Production Schedules and Budgets

The animation industry is extremely competitive. An insurmountable amount of work goes into formulating schedules and budgets, negotiations with clients, setting up a pipeline, equipment, crewing up departments (finding the talent), … and finally getting a project green lit.

By the time you get to the point where your running/opening your own animation studio, you’ve probably accumulated enough contacts and know a number of people who work for entertainment companies and larger animation studios, and can inquire with them about upcoming animation projects.

Your Capabilities
There will be several meetings and talks with your client, but initially you will want to give them an idea of your production capabilities – you’re studio space, equipment, core staff if you have any people already working for you. Clients will usually want to take a tour to see your studio for themselves considering there is a substantial amount of investment at stake, especially if it’s a larger scale project.

The tour is almost like an interview for studio owners. The client wants to get information about your facilities pipeline and how your studio and them should collaborate together – if working together may be part of the deal on the various steps in production or just one or two. For example, the client may just handle the modeling and rigging…

Initial Negotiations (the basics)
Sometimes this conversation can happen right at the start of communication with a client, especially if you know the individual well or have dealt with them before.

You’ll find out the details of the project. For example, how long a feature or short is, or if it’s series animation, how many episodes are required and how long each episode is – could be 24×22 (24 twenty-two minute episodes). The client should provide a pitch package or sizzle reel. This will give you a good feel for the show but also the style of animation required. The client may ask for an animation test (studios don’t get paid for these, and generally dislike doing them). As an animator I always like working on them though.

Once you have all this info, you’ll be able to figure out how many people/staff you’ll need to complete animation production on time and on budget. (your studio could also be taking care of layout, modelling, etc.., if so you’ll have to staff those departments as well).

Doing the Math (budgeting) {:(
Like many business ventures, you’ll be looking at your expenses and the time you have to complete the work. Employees are always your biggest ongoing expense – this is a big part of what you need to consider when you’re calculating your budget.

Assuming we’re talking about an animation department, here’s an example of how I would find out how many animators I need and how much the animation teams are going to cost…

First, come up with a number of frames that each animator should be able to complete in a day. If your not familiar with how long animation takes you ‘d be best to consult with someone who works in animation. It generally depends on the animation style/complexity and the software being used. ( For example, lets say a 3D series animator can handle 150 frames per day (about 6 seconds @ 24 frames/second).

If the episodes are 22 minutes (half hour episode with out the commercials), you might want to employ a teams of 8 animators if you had 6 weeks to complete  22 minute episode. If you had to complete 4 episodes simutaneously, you would need 4 animation teams of 8 working through the six weeks to complete the episode for delivery to the client. Then the teams would start the next for episodes.

Here’s how it breaks down…

If an animator does 150 frames or 6 seconds/day x 5 days = 30 seconds/week… 30 seconds x 6 weeks = 180 seconds (or 3 minutes) in a 6 week period.

Sooo, if each animator does 3 minutes of animation in 6 weeks….8 animators x 3 min = 24 minutes. It goes over the required 22 minutes but that’s OK because we need to allow time in the schedule for client retakes – a part of animation production that has to be factored into the production schedule timeline.

If you need to get the work done faster, you’ll need more animators to do the work in less time… The numbers change but it’s the same formula.

You’ll also need to figure out how much your going to pay your staff. To get an idea of animator salaries (at least in Canada, check out Contracts and Pay)

Once you know how many people you need and what each person makes per week, you simply multiply the total weekly salaries by the total number of weeks to complete the project. To find out your total cost, factor in all other expenses, ie. studio space, equipment, office supplies, travel, and what ever else will cost you.

For your own use and organization, I suggest listing everything for your budget in a Production Budget – you can create your own in MS Word.

Submitting the Schedule and Naming Your Price
Production schedules are usually done as an Excel doc. and submitted to the client along with your price (how much you need to charge for the entire project). Add to your total cost the amount that you need to make for the project…of course you need to make a profit but you also have to keep your price competitive. If it’s too high your negotiations could fall through and you’ll loose the project. If it’s too low, you’ll probably loose your shirt – go broke or end up in debt. Do your research to find out the going price so you know what to charge.

After you submit your price to the client you might feel a bit like your selling your house, you almost always have to come down a bit (or a lot) depending on your initial price. The animation industry is brutally competitive, I’ve seen more negotiations fall through and go to different studios than get green lit.

On a Smaller Scale
If you are working independently as a freelancer you could take on more work than you can handle yourself and just hire other people to help you finish it.

Some animators have formed studios this way. It’s a safer way to ease into owning your own small studio, but you have to already be working in the industry and have the contacts to find work. If you are planning to do it this way (or any way really), make sure you have quality people lined up to do the work – after all, it’s your studio and your reputation on the line.