts symbolising attack mode, everything has been designed to reflect both the culture of Japan and the mechanics of the race. Get too slow, and you'll see a 'Game Over' screen – a cheeky nod to Formula E's emphasis on energy management. For creative duo Hannah and Lara Hallam, Tokyo provided the perfect setting for such a concept. "Nineties gaming is making a huge return to pop culture," explains Lara. "So playing into that nostalgic and retro world for the Tokyo E-Prix, a city so iconic for its gaming culture, felt like a no-brainer." The game is part of a wider campaign activation that includes a special edition race livery, which was recently revealed ahead of the Tokyo E-Prix on 14 May. The livery, also designed by Kentaro, reimagines the team's Sakura theme through the same vibrant, pastel-toned aesthetic seen in the game. His illustrations were then translated into crisp pixel art, creating visual cohesion across both digital and physical formats. "Using Kentaro's illustrations as a base, and then transforming them into 8-bit pixel art, meant we ended up with designs that felt truly unique to our game and Japanese culture as a whole," says Hannah. It marks Kentaro's first foray into the world of gaming and one that's already generating buzz across design and motorsport circles alike. Creative consistency was key across the entire campaign, from the game itself to the accompanying video spot, which riffs on classic 90s toy commercials. Live-action footage is spliced with gameplay and VHS-style overlays, mimicking the look and feel of old-school arcade advertising. It's tongue-in-cheek and era-authentic but with a modern twist, much like the game itself. "This is our strategy of noisy thinking," said Dark Horses creative directors Sean Johnson and Josh Pearce. "Generating creatively distinct and individual social-based ideas that drive constant awareness and engagement, working at its very best." The studio has built a reputation for unconventional sports marketing, and this campaign is no exception. While most motorsport content focuses on realism, tension, and competition, NISMO Electric Racer Tokyo invites a sense of play, not just for superfans but also for casual players and culturally curious audiences. "You don't have to be a Formula E fan to want to battle it out on the track in our game," says Lara. "But you can guarantee that after playing it, you'll see Nissan as an exciting team to watch out for." Nissan's Formula E journey is a story of resilience and ambition. Having entered the championship in 2018, the team started at the back of the pack, but this year, they're leading the standings. That trajectory mirrors the underdog thrill of a good racing game: start slow, learn the mechanics, and eventually take the win. "We're very excited to return to our home E-Prix in Tokyo," said Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal of the Nissan Formula E Team. "This race is not only a major moment for us as a team but also a chance to celebrate our Japanese heritage. With 'NISMO Electric Racer Tokyo', we've created something that captures the energy we bring to the track while celebrating Japan's legendary gaming culture." For Nissan, this campaign is part of a broader push to electrify its brand identity through how it connects with fans and its vehicles. As the first Japanese manufacturer in Formula E and a pioneer in electric powertrains, Nissan has long positioned itself as a future-forward player. But this activation also shows they're equally comfortable mining the past for creative inspiration. It's quite a unique blend of heritage and innovation through a campaign that brings together game design, illustration, advertising, and automotive branding in one cohesive world. Whether you're a gamer, a designer, or a motorsport die-hard, there's something irresistibly satisfying about seeing a 90s-style arcade racer reimagined for the electric age. If you're thinking of trying it out, just be aware that Nissan's own drivers, Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato, have already set the bar high on the leaderboard. #dark #horses #nissan #launch #retroinspired

Breakdown & Showreels 1923 – Season 2: VFX Breakdown by Rodeo FX By Vincent Frei - 22/05/2025 A ruthless winter. A prowling predator. In the second season of 1923, Rodeo FX unleashed a digital wolf so real, you’ll forget it never drew breath. Built with cutting-edge muscle systems and detailed CFX work! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Rodeo FX: Dedicated page about 1923 – Season 2 on Rodeo FX website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025 #season #vfx #breakdown #rodeo

Celebrate a decade on the Path.Add @thewitcher 3 10th Anniversary Special Edition Controllers to your arsenal. Available now: #celebrate #decade #path #add #thewitcher

Game Developer tinybugbot, whose Houdini stuff we frequently feature on 80 Level, shared an example of how to use a mask with an SDF stored in a VDB to deform geometry. While they prefer Wrangle nodes, you can also experiment with OpenCL, which operates at a lower level than VEX and can offer better performance depending on your hardware and use case.tinybugbot has also previously shared tips on creating displacement effects and designing mechanical surface textures:Also, check out procedural cliffs, a fried egg, and more great projects on their X/Twitter:Join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more. #deforming #geometry #with #donutshaped #sdf