How to make animation projects less costly

“Reducing production costs” – these are some of the worst lines that will terrify many people related to animation or video production in general. Maybe you are just a client with a rather small budget or a director who received the news. And you have to decide how to adjust smaller numbers to the goal you have now. But even when budgets change, everyone still expects to get the best results.

No matter if you need an animation project for your business or you have to create one – accepting something less is not an option. However, if you are working with animation, it won’t be that hard to find the gaps that will help to spend less and still achieve the best possible results. You just have to know “the map” – let’s call it this way – that will clearly show where you can change something in order to get better and keep it under the budget.

Different aspects of animation cost differently. So, sometimes you have to choose the right amount of things to get your pocket feeling like it has enough money for a great animation project. Let me tell you what the good news is. Animation production is very flexible when it comes to changing costs.

You can cut something down and the final result still will be great – there are many things that can cover the absence of what first was the cornerstone of the project. So, the most important question we have to answer is how to make animation less costly. But first, we have to know how much animated video costs and what factors that affect it.

 What kind of prices are there?

First of all, it is important to note that there is both cheap and pricey animation. Each of them has a different number of possibilities to cover, and different things to achieve with it. The best choice – always, to say the truth, – is to choose an explainer video. There is hardly any better fit for a project. It is capable of covering the main requirements your business has, and presenting the product with elegance and sophisticati

The country you are hiring a studio from is also important. For example, if you are making a video with a company from the United Kingdom – prepare to pay a lot. That is hardly surprising considering that the UK has always been on top of prices when it comes to video production.

The range of prices: from 750$ to 13 400$. Between these numbers, you can request a video for 2 670, 4500 and 6000 $ – these are the most popular prices.

The studios from the New World are beating up the rest of the world with their prices because no one would charge you 60 000$ for a single short video. That is true! We stumbled upon this studio that wanted for background music at the same price as for the entire video.

The range of prices: 2,800 to 85 000$. Between these numbers, you can request a video for 5 000, 10 000, 15 000 and 33 000$ – these are the most popular prices.

In Europe, you can see quite a handful of companies that provide you with only animation services.

The range of prices: from 1000 to 12 500 $.  Between these numbers, you can request a video for 2 000, 5 500, and 8000 $ – these are the most popular prices. 

Eastern Europe or SIC – here you can find plenty of studios that are concentrated entirely on animation. It is an extremely interesting thing, we will get back to it later.

The range of prices: 390 to 5500 $.  Between these numbers, you can request a video for 2500, 3500 and 4000$ – these are the most popular prices. 

Asia – is the cheapest region where you can request an average quality video. Lately, the studios from India and Malaysia have become better and the level of their services has increased over time.

The range of prices: 200 to 7600$. Between these numbers, you can request a video for 2000, 3200 and 4000$ – these are the most popular prices. 

These are the prices by the country. Now let’s take a look at prices for specific services.

How much does it cost to create an animated video step-by-step?

As you understand there are plenty of factors that will change the final price of the animation project. Since the result depends on many things – we are going to talk about them later – each of these things requires not only a certain amount of money but also a different number of professionals.

Script – the first thing that will start your animated video, almost a blueprint for animators. The script is showing each step of how the story unfolds, including scenes. Getting a script written generally costs between $70 and $300 if you are asking a company. On the other hand, you can ask a freelancer to do this job.

The price will be different under such circumstances – $300 to $1000. The script makes your message specific, creating a framework for a narrative in the particular animation project. Besides, the script must translate your message visually and set a voice-over.

Storyboard – a full animation takes shape when a storyboard artist does some magic and provides transfiguration of the scenes from the script. Storyboards can range anywhere from 6 to 30 ‘frames,’ one for each scene.  Freelancer will charge you for $300 to $900, meanwhile, an animated studio might cost from $900 to $12,000.

IV Studio’s Brand Illustrations Storyboarding by Hanna Rybak

Graphics – motion graphics pricing per minute can vary from $2000 – $3500 for a one-minute video. However, there’s a condition for this price: there must be no characters in the video. In case you add characters or 3D elements then the price can change to $4500.

Another way to use graphics is to limit yourself by it and create just an infographic animation video. Such a video will not require a script or voiceover, so the price will be around $1500-$2000.

Multitasking puzzle by ILLO

Animation – the main magic is here, right? However, to answer the question of money here is not that easy.  Let’s see all the options you have.  You can try to make it on your own. It will cost you from $0 – to $100 Per Minute.  Yes, there are many online tools that allow you to create animated videos yourself and pay nothing.  However, don’t expect to build a Walt Disney movie from scratch.

Without questioning your video production skills,  cheap video maker tools are just the libraries of quite traditional templates. Nothing worthwhile a serious project can come of this. Hiring a freelancer is always an option that will cost around $50 – $3000 Per Minute. The price, as you see, can be very different here. The thing is that freelancers are very different – some of them have rather basic animation skills.

