The cost of producing animation

Time.

The faster you need the project completed, the more it’s going to cost. This is primarily because a studio will need to hire more artists and overtime dues will need to be payed to these artists.

Duration.

Probably the most obvious factor, a 1 minute animated video will cost significantly less than a 1 hour long video. This will almost always be true when comparing the costs of two videos with the same style of animation and the same storyline..

Quality.

I will be quick to point out that what we sometimes refer to as bad quality is simply a different style of animation. Quality here is more than just the visual fidelity but also the execution, pace, timing, and sound design.

The saying ‘soup wey sweet, na money kill am‘ is especially true in this case. Making something taste good (or look good, in this case) requires some processes that just take more time, talent and money.

Style.

There are different styles of animation and each of them come with different production processes and hence price tags. For a given duration, the animation on the left will be cheaper to produce than the one on the right. You can read more about types of animation here

Location.

The cost of animation is also influenced by the cost/standard of living in any location, government influence (taxes and industry support), value/demand and industry maturity.

All these factors contribute to why it’s cheaper to produce animation in Ibadan than it is in Abuja.

Story.

In the end, animation in itself it simply a means to convey an idea, share a story or message. The most important thing is the actual story behind the animation.

Naturally, a story having just one character seated on a chair will cost much less to produce than a story with a character navigating through a busy market place.