+44 161 3000 257

hello@mightygiant.co.uk

© 2025 MightyGiant

+44 161 3000 257

hello@mightygiant.co.uk

© 2025 MightyGiant

FAQs

FAQs

FAQs

What impacts the price of an animation?

by Jonny

|

Founder

There are a few factors that impact the price of an animation, but the main ones are length and complexity. A short and simple animation would obviously cost less than a long and complex one, but short projects can also be complex and require a full team of animators.

Take our project with Dreams as an example – that was a small job, but cost a lot more than our “Love it for Longer” campaign for Chester Zoo because of the detail in the animation. Which means we can’t price jobs purely on their length, or purely on their complexity.


Duration

Our base cost is for a minute of animation. But that’s not just for the animation. To start a project we have set up costs; the design process, concepts, storyboards, making artwork and/or building characters. That all takes time, but it also means a 2 minute animation isn’t necessarily twice the price of a one minute. A lot of the legwork has been done setting up for the original work.

Detail

The level of detail and polish requested affects price heavilly. Things like background complexity, number of unique characters, camera movement, particle effects, and fine detail work in textures or shading all add hours. Photorealistic 3D rendering in particular can require significant computing time and expertise.

In summary

To put a ballpark answer on the question, we’d say a good starter point for a short animation is £10,000. If you’re looking for a complex animation that’s either quite long or has multiple outputs and needs the talents of our entire team, the cost get’s nudged up steadily. Now you have the factors though, we can start a conversation about what we can and can’t do for the budget you have.

Complexity

Style and complexity matter a lot. 2D animation is generally cheaper than 3D, since 3D requires modeling, rigging, texturing, and lighting on top of the animation itself. Within 2D, something like simple motion graphics (text, shapes, icons moving around) costs far less than character animation with lip-sync, nuanced expressions, and believable movement. That being said, there are sometimes occasions where the inital cost of a 3D project makes the long term life of it cheaper. There are a lot more re-usable assets. 2D tends to need to be reworked each time.

Team

The size of the team = more people per hour = most cost. A small simple project can have one artist working on it. A bigger more complex production requires 4 or 5 animators all working at once which adds to the production costs.

Duration

Our base cost is for a minute of animation. But that’s not just for the animation. To start a project we have set up costs; the design process, concepts, storyboards, making artwork and/or building characters. That all takes time, but it also means a 2 minute animation isn’t necessarily twice the price of a one minute. A lot of the legwork has been done setting up for the original work.

Complexity

Style and complexity matter a lot. 2D animation is generally cheaper than 3D, since 3D requires modeling, rigging, texturing, and lighting on top of the animation itself. Within 2D, something like simple motion graphics (text, shapes, icons moving around) costs far less than character animation with lip-sync, nuanced expressions, and believable movement. That being said, there are sometimes occasions where the inital cost of a 3D project makes the long term life of it cheaper. There are a lot more re-usable assets. 2D tends to need to be reworked each time.

Detail

The level of detail and polish requested affects price heavilly. Things like background complexity, number of unique characters, camera movement, particle effects, and fine detail work in textures or shading all add hours. Photorealistic 3D rendering in particular can require significant computing time and expertise.

Team

The size of the team = more people per hour = most cost. A small simple project can have one artist working on it. A bigger more complex production requires 4 or 5 animators all working at once which adds to the production costs.

In summary

To put a ballpark answer on the question, we’d say a good starter point for a short animation is £10,000. If you’re looking for a complex animation that’s either quite long or has multiple outputs and needs the talents of our entire team, the cost get’s nudged up steadily. Now you have the factors though, we can start a conversation about what we can and can’t do for the budget you have.

Duration

Our base cost is for a minute of animation. But that’s not just for the animation. To start a project we have set up costs; the design process, concepts, storyboards, making artwork and/or building characters. That all takes time, but it also means a 2 minute animation isn’t necessarily twice the price of a one minute. A lot of the legwork has been done setting up for the original work.

Complexity

Style and complexity matter a lot. 2D animation is generally cheaper than 3D, since 3D requires modeling, rigging, texturing, and lighting on top of the animation itself. Within 2D, something like simple motion graphics (text, shapes, icons moving around) costs far less than character animation with lip-sync, nuanced expressions, and believable movement. That being said, there are sometimes occasions where the inital cost of a 3D project makes the long term life of it cheaper. There are a lot more re-usable assets. 2D tends to need to be reworked each time.

Detail

The level of detail and polish requested affects price heavilly. Things like background complexity, number of unique characters, camera movement, particle effects, and fine detail work in textures or shading all add hours. Photorealistic 3D rendering in particular can require significant computing time and expertise.

Team

The size of the team = more people per hour = most cost. A small simple project can have one artist working on it. A bigger more complex production requires 4 or 5 animators all working at once which adds to the production costs.

In summary

To put a ballpark answer on the question, we’d say a good starter point for a short animation is £10,000. If you’re looking for a complex animation that’s either quite long or has multiple outputs and needs the talents of our entire team, the cost get’s nudged up steadily. Now you have the factors though, we can start a conversation about what we can and can’t do for the budget you have.

In summary

To put a ballpark answer on the question, we’d say a good starter point for a short animation is £10,000. If you’re looking for a complex animation that’s either quite long or has multiple outputs and needs the talents of our entire team, the cost get’s nudged up steadily. Now you have the factors though, we can start a conversation about what we can and can’t do for the budget you have.

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