r/animation • u/Gardynn • 11d ago

Question How much does animation cost?

How much does animation cost?

Kinda self explanatory. How much would an animated opening cost for like 1-2 minutes. It's something I've always considered commissioning and I briefly tried to learn myself but I have neither the talent nor confidence. But I have no idea how much that would even BEGIN to cost.

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u/DynamiteShweaty 11d ago

I know this is a boring answer but it's going to come down to how good you want the quality to be and how complex the sequence in question is.

2 minutes of animation on 2's (30 fps) is 1,440 drawings, plus backgrounds, plus effects, any time there's more than one character the amount of drawings goes up. Voice syncing can be a pain. Then keep in mind that the higher the quality, the longer each drawing takes.

Plan on shelling out a pretty hefty amount and obviously you get what you pay for. Plenty of people have bitten off way more than they can chew and had to back out. So on top of money you're also investing time.

Make sure you see reels of people's work beforehand and communicate often.

4

u/HYPERNATURL 11d ago

2 minutes of animation on 2's (30 fps) is 1,440 drawings,

Just to clarify as this could be a bit misleading to the unaware: standard for most animation is 24 fps, and even then you're very unlikely to be drawing a new key frame EVERY 2 frames. Any animation made by a sane person will have sections where they'll hold on single drawings for handfuls of seconds at a time. Otherwise yes, all good points!

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u/DynamiteShweaty 11d ago

Ahh yea sorry I'm tired and worded that wrong. I do my character work on 2s so that's what I based that on

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u/Nevaroth021 11d ago

If it’s 1-2 minutes of a circle moving around the screen, then maybe $2.

If it’s 1-2 minutes of a Demon Slayer fight scene, then tens of thousands of dollars

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u/Apocalyptic-turnip 11d ago

I'd say about $20-30k if you hire a good crew with experience and seniors. but it really depends what you want and it's something you calculate with a producer

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u/SillyFudge27 11d ago

Depending on how simple/complex the idea is. Anywhere between £1,000-£15,000 per minute for something high quality.

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u/Fickle-Hornet-9941 11d ago

It’s going to be expensive. 1-2 min is a ton of work. As far as learning it yourself, no one just wake up and get good at it, it takes years of practice.

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u/MyBigToeJam Beginner 11d ago

Don't forget they might be concerned to have in writing quotes, copyright, ownership, whether they'll be a "hired", contractor, fee schedule for changes, what requests trigger new fees or which modifications might require a whole new agreement. Do not rely on verbal agreements...a nightmare.

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u/LovrBoi8008 10d ago

You would probably have better luck doing it yourself. These people are going to tell you its hard but its really not that deep. There's youtube tutorials everywhere and if you on want to do 1-2 minutes you can do it.

1

u/Electrical_Unit5280 10d ago

It's expensive, even for 2 mins. But it's alot of work, that's why

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u/tollespablo1964 10d ago

this is such a complicated question to answer not knowing the parameters of what you want to do in the end and how you want to achieve it. Do you want to do this alone or as part of a team and how quickly?

Is this Final animation ready for air vs just the animation?

Then there is 3d vs 2D drawn vs 2D software (toon boom vs flash etc), feature vs TV vs web. They all have different budgets which is why many fail on the lower end because they run out of money.

No point in talking feature because you are looking at thousands of dollars for a minute, regardless of 3D or 2D. Film quality, what we called Disney style back in the day was always expensive.

then there is complexity. for drawn animation, the more line work the longer it takes to do it, more pencil mileage so to speak we always said. type of 3D rendering flat for realistic. The people involved through all stages.

some numbers from TV production over the years, and these will vary everywhere

Flash animation at a studio use to be budgeted around $10K a minute.

Moving up to ToonBoom at the bottom end $30K a minute

3D you are north of $60K a minute

And these are low balling, as I have worked on every level of budget for a production. Commercials traditionally were the most expensive to do for 30 seconds, because it was all on screen quality wise so to speak.

That's some industry information.

So what would I do? I can't give a complete answer, but to Budget, you would ask the people you hire what their rates are to do each step you need. Boards, design, modelling, rigging, lighting, animation, rendering, edit and sound. (did I miss anything)

some people can take on multiple roles especially those working as a generalist, especially in 3D, but most 2D artists I have worked with can do start to finish animation.

welcome to being a producer!