On the other hand, you can find experts capable of delivering a custom, quality video for big money. Professional Animation Company will cost $10000 – $50000 Per Minute, but there are companies that can charge you less, but still deliver great results. These guys will ask you to make some vital decisions – it may include approving the script, choosing the voiceover artist, background for a video and so on.

Girl – 2D Illustration by Outcrowd

Voice over – if you hire a freelancer it will take from $75 to $400, meanwhile professional voice-over artists will get $150 to $1,500. Again, it depends where you are looking for them. For example, we have over a thousand voice-over artists in our base, so choosing the right voice for a certain video isn’t that hard. But when you are looking by yourself, it is another thing. You have to listen closely, ask for demo audios and so on.

Voice Over Logo by Vlado Paunović

Sound design – the simple fact that live-action projects happen in the world as we know it – the real environment –  means that the soundscape is natural.  You don’t need to worry about it. With animation, the story is different. You don’t have a natural soundscape here. So you have to provide it. There are at least five sides of sound design that you have to be aware of:

Ambience: the sounds of the environment;

Foley: giving a voice to the visuals;

Sound Effects: making other sounds more convincing;

Voice Over: the background voice, and narrator;

Music: original or not, the music suggests the atmosphere, even when it is super minimalistic.

Sound Design has a clear goal: to get us into the story. It helps the story to unfold. The price can vary, but average numbers are $500-$1000 per minute of audio.

Music (Player) Portal Concept – UI/UX by IKAKO – UX / UI

Why more features in animation don’t mean better video

It is easy to get into the mindset called “the more, the better”. However, it is a bit of a trap and kind of blind thinking. If you add more features to a video, it might be brighter and look more exotic, but its profoundness might not be deepened.

Probably, the very goal of your marketing video is not about entertainment that provides an abundance of animated features. Some clients come to us with this mindset. And that’s okay – not every client is experienced in animation and knows all the possible nuances and sides. So, we feel obligated to tell you that there is a possibility to make it better for a lesser budget.

Tips on how to optimize animation on budget

There are several key factors that affect the final price of an animation project. Traditionally, the more people you need for the production of your videos, the more money is required. That’s the rule for any video marketing or video production company. But there’s more: the more specialized professionals you need, the more numbers should be reserved for your budget. But this sounds too blurry, doesn’t it? Let’s elaborate.

There are many things that can impact your budget, and some of them might be entirely unnecessary for your goal. To measure the impact of the most expensive features on your final price is quite easy. Let’s take a look at the next list:

• Voice-over;
• Characters;
• Video duration;

Voice-over is almost impossible to omit. However, you can choose a voice-over artist that might ask for less money for his or her services. Of course, there are many specific requirements for voice-overs – a certain accent, a manner of carrying a voice, and many other things. But… you do not always have to find something specific to details – it just has to be “your brand’s” voice. For example, Morgan Freeman for over 10 years has been building our admiration for his Visa commercials that aired until 2018.

Freeman’s voice, of course, carries something that brings a quality of calm – but not the kind of calm that is inherent to Andy Puddicombe, who is a voice-over artist for the Headspace meditation app. The calming manner brought by Freeman is more about the way Visa cares about its customers. And that is something you have to know about your brand before hiring the voice-over artist. So, the point here is to look for your voice, the one that will make your brand sound like itself.

You don’t necessarily need the most expensive guy for that. There are thousands of freelance voice-over artists who may carry the voice your animated project needs. Characters. Here’s a pickle, right? We know too well that character in animation is a winning thing. Characters create what you might want to call emotional attachment with the viewer. But they also have plenty of disadvantages for your budget. To reduce increases in the cost of your animation project, we recommend replacing characters with iconographies.

Think about it: the emotional attachment can be saved, the position of a character will be beared by, let’s call it, avatar, and you will be able to convey a message. The other choice is to cut characters out of your video completely. Yeah, it is not the easiest way, but if the question of budget is serious… it is your best option. Besides, there are many ways to use shapes, geometry, text, and whatever comes to mind of the creators to convey the message without a character. Animation has a lot of metaphors at its disposal and many of them can be very efficient.

Video duration. As simple as that: the longer your video, the more expensive it will be. The saying “time is money” literally finds its meaning here. 🙂 However, do you really need a video longer than traditional? 60 to 90 seconds is the best possible duration – don’t get us into the whole attention span problem topic. We consider reducing the duration of your video one of the fastest ways to reduce animation production costs.

Summary

As you can see the number of ways to make a budget less expensive is quite big. We recommend always checking your goals before you hire a freelancer, studio, or looking for a voice-over artist. This will help to keep a budget under the preferable limit. That’s it!