How Long Does Corporate Animation Take?
“Painting and animation can be kind of long work”
Babatunde Adebimpe
Yes, animation can be kind of long work. Depending on the brief, it can take a day, or it can take years. Usually, though, it can take 8 to 12 weeks to produce an animation.
Why does animation take so long? Well, coming up with a script and developing a storyboard takes time, then there is the production phase, which could mean hundreds of thousands of clicks in a program, and then you have to factor in feedback and revisions.
So, then, how can some animations be done in less than a day?
- A simple, but clear brief
- The use of templates
- Building a library of visual assets to use and reuse later in the project
- Animation wizardry by top specialists who are few and far in between
A brief is the concept, the style, and the level of complexity of the project. When a brief asks for a customized animation, whether 2D or 3D, for a longer video, it will take more time.
Consider the Golden Triangle: Good, Fast, Cheap. If you want something cheap, it won’t be fast, nor get the best of resources. If you want something fast, are you willing to pay for that speed and those resources? If the best quality is your aim, then you’ll pay in both time and money. If you expect something that is good, fast and cheap, then the subject changes to exploitation.
For an animation to be excellent, the resources are costly (think powerful computers and particular software), and the specialists are limited. It will be an investment, but when done well, it will pay off in the long run.
How Fast Can Animation Be Made?
To gauge how fast it can be made, you need to consider a few factors, like:
- How ‘finalized’ the script/storyboard is
- Whether to use a Cookie-Cutter approach, Prezi and Powerpoint, which is faster
- How customized the client wants it. I.e. how complex it is to produce, which is slower
- The length of the video itself. More minutes of animation need more time to produce
Put the most experienced animators on a complex project, an animated movie for example, and it could take years. The detail required, the time needed to get something just right, and the need for absolute accuracy is what can take time. Lots of it. If you want something basic and short, you might only need a day or two.
Imagine building a house. You need blueprints, which tell you exactly what to build. Without those, there will be chaos on a building site. After the blueprints, the real work kicks in - the building of the house. You know what materials to use and where to start, but there may be setbacks along the way, or some parts may take longer than others.
In an animation, the blueprint is the brief, and the nails and hammers are the clicks of the program. Hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of clicks go into it. The more complex the project, the more you need a top builder whose experience can help to avoid mistakes and mishaps. The same applies to animated projects.
Unlike in building, getting hundreds of computers and a hundred workers will not hasten the project, if anything, it could delay it. If it doesn’t meet the criteria, it gets rebuilt from scratch, with both resources and time wasted.
Difference in quality between creatives
One of the hardest factors in creative work is how big the variance is between different people. Not all creatives are made the same.
In fact, it can be quite shocking the difference in quality and speed between creatives. On our team we know for a fact there’s people who work 2-3x faster than others.
Then there’s others who can create a quality which nobody else can match. Which is a funny situation if you think about it. Does it matter how “slow” you work if your quality is better than someone elses?
There’s no right answer - there’s only the right person for the job. So how does this affect animation speed? Well a lot.
As you can imagine, someone with years of experience who knows the ins and outs of a program can animate much quicker than a newbie. Even to a level which is unattainable by one artist. Usually though with such skills comes a price.
Animation Industry Pricing: Insider Look
In corporate animation, you get what you pay for, and it depends on the style you choose.
Prices range from $1000 to $50 000 plus per minute. It varies enormously due to the style you choose.
Motion graphics, for example, hit the golden triangle in fast and cheap, and are made to be fast. A frame by frame animation, on the other hand, is much more expensive, due to the amount of labor that goes into it.
What Do You Get for $1000/minute Animation?
For $1000 to $2000, you can get basic bulk projects done. These are usually templatized, making it easier and quicker.
Templates didn’t use to have the quality they do now, and with a bit of customization, using them can cut time. Having a library of visual assets helps to save time too, though not at the beginning when you put it together.
The issue with templates is often clients want more expression than is possible. And it can quickly become a more complex job of customizing the template than actually using it.
Depending on the level of customization required, this can further increase costs.
How Does $50,000 a Minute Animation Compare?
For $50 000, it’s frame by frame animation, which very few artists can even do and that creates a restriction on resources and time.
Talented and highly skilled animators are rare, so you can’t just hire more people to get it done faster. Not only that, but the perfection of the process is a must to produce the end result.
What Takes The Most Time in Animation?
From a purely time intensive perspective it’s the actual animating. However a close second would be the creative concept and direction.
This requires a really high level understanding not only of the clients product and service but what animation can do. Because you’re creating the future of the project with your storyboard.
Depending on how clear the client's messaging and brief is, this can eat up a fair bit of time. Anywhere from a few days to weeks depending on the back and forth. It also depends on what level of customization the client is looking for.
Obviously budget is a major constraint for most animation projects. So the lower the budget the less time spent on concepting since the choices will be more obvious.
What about the actual speed of animation?
Even with programs to help, animating is a time-consuming process. It’s not a matter of pressing play and watching it happen by itself. Animators do lots of clicking and rigging to get the program to do what it needs to do.
The most skilful animators still do hundreds of thousands of clicks to get the motion right, and knowing what is ‘right’ is what sets a rare experienced animator apart from the rest.
And as Oscar Wilde says:
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”.
And nobody can learn without making a bunch of them. Which puts creative work into a precarious position of chicken or egg, how much can you understand without having experienced or experimented with it?
So what do animators spend their time doing?
Take this scenario to illustrate what’s happening behind the scenes of animation.
A client pays $6000 - $9000 for a basic animation that takes 3 weeks to produce. It has three animators working 8 hours a day, doing around 180 clicks a minute. That is 1440 clicks per day! If it were a more complex animation, the weeks can turn into months, and $6000 can become $60 000.
Added length and more complexity would require more animators - if there are those skilled animators available. Which often they simply are not. It’s not as simple as throwing more people on it.
Because part of the experience in any field of visual arts is your specialization. Different people are naturally inclined towards certain styles either through natural interest or exposure.
Combine this with the fact that some styles are simpler than others, and you start to see the importance of having an art director. Who is often the person on the team who picks the necessary skills to get the job done.
Being able to analyze someone's artistic potential in this way is essential to not putting the wrong people on the job.
Nothing like a great brief to speed up your animation
Animation, like painting, can kind of take a long time, but corporate animation can rely on templates, libraries of visual assets, and crystal clear briefs for that point in the golden triangle where quality, cost and speed meet.
So what is a clear brief? Well here’s a bit of what we outline
- The desired outcome: with links, references and animations we like which are in line with what we’d like to make
- Storytelling breakdown: what is the structure? Plot? Type of words used? This helps us align the vocal/spoken meaning of the project.
- Illustration breakdown: looking at the lines (curved or straight), colours, moods, and everything visual but not in movement
- Animation breakdown: what kind of movement? Fluidity? Effects? Everything which will affect the final projects perception
- Sound effects and music: this is also best decided in the beginning, so knowing what tone of voice and sound design you’d like for finish is discussed
The clearer you are on these areas of your animation the “clearer” your brief will be. And the net effect can be time saved on figuring this out.
That’s the advantage that precision gains you.
A clear brief is a clearer attempt at successful finish.
