What Does 3D Animation Cost Per Minute?

What Does 3D Animation Cost Per Minute? If you’re thinking about incorporating animated video into your marketing strategy, it’s probably a good idea to think forward about how to budget for 3D animation. This powerful addition to video content is widely used in branded, educational, and instructional videos, but can you afford it? Knowing the average 3D animation cost per minute will help you to determine whether this is the most appropriate means of content for your strategy and, more importantly, how much-animated video you can afford.

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In general, the average cost of video per finished minute is between $1,000 and $20,000. This is a HUGE range that makes it all but easy to figure out what your project will cost.

When considering an animated video project, a good rule of thumb is to plan for about 60-seconds of animated video which will generally land you in the range of somewhere between  $7,500 and $10,000 in many cases.

Let’s take a look at the various factors that influence 3D animation costs per minute. A recent study found that professional 3D animation costs can run upwards of over $20,000 per second for a total per-minute cost of more than $1.5M.

Production Quality

One of the greatest influencers of the total 3D animation cost per minute is production quality! You get what you pay for — most of the time.

If you research closely and do your homework, you’ll find that 3D animation will generally range widely between production companies, but look closely. What you will likely realize is that the visual value of these animations also varies.

Top-quality animations that include multiple characters, advanced graphics, and extensive use of advanced features will almost certainly cost you significantly more per minute than a very basic 1-minute animation that does not include any characters.

Likewise, if you hire a freelancer with minimal experience you may get a 3D animation for significantly less than $1,000 per minute, but the likelihood of the video being well-produced is low.

Characters

The number of characters that are involved in your 3D animated video will also add to the total cost per minute for your 3D animations.

A film that includes multiple characters requires substantially more time behind the scenes to render each character and build the animations compared to a film that has only 1 or 2 characters or, perhaps that doesn’t have any characters at all.

Going back to quality, a poorly-animated character will quickly be recognized! You certainly don’t want shabby looking characters that appear flat or otherwise poorly animated!

Script & Complexity

The script and the complexity of the storyline and visual requirements for the video will add to the total cost of 3D animated video per minute.

A professional scriptwriter will generally charge between $60 and $150 per hour to produce the script for your animated video.

Complexity of the content comes into play here because a basic script may only require very basic research but a complex video will certainly require that the scriptwriter take more time to research and understand the concepts to be delivered in the video in order to produce a storyline that will be most useful.

Authenticity of Artwork

Finally, the authenticity of the artwork for your animated video will play a role in your overall budgeted price. The 3D animation cost per minute that you can expect to pay for the animating process which includes authentic illustrations and unique animations can and will range. Let’s take a look at some past 3D animated videos and their costs:

• Frozen – A cost of $24,510 per second of 3D animation.
• Finding Nemo – $15,667 per second of 3D animation.
• Despicable Me 2 – $12,925 per second of 3D animation.

As you can see, past movies have significantly higher 3d animation cost per minute figures than the $7,500 to $10,000 that we mentioned early on (the costs above are per SECOND!).

However, these are professional quality animations from renowned production teams. While you very easily can spend $20,000 per second, it is possible to get a 3D animated video for substantially less per second and a rate closer to $10,000 per minute is reasonable.

Need more information? Call Beverly Boy Productions at 888-462-7808 to learn more about 3D animation cost per second and to get a real-time quote on your project.