How much does an Animation cost?
Without a doubt, this is the most common question animation producers get. It's like asking the question, "How much does a car cost?"
Imagine going to a car dealer and saying, "How much for a car?" Or if you’re feeling savvy, you might add, “That is, a gray car with air conditioning, power windows and a way to connect my phone wirelessly.” Many cars come with those features standard now and the price range for a car with those specs is still $100,000 wide. Shopping for animation is similar to buying a car.
If we’re wise, before we go to the car dealer, we will sit down with a calculator and figure out how much we want to spend: our budget. If we find we have $35k to spend on a car, we can then go to the dealer and say, “I want a car that costs around $30k, no more than $35k out the door, is gray and it MUST have air conditioning, power windows and a way to connect my phone wirelessly.” The dealer will know exactly which cars to show you.
But when it comes to animation, people tend to say, “I don’t know anything about animation so I don’t know where to begin in terms of making a budget for one.” This is not true. Before you start any type of project you know how much money you have to work with and have a general idea of what you hope the results will be. That is all you need to start an animation project. You don't need to know anything technical, like how many frames per second or what bitrate it will be, you need only to express what your project goals are and how much you are able to spend on it.
Animation can be done on ANY budget.
I know a few people who may disagree, but an animated video can be made with any budget, even no budget. Let's say you have a camera on your phone, a Popsicle stick, and a pen, you could draw a happy face on one side of the stick and on the other side have him sad. Record a video on your phone with the stick-man talking about how happy he is with your product or service, and how sad it is to think about people not using it, flipping him back and forth to change expressions. Yes, this is animation, yes, it can be very effective with good writing and yes… you don’t need to hire us to make it for you.
Recently I had a potential client asking for a “quote” on 70 seconds of what I call “Hollywood style” animation with 5 characters and a three week turnaround. Such animation would typically require months for planning, character design, layout, and production. Even though they had the script written and recorded, the visual quality they said they wanted would have required $30k especially for such a rapid turnaround.
Instead of simply giving them a quote for $30k and never hearing from them again, I asked for a phone call. I told him plainly, “What you described would cost at least $30k, but I’m going to assume that isn’t what your budget is.” “It’s not,” he said. So I asked, “What is your budget?” Now that I knew it was just under $5,000 I was able to send him videos we had done that were of the production quality he could expect for that budget and he was happy with them. In car terms, he thought he needed to buy a Tesla Model S, but ended up with a reliable Corolla. In the end he was extremely pleased with the results.
Best "quote" does not equal best results.
Some people think that if they reveal their budget they are “showing their hand” and won't get the best bang for their buck. They think they can get better quality for lower cost simply by asking for “bids” or “quotes” and going with the “best” quote (which is another way of saying "cheapest"). This is how many of my DC based clients have been trained to shop. The federal government has to put out RFQs and go with the lowest price. In the end we have Federal buildings that are constantly in need of repair and $100M websites that need to be rebuilt for $2B!
So on your next animation project, don't start with the question "How much will it cost?" Instead, start with your goals and a budget for the project, and never let a company convince you to up that budget. Instead, ask them to work within your budget to reach your goals. You and the production company will both get the most value this way.
Intellectric practices Same Side Selling, and we are a Smart Company when it comes to saving money!
Contact us today, not for a free estimate, but for help in reaching your animation marketing and budget goals.