Markus sighed. “What if we split it? I give you $500. You pay $499.”
“I’m going to simulate a red giant dying,” she told him, “by letting my own career slowly collapse.” The next morning, her phone rang. It was Markus, the synthwave producer. red giant trapcode suite price
“I need a plugin suite that costs $999,” she said. “I can’t afford it on my end. If you can increase the video budget by that amount, I’ll do the whole thing at no extra labor cost.” Markus sighed
She calculated: To recreate a single Trapcode particle system from scratch using native After Effects tools would take her roughly 40 hours per effect. For the red giant video, she needed at least four distinct particle systems. That was 160 hours. At her $500/day rate (8-hour day), that was $10,000 worth of her time. You pay $499