Animation Outsourcing (Doing it right)

Ever needed a video done in a hurry, your boss needs a quick video explainer, client is itching to get a video quote and it takes days upon days and once the jury is back you are left with your jaw to the floor. Animation is prohibitively expensive and unless you are ranking in some serious big bucks you will be hard pressed to afford the regular industry prices going as far up as $50.000 for a 5 minute video and even more.

But it’s the 21st century you need to get your message across and video sharing services like YouTube are just what you need, high user engagement and interaction, easy sharing and embedding and amazing brand value coming from the media.

So what do you do, do you take a pay hit and shell out the money? Most people do, making their businesses less competitive in the process, losing marketing budgets and a lot of times ending up with a sub-par product due to inexperience and frankly a lot of small lettering in the big production company’s terms and conditions that shift a lot of work back to the client again.

And animation is at the top of the food chain of all possible video services. It requires high end equipment, infrastructure, trained and seasoned professionals and time, lots and lots of time and time is what agencies and production companies love charging the most, for them it actually makes very little sense to do short videos.

Their primary clients are usually large film, music video or TV/streaming companies that keep them supplied with work and funds for long periods. Everyday users come more as an afterthought, as they require the same resources but produce only short videos and don’t provide the same influx of work and money.

You do have an option, you can just do animation outsourcing and get your animation done at a more affordable price, however the issue that pops out here is quality, how can you know that the person you hired can get the job done or knows what he is doing, or has any kind of clue what you are looking for in an animation outsourcing partner?

There are some scary stories in the industry of various outsourcing projects going sideways due to inexperience and/or poor work ethics.

So how do you choose?

There is a checklist you should go through every time you start with somebody new

• Ask for previous work (most good companies and professionals have a show-reel showcasing their work)
• Ask for a list of clients (a good way to figure out if their serious)
• Get them on a call, or video call (lookout for warning signs)
• Ask them in detail about their work process and always make sure you have a single point of contact

If they pass these requirements, give them a shot, it means they have done the work before and know how to handle clients.

Outsourced companies and professionals usually have significantly lower expenses (5 to 10 times from our research) and if chosen right can provide comparable or even superior quality to domestic companies.

Animation outsourcing is no exception and even large networks and TV shows are known for searching for more affordable production facilities ( Simpsons were well known for doing their animation work in overseas studios, they even made some puns in the show about that). Even outrageously priced agencies will in a pinch resort to calling an overseas agency or professionals especially for large projects on tight deadlines.

So stop making your business less competitive, if you haven’t already you need to start outsourcing and you need to start now it could be that “Make or break” moment for your business. If you are looking for a partner we suggest checking here, it could make a huge difference.