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Budgeting for Short Animated Vids?
updated 2 weeks, 4 days ago
3 Members
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6 Posts
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Hi everyone! I’m working on a pitch for a series of 2D animated explainer videos (trt about 1-2 mins) and I’d like to get a clearer sense of what the cost might be if we hire a freelancer vs. a studio. I’ve seen a few quotes from studios in DC where I’m based starting at $1,500 per minute. If anyone has experience working with animators on these kind of short pieces, I’d love to hear some quotes you’ve encountered, particularly if you’ve been able to work with freelancers rather than studios. Thanks!
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I guess it depends what kind of animations you need.
I have seen others just use the online options e.g. PowToons.
How deep is the work?
Is the artwork completed?
Does it require animated characters?
How many clips?
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Yeah, “animated” is too broad a way to describe what you want, even in 2-d. Are we talking stop motion cut-up paper, inked cel type animation, or flash-like vector graphic animation, and at what levels of detail and realism: Hanna Barbera did Flintstones- level detail and realism vs. Jonny Quest level detail and realism. One takes longer to draw than the other. How articulated must the characters be? A static drawing with just an animated head and mouth and eyes? Does it have to move across the screen and do things? Are there moving backdrops, props or effects like laser beams? Is there lipsynch to voices, is there music and sound effects synched to anything? $1500 a minute might be lowball or overcharging, depending on your answers but we have no way to know from what you’ve given us here. The more detailed you define the need, the more accurate the time and cost estimate can be.
(Some Quest trivia for you: the dog, “Bandit” was drawn by a Flintstones artist because the artist that art directed the Jonny Quest show hated the dog, which had been forced onto the show by marketing types, and that’s why it never quite fits the art style of the rest of the show. Both shows were Hanna-Barbera productions, different budgets and timelines.)
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Sorry for the late reply! PowToons would work– not very deep at all, all 2D, looking for a step above whiteboard style. It doesn’t require animated characters, and it could be anywhere from 10-15 scenes with very minor animation within each scene.
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Thanks, Mark. Music: definitely, SFX: possibly some, no v.o. I’m talking about a step above whiteboard animation. Sending out an RFI and will update the thread with what info comes back from studios. Thanks!
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Maybe what you really need is kinetic typography, which adds animation effects to type and mixes it with objects and images. Done well, it’s very effective. There are tons of examples out there, and most of the work can be done with your existing editing and image apps… here’s a random sample https://www.webdew.com/blog/kinetic-typography
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