Is there a middle option?

Yes. A dedicated rendering artist works for you on a monthly basis without payroll. See dedicated artist.

How do I brief an outside studio?

See outsourcing architectural rendering.

In-House vs Outsourced Rendering: A Cost Model

It is cheaper only when your monthly view count stays above a break-even line: your total monthly cost of the in-house seat divided by the per-image price of an outside studio. At Praxis Studio’s $199 starting price per image, that line is your monthly in-house cost divided by 199. Below it, paying per image costs less. Above it, an artist on payroll does.

Dated 27 October 2026. By Dhaval Parikh, Praxis Studio. This is a method, not a quote: the inputs are yours.

The formula

Break-even views per month = monthly in-house cost ÷ outsourced price per image.

Monthly in-house cost is the sum of five things:

Salary and employer costs. Use your own payroll figure. For a public reference on how pay for computer-graphics roles is reported, see the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for special effects artists and animators, and check the current wage figure there; we do not restate it.
Software licences. Modelling, rendering and plugin subscriptions.
Hardware. A workstation and render capacity, spread over its working life.
Management time. Briefing, reviewing and correcting the work.
Idle time. The months the artist has no project but still draws a salary.

Outsourced cost per month is the number of views you commission times the price per image, plus extra revision rounds or complex scenes, which are quoted separately.

Why the idle months decide it

The in-house cost is fixed; demand is not. A practice with a steady 10 views every month can fill a seat. A practice with 30 views in one quarter and none in the next pays for the quiet months out of the busy ones. Check your own project history for the last four quarters before trusting an average.

What the formula leaves out

Quality and range. One artist has one style and one speed. A studio draws on several people for a deadline week.
Handover risk. If the artist leaves, the project files and know-how go too.
Control. In-house gives faster informal feedback. A good brief and two revision rounds narrow that gap.
Complex scenes. Aerials, masterplans and animation sit above the starting price; add the real quote to your outsourced figure.

Worked example, with your numbers

Say your in-house cost comes to C dollars a month. Divide C by 199. If you commission more views than that every month, hire. If you commission fewer, or the count swings, outsource. We deliberately do not put a figure in for C: it depends on your location, seniority and software, and a made-up number would be worse than none.

Is there a middle option? Yes. A dedicated rendering artist works for you on a monthly basis without payroll. See dedicated artist.
What does one image cost? See pricing.
How do I brief an outside studio? See outsourcing architectural rendering.

Next step: send last quarter’s list of views and we will quote them as a set so you can compare against your own cost.