I'm new to this forum, I've know about it for a while but finally had the urge to join. I'm not an animator but i do draw pretty good. I have some characters I designed and was wondering: how much it would cost to get them animated into a one or two minute clip/trailer? (is discussing price taboo?).
I was thinking it would be done in almost the same style as Genndy Tarkovski's Clone Wars cartoons or the characters in the Gorillaz music videos.
Just looking for a range, because i'm probably being very vague.
Any help would be much appreciated. PM me if your not allowed to discuss it in the thread.
Thanks,
O
Depends on the kinds of animation you want--how involved--but it can START at around $1000 a minute and climb to $10,000 or more.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Thanks alot for responding. I was waiting anxiously for an answer lol. Are you talking about a flash animation or tv/film animation though?
Welcome to the AWN Forums o_mega.
$1000 to $10,000 pretty much covers all types of animation. Prices are always negotiable, but remember you get what you pay for.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Hi Ape,
I'm wondering if that really covers all types of animation? I am no expert on this now since my last freelance job was done 7 years ago in London. But even then the going rate for full animation was a lot more than $10,000 a minute. Maybe someone who is currently in the freelance market in the US can give us some more up to date info?
$10,000 a minute would work out to be about $111.00/foot (16frs). Let's say an animator does 7 feet a week (which is a decent amount of work) and manages to have work for the entire year minus two week's break, he would end up making around $39,000.00 a year. It's not a lot if you have to live in a big city like LA or London to get the work in the first place. Don't forget also a freelance animator always has gaps between jobs and that will bring down the annual income too. I have a feeling that it can go a lot higher than $10,000 a minute. (Like what Ken already said in his post - up to $10,000 or more.)
Actually I sent a mail to Hugo from Passion Pictures (since O Mega mentioned Gorillaz and Hugo is the producer of the Gorillaz videos) to ask him about this. He thought $10,000 was low too. In fact, they pay animator weekly rather than the footage they produce. We are talking about $1600 to $3000 per week for animators and directing animator would get more. So to do Gorillaz style animation can be expensive. Also this is the animation budget which is only part of the whole production cost anyway.
There are cheaper ways to get thing done but you said it well Ape- you get what you pay for.
-Paul
http://cargocollective.com/paulchunganimation
allow me to jump in a little late here. freelance rates are always pretty high. but it also depends on what kind of work it is and how long it takes and for whom it is being created.
if you were doing high end Flash animation i dont see you getting away with mor than 1200$ a min (just pure animation no creative input) if you were doing traditional then it would go up. id say a lot more than that.
The Gorillaz animation is well done but its part of a well produced package. the animation itself per se isnt expensive to produce and can be created for less than whats being quoted.
I back Paul CF here and am reminded of when we were doing some pieces for CTW several years ago.
They come to the owner of the studio I worked for and said, "Bob, you should know that we don't have a lot of money. It's probably not much more than you got twenty years ago."
He replied, "Actually, you're wrong. It's less than what you were paying twenty years ago".
$10k/US per minute for a professional quality piece is incredibly low. Do we do work for that much? Yes. Do we make money off of it? Not really. So the project should be worthwhile in other regards if costs are barely being met.
Hi Richard,
I know what you mean! My calculation above didn't even include assistant work(if it's 2d). If that comes out from the animator/director's pocket, you have to take at least another 30% off your budget. I am sure we all done low budget jobs before. At least I did. Sometime the money is so bad that the job had to be farmed out or you might as well not take it on. I still remember the days when I had to fly to Taiwan with boxes of xsheets and storyboards!
I know we love what we do and are not in animation for the money, but it would be nice if we can pay the rent at the same time!
-Paul
http://cargocollective.com/paulchunganimation