You Want How Much!? Comparing the Cost of Business Animation

In my business of creating GoAnimate cartoons for commercial clients I get many inquiries about pricing. I'm pretty up front about my fees which, at the time of writing this, are as follows:

Any GoAnimate animation up to 2 minutes in length will cost US$297.00. Additional minutes will be charged at $99.00 per minute.
The final HD quality video will include a commercial license fee of $79.00.

This is the bare minimum cost of creating an animation with GoAnimate. I also include a list of extras that may add to the cost:

Script development - if not providing a completed script.
Voices - if not using GoAnimate Text To Speech Voices or providing your own voices as MP3 files.
Custom image work including custom flash props, backgrounds and animation.

Where possible I try to do as much as I can with GoAnimate's existing content so as to avoid the need to create any custom props or animation.

So your minimum spend with my service is $376.00 for which you can get up to 2 minutes of animation.

Despite my prices I still get people reminding me they are on a very tight budget or asking for further discounts. Which I understand but I'm already undercharging for my service because of the perception that anyone could make quality animations with GoAnimate.

Which is true. If you have the time to learn the GoAnimate studio and some basic film making techniques, then you could make an animation of good quality... eventually. But why bother if you can pay someone like me, who's done all that learning for you and can make your animation right now?

What is my expertise with GoAnimate and knowledge of film making (which I've done courses in along with a lot of book reading on the subject) worth to you?

Time for a reality check.

GoAnimate animations may come with a lot of compromise when it comes to adapting it's pre animated characters to your project but I've seen a lot of fully customized animations (created in software such as Adobe CS5 and Toon Boom) that could have been done in GoAnimate just as effectively.

Hunting around the internet I've found some prices, for fully custom animations, from various studios which I've listed below.

Keep in mind I'm not saying these studios are over charging or not creating quality work (by all means check out their show reels and compare them to what GoAnimate can do). I'm just providing information for you to consider. Kudos to these studios for putting their prices online as most want you to ask for a quote.

One Whale - Cost on average $100 per second. ($12,000.00 for 2 minutes of animation).
Australian based Business Animation Studio working with some high profile voice actors and former Disney Animators.
Mair Perkins Animation and Illustrations Ltd. - Cost up to 90 seconds of animation £650.00 ($1038.00).
U.K. based Animation and Illustration studio creating animations for commercial clients. Founded by Animator and Illustrator Mair Perkins.
Rossiter and Co - Cost of 90 second animation £1899.00 ($3032.00)
U.K. based company specializing in video multi-media for business including animation.
Epipheo Studios - Cost of 90 second animation up to $15,000.00
Based in the USA, Epipheo has become one of 'the' companies to have your business animation created by. Known for their simplistic animation style teamed with a quirky sense of humor.

When you look at those kinds of prices, $376.00 for up to 2 minutes (that's 120 seconds) of animation, you begin to realize just what a great price you're getting and just how much I'm already saving you by choosing to use my service.

Think of how many animations I could make for you for $15,000.00 with GoAnimate.

Eight 2D Animation Apps For Your Phone or Tablet Mobile Device

M obile productivity apps have become so capable that they can be great alternatives to their PC/MAC equivalents or serve as great tools in their own right when you're away from your desk. While some apps simply mimic their desktop counterparts, others offer well thought out, touch-friendly interfaces that are easier and more fun to use. Every so often I check out what's available for 2D animation for Android devices, since that's what I use, that can complement my workflow with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5. Some may be available for Apple devices as well. Below I've listed six free (F) apps (with optional paid (P) upgrades) on the Google Play Store that you might want to explore. Some are just fun apps on their own while others may be useful as part of your workflow on bigger animation projects. Not all are exclusively animation apps and could be used on any production. JotterPad (F/P) The name JotterPad makes this sound like a notepad application but it's ...

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 1)

Inochi2D Creator - Free Open Source VTuber Software. If you've been looking for a way to live perform as a 2D cartoon avatar on camera, whether it be for a live stream or for pre-recorded content like educational videos, then VTuber software is a low cost (or even no cost) option worth looking into. In my previous post, How to Become a VTuber - 2D and 3D Software for Creating and Controlling Your Avatar , I took a brief look at the relatively new but completely free and open source Inochi2D which I thought showed great potential for my own needs of creating a live performance character rig for my own TET Avatar that I use for all my promotional materials. While it is possible to live perform my character using Cartoon Animator itself, Reallusion's MotionLive2D capture system isn't great - with lip sync in particular. More importantly though, I can't exactly teach people how to use Cartoon Animator if I'm using Cartoon Animator to control my Avatar. What is Inochi2D...

