Factors that influence Animation cost :

• Total Length – Longer Total Run time on projects are generally more expensive to produce. Shorter Projects are less expensive.
• Content – More objects on the screen, more detailed environments, more realistic lighting is more work. Less detail and less movement per scene is less work.
  Number of Custom or purchased Assets needed – Sometimes there are pre-made 3d models we can purchase for your animation. We look to include these items whenever possible. Sometimes online stores sell 3D Models that are pre-made. What may have taken 20-40 hours to model is sometimes available as a greatly discounted price. When we find appropriate 3d models for use on your project, we pass the savings on to you.
• Creative Development and Planning Hours – Sometimes plans look better on paper, but when you create visuals from them you realize visuals don’t look or transition naturally as you are used to seeing them do in films or ads. Don’t worry! We can help you through this planning phase. We can offer light guidance and reference or take a more heavy handed approach. It’s your choice! The more you think through your idea a higher quality product results.
• Render Quality – It takes more hours to produce visually stunning, polished, realistic looking 3D Animation. It takes more computers to crunch complex lighting algorithms. Less hours are put into making an animation that is less realistic looking.
• Style Quality – (e.g., 2D, 3D, or sketched) Is there a specific look you love? Whether something is realistic looking or not, if you have a very specific look you want to match, that will take more time than if you are not as particular. For example: if you want to produce illustrative animation that has a black ink outline around all objects that has a specific width, achieving this specific look would take more hours to produce than if you were okay us producing either a similar look or producing the animation without the feature.
• Due Date – Rush jobs take more hours to produce than non-rush jobs.
• Approval Processes – Is the project going to be start/stop? Or will feedback and approval of designs be available same or next day?

Tips on how to save $$ when producing your Animation:

Stay organized – Having reference for what kind of Animation you want or like helps us produce animation you’ll love.

Plan – Think through the timing of your animation, what you want to see in each scene, and what will be seen or heard in your animation. Don’t have time for this? We offer creative development services so we can do this work for you! Ask us for more details about this service.

Take your time – Costs go up during rush jobs. Many standard animation jobs take 4-6 weeks. More complex jobs can take 2-4 months. Can we do all this in 1-2 weeks? Yes, no problem in most situations; however, increases cost may occur depending on how many team members we have to add to complete your job by a specific due date.

Ready to chat with us about a project? CLICK HERE

How Much Does A Whiteboard and Cartoon Animation Cost?

Let’s be real:

You’re not made of money. If you want to grow your business without blowing a giant hole in your company budget, getting the biggest bang for your buck is a must.

And if you’re weighing up the pros and cons of investing in whiteboard and cartoon animation, nailing down the cost must be high on your list of priorities.

That’s why in this article, we’re going to answer the all-important question:

How much does a whiteboard and cartoon animation video cost?

Are you really going to make us say it?

Ugh. Fine.

“It depends.” There, are you happy now?

The truth is, whiteboard and cartoon animation cost runs the gamut from $0 to $1,500+ per minute – and more. To complicate matters further, you can’t factor the price alone in your decision. You have to take into account other things like turnaround time, quality, and the future ROI you want to get.

So today, let’s compare the three most popular options for making a whiteboard video: DIY, in-house, and outsourcing. We’ll give you an estimate of the whiteboard and cartoon animation cost involved, and explore the pros and cons of each.

We’ll start with the DIY option. After all, if you want something done well, shouldn’t you do it yourself? Well, let’s find out if that applies to whiteboard and cartoon animation!

Option A: (Don’t) do it yourself for free

Money cost: varies, but could be as low as $0.

Other costs: opportunity, time, your brain cells.

When you’re just starting out with video marketing, it’s very tempting to go DIY. After all, you can write and narrate the script yourself, create whiteboard and cartoon animations, and edit the video – all with free software!

Then you just put the fruits of your labor out there and see what happens. If you get some ROI, you can always invest in professional help and higher production values… right?

Well, no. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, “It’s a trap!”

(What? Like you don’t rely on Star Wars for all your life lessons.)

This option usually fails for three reasons:

1. Low production values will drag down the

   perceived value

   of your brand as a whole. Sure, some of your content can be rough around the edges – most people will forgive that. But if you want to create a whiteboard and cartoon animation video to drive sales, for example, or hire people, you want to make it look good.

2. Using free software to create whiteboard and cartoon animations will give you a generic-looking video. These applications rely on widely available art assets – and you’re not the only one using them! So unless your goal is to create the most forgettable visuals in the world, you want to steer clear.

3. How much is your time worth? You have a business to run – so we’re guessing quite a lot! So even if you manage to create a stunning whiteboard and cartoon animation video for $0, it will come with a hefty, if invisible, price tag. You’d neglect all the other critical tasks, like creating a marketing strategy, hiring people, formulating profitable ideas, you name it.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “But I don’t have to do it myself! I’ve got people working for me. We can just do it in-house!”

Indeed, you can. And that brings us to Option B…

Brands like Twitter, Uber, Hubspot, and others are already using whiteboard video to attract more customers. Discover exactly how they do it, along with 9 more business-boosting tips – like how to increase your conversion rates by 20%!

Click here to download your copy of “Top 10 Ways to Use a Whiteboard Video”

Option B: Do it in-house

Money cost: your team’s billable hours, audio and video equipment.

Other costs: other important projects and everyone’s sanity.

You have invested all this time and effort hiring an amazing team. Surely, they can handle a small video project! That way, you won’t have to do it yourself – and you’ll save a bunch of money on whiteboard and cartoon animation costs.

As with Option A, the reality is a bit more complicated than that.

Here’s what you want to keep in mind when you’re trying to produce a whiteboard video in-house:

1. Talent

   . We don’t mean it in some vague, nebulous sense. You will need a minimum of five people with distinctive skill-sets:

2. 1. A copywriter or marketer to write a persuasive script

   2. A narrator to do an engaging, high-quality voiceover

   3. A whiteboard artist to draw all the visuals

   4. A videographer to combine the visuals and voiceover

   5. A project manager to coordinate the process

1. Management

   . It helps if your company has a tight video production loop already. If you don’t, that means you’re in for delays, setbacks, failures of communication, and all sorts of other snags – at least until you figure out a workable process!

2. Resources.

   Filming equipment, sound equipment, studio space to record audio and visuals, editing software, even art supplies… all these things cost money. Plus, procuring and maintaining them costs time and energy.

If you don’t specialize in video production already, you may find that you can’t meet all the requirements on this list. Which means you might want to outsource at least some of the tasks involved.

So why not take Option C, and simply outsource all of it? Let’s examine how that might work, and if it’s a good fit for your video marketing needs.

Option C: Outsource it

Money cost: from a few hundred bucks to $1,500 and more – depending on quality.

Other costs: wasted time and resources if you get unlucky with the contractors.

Finally, the simplest solution would be to hire a contractor or a full-service agency to produce your whiteboard and cartoon animation video. That way, you and your team will just have to communicate your project goals and requirement, and give feedback at different stages of production.

Naturally, this option has a few downsides, too.

For one, your entire project lives and dies by how competent your chosen contractor or agency is. If they are, you’ll get exactly the video you wanted, on time and on budget. If not, you’ll pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of getting a shoddy piece of work several weeks – or months! – after the deadline.

And then there’s the money part. Outsourcing your video, while convenient and effective, is not the most affordable option. If you get lucky with a great agency, you can expect to pay upwards of $1,500 per minute of whiteboard and cartoon animation.

For this, you’ll get a high-quality whiteboard and cartoon animation video within a reasonable time frame. How reasonable? Well, we can’t speak for other companies, but The Draw Shop video standard production cycle is just 4 weeks – officially the shortest turnaround time in the industry!

But of course, none of this means anything unless your video can get you closer to fulfilling your business goals. So the real question you should be asking isn’t “how much” – but this…

Is it going to be worth the money?

When you’re asking, “How much does a whiteboard and cartoon animation explainer video cost?” – you’re only solving half of the equation.

You also want to ask, “How much is having a whiteboard video worth to my business? What kind of ROI can I generate?”

And, just as with whiteboard and cartoon animation costs, the answer will vary. As much as we’d like to, we can’t whip out a crystal ball and estimate your future ROI from a hypothetical whiteboard and cartoon animation video. There are way too many moving parts.

But here are some examples of how our clients used whiteboard video to grow their businesses:

1. Mimic Technologies put a whiteboard explainer video on their homepage – and within 45 days, their revenue for the year

   exploded by $250,000

   !

2. Harvard Services group

   leveraged their video

   to win the prestigious 2012 BSCAI Image Award for

   “Best Company Website”

   – handily beating 50,000 competitors.

3. Bestselling author Andy Andrews used his video to generate buzz about his new book. The whiteboard and cartoon animation trailer

   broke 100,000 views

   in one week… while his old trailer barely got past 10,000 views in 10

   months

   !

These are just a few examples from our case studies and testimonials.

Our clients prove that having a high-converting whiteboard and cartoon animation video can be like launching your business growth into overdrive. If you’re not using this highly effective marketing instrument, maybe the real question isn’t how much you’d have to spend, but:

How much potential revenue are you leaving on the table right now?

Let’s find out together – by making you a whiteboard and cartoon animation video that will take your business to the next level.

To get started, book a free, no-obligation pow-wow with our team. Just fill out the form below, and our marketing ninjas will get back to you as soon as possible!