Week 1
Brief and script
What has to be understood, by whom, and in what order. The script comes first because animation is an argument with pictures, not pictures with words added.
Videography · Animation and motion · Sydney
Motion graphics and animation in Sydney
Some things cannot be filmed. A process, a piece of software, a number that has to land, the inside of something. Motion graphics is how you show those, and how you make everything else you have filmed look finished.
Grab the snowball. Give it a spin, and watch it grow as you scroll. Just like an idea taking shape.
5layers in a single motion graphic
60seconds is the usual explainer
No reshootto change a number or a name
Sydneydesign and animation, in house
The short answer
What are motion graphics, and when should you animate?
Motion graphics is design that moves: animated explainers, titles and lower thirds, kinetic typography, animated diagrams and data, and the transitions that hold a video together. You animate when the thing you need to show cannot be pointed at with a camera, or when it will change often enough that reshooting it would be absurd.
That is the honest boundary of this service, and it is worth being plain about. We are a video team that designs and animates, so we make animated explainers, motion design and data visuals to a high standard, and we are not the right call for a character-led animated series. If that is the brief, you want a specialist and we will say so.
The work is planned from what your audience actually asks rather than from a style reference, using the same research behind our search work. Because our Snowball SEO platform automates the search heavy lifting other agencies bill by the hour, more of your budget goes into the design. It sits inside our wider Sydney video production service.
The difference
Should this be animated, or filmed?
It is one question, and most briefs answer it in a sentence. Getting it wrong is expensive in both directions: an animated piece where a real person would have been more convincing, or a filmed one that has to be remade every time a number changes.
Animate when
- The subject is invisible: software, data, chemistry, a supply chain
- The process has steps that need to appear one at a time
- The details change often, so a filmed version would date within months
- You need the same piece in three languages without three shoots
Film it instead when
- A real customer or a real founder would be more persuasive
- The place itself is the point, which a drawing cannot fake
- The budget is tight and the subject is right in front of you
- Trust is the barrier, because trust is easier to film than to draw
If the answer is film it, that is a product or explainer video. The two are often the same piece, filmed and then finished with animated diagrams over the top.
The cost
What drives the price of an animation?
Seconds and style, not minutes of meeting. Animation is priced by how much has to be drawn and how much of it moves, so a 60 second piece with a bespoke look costs more than a three minute one built on your existing brand assets.
Titles and finishing
Add on
Lower thirds, titles, animated logo and simple diagrams over footage we have already filmed. The commonest brief, and the cheapest way to make a video look finished.
Animated explainer
Standalone
Sixty to ninety seconds explaining one thing, with a script, a voice, illustrated scenes and sound design. Built on your brand so it looks like you, not like a template.
A set for the year
Retainer
A style built once and then reused: the same characters, charts and transitions across everything you publish. The second piece costs far less than the first.
We quote a fixed price for the whole piece after a free consult. For indicative Australian ranges across every kind of video, see our guide to what video production costs.
What moves the number, in order
Almost every difference between two animation quotes is on this list, and none of it is a surprise once you know to ask.
- Finished seconds, because every second is drawn rather than captured
- How bespoke the look is, versus building on your existing brand assets
- Whether anything is illustrated from scratch, which is the expensive part
- A recorded voice, and whether you need it in more than one language
- Sound design and any licensed music
- How many rounds of change you want after the storyboard is signed off
The first one costs the most
Almost all of the cost of an animation is deciding what it looks like. Once the palette, the type, the icon set, the charts and the way things enter and leave the frame all exist, the second piece is assembly rather than invention.
So the cheapest way to end up with six animations is to commission the first one knowing there will be six, and to ask for the source files and the style rules at the end of it. The expensive way is to commission six separately over two years and to get six looks.
That is the same argument as a design system, and it is why we hand over the project files rather than keeping them.
The scope
What you receive from an animation
Agreed at the storyboard, before anything is animated, because changing a drawing is cheap and changing a finished animation is not.
The finished piece
Your animation, mixed and graded, in the formats your site, your player and your ad platforms accept, plus a version with no voice for events and lobbies.
Script and storyboard
The words and the frames, approved by you before a single thing moves. This is where an animation is actually made, and where changes cost almost nothing.
Social and vertical cuts
Square and vertical versions with captions burned in, because an explainer that only exists at 16 by 9 reaches the website and nowhere else.
Reusable elements
The animated logo, the lower thirds, the transitions and the chart styles as separate assets, so your next video is finished with the same set.
The project files
Yours, handed over and labelled, so a future change does not depend on anyone else's software licence or goodwill.
Subtitles and alternate languages
Subtitle files rather than burned-in text where you may need another language later, which costs nothing now and saves a rebuild.
The return
What is actually in a motion graphic?
