How much does animation cost?

Animation can be a real differentiator when it comes to your video marketing portfolio. But how much do you need to fork out and is it really worth it?

In short, we produce high-quality animation at a competitive rate – typically from around £1.5-4k per minute. The fee really depends on the specifics of your project. Here are some factors to help you shape your brief…

Style

Do you want 2D, 3D, photo-realistic, text-based…? Generally the more photo-realistic you want it to be, the higher the price.

Complexity

How many screen assets are there? If any, how many characters are involved? Is the screen environment plain or detailed?

Assets

Will you supply any images, illustrations or icons used in other marketing assets? No problem if you can’t, as we often create everything from scratch.

Duration

Will the animation be 30 seconds or five minutes long? The longer the video, the greater the cost.

Timescale

Does the project need multiple animators to get the job done quickly or is there time to let a smaller team work steadily?

Script

Will you provide the copy or do you want us to write it? Writing a script will help refine the budget once you think about the cost of particular scenes.

Voiceover

Is the voiceover artist a member of your team, a freelance professional, or a higher-priced celebrity?

Music and Sound FX

You need to consider the cost of sound and how much you are using. Bespoke music can be very expensive but licensed stock music is very reasonable.

Deliverables

Do you need multiple languages, subtitles, and/or different video outputs?

Other considerations

It’s always useful to bring examples of animation styles you like/don’t like when discussing a brief – whether from the same industry sector as your own or otherwise.

A bespoke animation says something unique about your brand and keeps its value over time, whereas a live-action video may need to be reshot if a featured employee leaves the business or fashions and technology becomes outdated.

So can you afford animation? A key consideration is the value – what will it do for you, over what period? What is your average order value? What is the lifetime value of a customer? And, how many sales would you need to make to cover the animation production fee?