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Producing an animated film: a few questions

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Producing an animated film: a few questions

Hey guys, I'm a big animation guy and for awhile I did some flash animations but now I am more into writing scripts intended for animation films. I've been researching outsourcing and other animation aspects but there is something that seems to elude me. At some point I would like to open up a small independent animation production company so I and others who would like to help me on my projects could have the most freedom, but most of the movies I like to write(Christian-based) don't seem to have a lot of funding, the numbers I've heard for live-action Christian films are inbetween 10,000-30,000 USD, and most of those films have low-budget cameras and the like.

So I was wondering if I ever was to make an independent christian-based animated movie, how much would that cost animation-wise depending on the usual need to outsource 2D-style animation nowadays, and that my films will mostly be in japanese anime-style. I'm pretty sure 10,000-30,000 USD only scratches the surface of japanese-style 2D animated movies recently.

Also is there ways to get funding for indie animated movies through some governmental or private groups?

BrioCyrain's picture
Animation writer who loves...Animation!

Animation writer who loves...Animation!

There's a couple of reasonably well-known Christian animated series that have been around for a while: Veggie Tales is one, Small Dogs on the Prairie is another. I think its safe to say that neither are done for $30K USD an episode.
I know this on the latter because I was hired to do storyboards on some Small Dogs stuff, and the rate was about the standard $9K per half hour like any other cartoon series.
Trust me when I say that storyboards do NOT take up a full 1/3rd of an animation production budget.....

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

Hey guys, I'm a big animation guy and for awhile I did some flash animations but now I am more into writing scripts intended for animation films. I've been researching outsourcing and other animation aspects but there is something that seems to elude me. At some point I would like to open up a small independent animation production company so I and others who would like to help me on my projects could have the most freedom, but most of the movies I like to write(Christian-based) don't seem to have a lot of funding, the numbers I've heard for live-action Christian films are inbetween 10,000-30,000 USD, and most of those films have low-budget cameras and the like.

So I was wondering if I ever was to make an independent christian-based animated movie, how much would that cost animation-wise depending on the usual need to outsource 2D-style animation nowadays, and that my films will mostly be in japanese anime-style. I'm pretty sure 10,000-30,000 USD only scratches the surface of japanese-style 2D animated movies recently.

Also is there ways to get funding for indie animated movies through some governmental or private groups?

hi brio! if you are to produce an independent christian-based animated movie, it would all depend on the lenght of the film, say you want to produce it for a tv series which is basically 22 minutes per episode, which was the usual but nowadays, its 11 minute per episode whether flash animated or 2d animation or 3d. if i may suggest, start off with a promo video, lets say 2-3 minutes of your series you want to promote. start from small then go on from there. i've been in the industry of animation since 1988 working for walt disney manila studios and other well known studios. if you are really that serious into producing and writing your animated movie or series, i would love to share with you my ideas on that area, and since this is christian-based, i would definitely support concepts like this. i presently am volunteering as a multimedia artist for our church and that is one of the things i want to develop in our church, producing animated videos that will be used for our sunday school library.
contact me at my email:cowlickanimationstudios@gmail.com

hope this helps

Brio,

i think the smartest way to do this is to do as much of the pre-production you can by yourself if you have the skills.

then you can farm the work out to studios (preferably) or individual artists. this allows you to direct a great deal of work. try doing it in Toon Boom or Flash and you further cut costs !

i have a friend from LA who did a pilot, he did the storyboards and characters and then gave the work to a studio in Bombay. He was then at the studio for about 40 odd days working with them. The video looks fantastic and he said he couldnt have gotten an episode done anywhere else.

however it took a LOT of work...

Brio,

i think the smartest way to do this is to do as much of the pre-production you can by yourself if you have the skills.

then you can farm the work out to studios (preferably) or individual artists. this allows you to direct a great deal of work. try doing it in Toon Boom or Flash and you further cut costs !

i have a friend from LA who did a pilot, he did the storyboards and characters and then gave the work to a studio in Bombay. He was then at the studio for about 40 odd days working with them. The video looks fantastic and he said he couldnt have gotten an episode done anywhere else.

however it took a LOT of work...

True, it is best to do the characters, other designs, and storyboard in-house nowadays since some studios want a decent payment on the storyboards, but the actual animation job is what seems to be the most needed job to be outsourced, and like you said though the people who outsource want to pay (very) close attention to make sure they are doing the job they way THEY want.

Did your friend interview the people at the studio before he handed them the animation work?

Animation writer who loves...Animation!

True, it is best to do the characters, other designs, and storyboard in-house nowadays since some studios want a decent payment on the storyboards, but the actual animation job is what seems to be the most needed job to be outsourced, and like you said though the people who outsource want to pay (very) close attention to make sure they are doing the job they way THEY want.

Did your friend interview the people at the studio before he handed them the animation work?

hi,

yes, my friend went to quite a few studios and had long discussions with a lot of them, he checked out the facilities and in one or two cases i went in myself to have a look on his behalf.

i think things work a lot better when you are on the ground and directing 'your storyboards' that way things can be amended or changed at a moments notice.

he spoke to freelancers as well but in the end decided it was better to have a captive studio for 45 days then work with 20 freelancers.

it worked quite well but he was very very well organized with everything, he spent nearly 6 months putting the episode together, which allowed him to do a phenomenal quality of work for a relatively smaller amount.

hi,

yes, my friend went to quite a few studios and had long discussions with a lot of them, he checked out the facilities and in one or two cases i went in myself to have a look on his behalf.

i think things work a lot better when you are on the ground and directing 'your storyboards' that way things can be amended or changed at a moments notice.

he spoke to freelancers as well but in the end decided it was better to have a captive studio for 45 days then work with 20 freelancers.

it worked quite well but he was very very well organized with everything, he spent nearly 6 months putting the episode together, which allowed him to do a phenomenal quality of work for a relatively smaller amount.

Wow, that sounds great! It seems him and the studio worked quite well together.

Animation writer who loves...Animation!

Wow, that sounds great! It seems him and the studio worked quite well together.

well, it wasn't easy. i spent some time with them and it was a very intense process, lot of corrections, explanations, cultural issues but i guess nothing comes easy when you are trying to create something. overall, it was good but hard work.

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Sir, We would like to introduce ourselves as one of the leading Animation Production House, we will do all division of animation work. plz .concat for details.

You'd think they'd fix the "contact" typo in their impersonal reply to people hiring animators...
:D

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