OpenArt Versus Dzine: AI Consistent Character Training Compared

TET2d Avatar Image created with Dzine . R egular readers of Animation and Video Life will be familiar with my alter ego, 2D avatar character, TET, who is both the face of The Lazy Animator Cartoon Animator Tutorials, and is currently part of my Resident Dragon joke cartoon series. It is my goal to use him as an animated avatar for both my Lazy Animator video courses and my Cartoon Animator tutorials that you'll find on my @AnimLife YouTube channel . Unfortunately I don't have the time to animate him for every single project. Even with Cartoon Animator's time-saving workflow I wouldn't be able to produce animated content quick enough. Which is why advances in AI animation is something that is increasingly more interesting to me each day. Consistent Characters Before we get there I have to overcome one of the biggest hurdles in AI I've come across... reproducing my art style consistently. I don't want an approximation of my characters, I want my characters looki...

Creating an AI Digital Avatar and Voice Clone of Myself with Free and Low Cost AI Tools

O ver the years I've looked at various ways of creating and animating a digital avatar, from simply creating a character for Cartoon Animator and voicing and animating it myself, to creating a live motion capture ready Vtuber avatar puppeted and voiced by me in real-time. In the last year or so, making photographic images talk, using AI and AI voice cloning has really progressed. To the point where I wondered if I could create a photographic AI avatar of myself, complete with my cloned voice, that I might use on some of my videos? Creating My Avatar: Artflow To create my avatar image, as far as I'm concerned, Artflow.ai is the best value AI site for creating consistent digital characters (or 'actors' as Artflow calls them). That's pretty much their entire focus. Artflow's actor model training user interface. You get your first actor for free, 100 free credits per month (which equates to 100 still images per month - get an additional 50 credits if you sign...

Moho 14 Released - Still the Best 2D Animation Software for Indy Animators on a Budget

Moho 14 Released. Regular readers know I am a Reallusion, Cartoon Animator advocate through and through. Hands down I would recommend Cartoon Animator 5 first over Lost Marble's Moho 14 to anyone who is just starting in 2D animation, is a team of one, or just needs to animate as quickly as possible. However, feature for feature, Moho is, arguably, the best 2D animation software for the rest of us who can't justify a Toon Boom Harmony , or Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (and even with their applications Moho is very competitive on features). You can get started with Moho Debut for just USD$59.99 which is a cut down version of Moho Pro but it still has the most essential features needed for 2D animation. While Moho Pro is a whopping USD$399.99 (Cartoon Animator, which only has one version, is just USD$149.00) upgrades to new version numbers come down to a quarter of the price at USD$99.00. Even though Reallusion just released features like Motion Pilot Puppet Animation and...

Artbreeder - Using AI created Character and Background Content in your Animations

A selection of User/AI generated images from Artbreeder. If you're looking for an endless supply of 2D character and background images for your animations then Artbreeder , an online Artificial Intelligence (AI) that generates image mash-ups you can tweak as much as you like, could be the ultimate content library. What is Artbreeder? Artbreeder is free to use though there are various paid plans, that give you additional features, such as higher resolution download images or more settings to play with. All images created on the site are Public Domain (CC0 License) and can be used in commercial projects. Using Artbreeder's online app you can generate head shot portraits, full body characters, landscapes, and other scenes simply by choosing two or more existing images to mash together then, using a series of sliders, to select which traits from each image you wish to lean toward in the final image. Photo Comparison - Top is my original uploaded photo. Bottom is Artbreeder's ap...

Wonder Unit Storyboarder - Free Storyboarding Software for People Who Can (or Can't) Draw

Wonder Unit Storyboarder. As an independent and solo animator I'm always tempted to try and skip storyboarding my animated shorts because they're usually only single scene sketch comedy type jokes. As a result I have many unfinished projects that kind of petered out due to having no clear finishing line. Storyboarding your productions, no matter how small, gives you a step by step guide of every shot that needs to be completed (no planning shots as you animate). It also allows you to create an animatic that gives you a rough preview of the finished production. In short, you shouldn't skip storyboards as they, generally, increase the chance of the project being completed. Disclaimer - I'm Not a Fan of Storyboarder Upfront, Wonder Unit's Storyboarder is not my preferred storyboarding software. However it's completely free, has a number of very compelling featu...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog