A buyer’s guide to animation and VISUALISATION
This is a quick guide for anyone thinking of producing an animation.
Animation have been used for a long time as a form of entertainment but today’s modern computer generated animation is used for much more than just entertainment. It is now becoming a great tool for the business, science, and education sectors.
Animation and visualisation are powerful tools for selling and are widely used by big corporations. Well executed and designed animation or visualisation will give you a competitive edge over your rivals at the pitch/bid phase or through advertising by engaging your audience more effectively and creating excitement in your product or services. Animation and visualisation are effective tools for communicating complex ideas, stories or concepts. More effective communication means a greater ability to influence the audience or to educate them. If complex concepts can be communicated easily, viewers are more likely to buy into the product or idea.
Some examples
Corporate Brand promotion such as Corporate videos, stings, idents, bumpers.
Corporate Events, Awards Ceremonies and Exhibition Stage and Set designs.
Training Media for e-learning and education
2D/3D Illustrations for presentations such as pitch/bid work
Rough Costs
In the past, the cost of animation meant only large film studios could afford to produce animations. In recent years the cost of producing animations has dropped, making it now cost effective for companies of all sizes. The cost of animation production ranges greatly:
3d Graphic illustrations can cost a few hundred pounds,
Architectural visualisation, Product visualisation, and Corporate Brand promotional animation can cost a few thousand pounds,
TV commercials can costs hundreds of thousands pounds,
Feature films can cost typically hundreds of millions pounds.
How do I create Animation/Visualisation?
Animation is a skilled and very technical art, commonly using state of the art computer software and technology. If executed badly, a piece of animation or visualisation can devalue your company’s brand and objective. Therefore, it is very important to get the right animation studio to take on this work.
Type of Animation Studios
The big film animation studios such as Pixar and Disney have massive multi-million pounds budgets to allow them to produce quality feature length animated movies.
Film and Visual Effects Studio, also working with massive multimillion pounds budgets, work on high end animations to make seamless visual effects for Hollywood movies. These same studios will often do high end commercial work.
3D Animation Studios concentrates on creating stunning 3D moving images, anything from product designs, 3D animation, character animation and 3D illustrations. Using a 3D animation studio is a very versatile and cost effective way to create excitement for business products, services, promotions, marketing and education.
Studio concentrates on creating stunning photo realistic animation, still and 3D models of buildings. Their expertise lay in creating stunning visuals of buildings with a keen eye of detail but with limited skills in animations.
Motion Graphics Studios specialise in 2D animations which are extremely cost effective and stunning. 2D animations are mainly for the use of corporate promotion sting/idents/bumpers for the use at corporate events, awards ceremonies, exhibitions and internet marketing. The 2D nature of their work imposes some limitations compared to real 3D animations.
Which Studio?
So which studio to pick? There are 4 important questions to ask.
1. Type of Work and Specialism
Animation is such a broad discipline so studios tend to specialise (especially the high end Visual Effect studios) therefore match the animation/visualisation you require with the studios specialities.
For example, will your requirements be 3D or 2D? Will it require complex animation such as fluid and particle simulation, character animation, film animation integration etc etc ?? Check the studio can do the things you require and ask for visual examples.
2. Quality of Showreel
Check their showreel. The quality of their showreel will reflect your end product (and also their costs). Check their showreel shows examples of the types of animation/visualisation you require.
3. Budget
Studios vary in costs. Since this animation/visualisation will likely represent you and your company, it is wise to spend as much as you can afford. Good animation will sell your company, poor animations will harm it. Your budget will determine the quality of the animation/visualisation and therefore which studio you would like to work with. A bigger budget also allow for greater creative flexibility and could determine whether the final product is 3D or 2D.
4. Location
Location is important! Depending on the complexity of the project, find a local studio if possible . Trying to communicate complex visual concepts via the phone or the internet is notoriously difficult and often leads to miscommunication and ultimately disagreement in delivery. Small animation and rendering/design work can be done remotely with today’s online video conferencing technology.