Short private anime piece

[Dw17]

Hi

In short, I really don't know much at all about the process of creating anime videos, the time it takes to do or the associated costs. I am a total novice who has simply had an idea if how he could propose to his girlfriend who is obsessed with anime. Basically, like every couple out there, we have our own 'story' of how we met and how we got to the point we are now and if possible id like to get this into a very short anime film. I was thinking of anything between 120-240 seconds.

My plan would be to share the story with the animator as well as photos of key people / places and the let them 'put it together' into an anime. I appreciate this might all sound a bit 'wooly' but I don't really want to waste people's time until I've got some vague idea around possible costs. I would be comfortable paying somewhere around the $400 mark in total. As I've said, I really don't know how much these things generally cost so I don't want to cause offence if this is well under expectation. If it is, I'll have to look at what I could get for around this price or alternative options.

Any help/ feedback would be greatly received.

Thanks

[steveryan2]

Hi,

It is hard even for people who do it everyday to determine what it will cost, so it is understandable that someone who is totally new would not know. For $400 you might be able to get someone to work for a day or two; three if you are really lucky. You were able to provide a rough length 120-240 seconds, so that is a start. Know that there is a big difference between animating a 2 minute sequence from a 4 minute one, so the more you can hone in on that length the better interested parties would be able to help you do an estimate. In any case, creating a 2 minute animation takes a lot of work, so for $400 you can only expect something very basic.

You mentioned using photos of people/places. I wasn't able to determine if you just wanted a slide show, motion graphics, or whether you wanted to use those photos as the basis for some character animation?

Have you mapped out what you want to happen in this animation? Most of the time animators work with a script (at a minimum) or a storyboard, but I doubt than anyone could even begin to get started without at least an outline that describes the action at a high level. An outline would still need to be converted into a script or storyboard; which adds to the time (and therefore the budget). So the more of this you can do yourself, the more you will control your costs.

Will the animation have audio? If so will you be providing audio (voices, narration or music), or is that part of what you want done? If you need to do it on the cheap you may have to go without audio. You can use title cards (words on the screen) to describe what is happening. Or you can add music to it yourself when it is done. Anyone who respects copyright laws will not use copyrighted music, or they risk getting in trouble.

I hope this helps you understand what is required to put an animation together. The better you define what it is you want (length, number of characters, number of shots, description of action, and audio requirements), the better someone will be able to provide you with an estimate. If you just want somebody else to figure it all out for you then it will require a lot of time and cost more.

[Dw17]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply. A lot of things that I hadn't fully considered at all. Judging by the response I'm thinking the best thing for me to do is go get the answers to some of the questions and do a bit more research into exactly what I'm after.

Thanks.

[jahnocli]

If I can offer a little advice too -- you should get as many resources worked out as possible before you go anywhere near an animator, as stated above. Work out a script - however rudimentary. Then you could take that script to a site like http://www.fiverr.com where someone could design you a storyboard for $5 or $10. Then, think about how you can act out the storyboard -- are there any dolls, action figures or toys that you can use? Ebay is your friend! Know anybody that can draw reasonably well? Rope them in! Get them to draw you some key poses and backgrounds, or help design any characters. Same for musicians. I've used fiverr for voice actors too -- makes such a difference if you have a good voice actor who's used a professional microphone. Again, if the dialogue is short, this will cost you $20 or less.

Edit together the soundtrack for the film. Get someone to help if you feel this task is too daunting! Go back to somewhere like fiverr if you want to go the extra mile...

Now you have script, storyboard, character breakdowns, dialogue, backgrounds, music and sound effects for around $60. Get an animator to do you an animatic (that's a sequence of static key poses linked to your soundtrack) It will be expensive (probably), but nowhere near as expensive as the finished article.

Now you are on the penultimate rung of the ladder. You can take this animatic back to that animator (or another one), and get them to give you a quote for that film.
It's quite a process, yes. That's why an absolute army of people is involved in working on a professional animated feature. It's probably the most time-consuming and labour-intensive artistic activity known to man!

[lwaxana]

What a cool idea! You're getting a lot of good advice here. I would just add that the whole concept could probably work and have that personal and special touch even with minimal animation. If there is a lot of dialogue and moving holds you can get the feel of an anime with relatively little animation work. You could focus your efforts on identifying a style of anime (what are her favorite animes?) and collecting images of characters that can be used as reference along with your personal photos. Creating a storyboard is important too. It doesn't have to be a story, it could be more of a montage. If you do have some random person draw out the poses, that can help to convey the ideas, but the animator might end up redoing it if it was not created with an understanding of film structure/economical animation.
Is this something the animator would be allowed to show (some or all scenes) with the rest of their work in their demo reel or on their channel/website?

[Dw17]

Everybody,

Thanks so much for all the advice. Really appreciate everybody taking time out to offer their thoughts/ expertise here. I'm definitely going to take on board everything that's been said so far and go away to check out all the links people have provided. Hopefully I can put something together for an affordable price, even if it doesn't end up being a fully-animated piece.

Please keep the advice coming as it is much appreciated. I'm sure that in the end, with everybody's suggestions & help I should be able to create something that she'll find it hard to say no to!

Thanks again