Understanding this is what makes an animation cheap to change later. It is not one picture that moves. It is five separable layers, and knowing which layer a change lives in tells you what it will cost.
Ask what a change will cost before you need one
Every business that commissions an animation eventually needs to change a number, a name, a price or a logo in it. Whether that is a twenty minute job or a rebuild was decided when the file was built, months earlier, by someone you may no longer be working with.
Text that is typed into a text layer can be edited. Text that has been flattened into an illustration cannot. A chart driven by numbers can be updated. A chart that was drawn by hand has to be redrawn.
So we build with the changes in mind and hand over the files. It is the same instinct as our content repurposing work: make the thing once, in a form that lets it keep earning.
The process
How an animation gets made
Four to six weeks, and two points where you sign off: the script, then the storyboard. After the storyboard, changes get expensive quickly, and we will tell you that at the time.
Week 2
Style frames
Two or three still frames showing what the finished piece will look like, built from your brand. Cheaper to argue about than a moving version.
Week 2
Storyboard and sign-off
Every scene, drawn and timed against the script. You approve this, and it is the last genuinely cheap moment to change your mind.
Weeks 3 to 4
Animation
The build, layer by layer. You see a rough pass with timing before anything is polished, so pacing problems surface while they are still easy to fix.
Week 5
Voice, sound and mix
Recorded voice if the piece needs one, sound design, music and the final mix, then a full pass for colour and legibility on a phone.
Week 6
Delivery and handover
Every version and cut, the reusable elements, the subtitle files and the project files, labelled and handed over.
The brief
What to ask before you commission an animation
Animation is the easiest video to approve and the hardest to change once it exists. These four questions are the ones that decide what happens a year later.
Can we see style frames before the storyboard?
Two still frames settle the look for a fraction of what it costs to settle it in motion. If nobody offers them, you are approving a style you have not seen.
Do we get the project files at the end?
This is the single most valuable answer on the list. Without the source files, every future change goes back to the same supplier at whatever they choose to charge.
How is text handled, live or flattened?
Live text can be edited in minutes. Flattened text means a redraw. Ask specifically, because both look identical in the finished piece and only one of them is cheap.
What happens if we need it in another language?
Ask now even if you do not need it now. Subtitle files and separate text layers cost nothing to plan and a great deal to retrofit.
We are happy to answer all four before you commit. If you are still deciding between animated and filmed, our guide to explainer video, live action versus animated works through it properly.
Start here
Ready to make it move?
Tell us what has to be understood and who has to understand it. The free consult is a working session, not a sales call, and you leave with three things whether or not you book us.
- A straight answer on whether this should be animated or filmed
- The script shape we would use, so you can see the argument before it exists
- A fixed price for the piece, with the handover and file ownership written down
Good questions
Motion graphics and animation FAQs
What is the difference between motion graphics and animation?
Motion graphics is design that moves: type, shapes, diagrams, charts, titles and logos. Animation is the broader word and includes character work and illustrated storytelling. Most business video needs motion graphics, and we make those. A character-led animated series is a specialist job and we will tell you so rather than take it on.
How much does an animated explainer cost in Sydney?
We do not publish a single figure, because the range is wide and depends almost entirely on how much is drawn from scratch. What moves it is the finished length in seconds, how bespoke the look is, whether anything is illustrated rather than built from your existing brand, whether there is a recorded voice, and how many rounds of change you want after the storyboard. We quote a fixed price after a free consult.
Should we animate this, or film it?
Film it if you can point a camera at it, because a real person or a real place carries trust that a drawing has to work hard to earn. Animate it if the subject is invisible, abstract or changes often: software, data, a process, chemistry, anything internal. A great many pieces are both, filmed and then finished with animated diagrams.
How long should an animated explainer be?
Sixty to ninety seconds for one idea. Past two minutes, an explainer is usually trying to explain two things and would be better as two pieces, because people leave partway and you cannot tell which half they missed.
Do we get the source files?
Yes, labelled and handed over at the end, and we think you should insist on this from anyone. Without the project files every future change goes back through one supplier, and a change as small as a price or a name becomes a negotiation.
Can you animate in our brand style?
Yes, and it is cheaper than inventing one. If you have a brand guide, a palette, a typeface and an icon set, most of the design decisions are already made and the work becomes building rather than deciding.
Can you add motion graphics to video we already have?
Often yes. Titles, lower thirds, animated diagrams and a logo sting can be added to existing footage, and it is the quickest way to make a video that was filmed well but finished plainly look like it was made on purpose.
What if we need it in another language later?
Tell us now and it costs nothing. We keep the text on live, editable layers and deliver subtitle files rather than burning words into the picture, so another language is a translation and a re-export rather than a rebuild.