What Does An Animated Explainer Video Cost?

“What’s the price?” - Client

“What’s your budget?” - Me

“But how much will it cost?” - Client

etc etc…

This is how many of our initial emails with new clients begin, so I've created this helpful guide to explain why this isn't the easiest question to answer on our side and give you an idea of how much it should cost before we schedule a call. I will discuss pricing, the production process, and how you can utilise the animation we create in numerous ways across all your platforms. This will be a guide for any company but with prices in GBP and USD for ease.

A 2D animated explainer video is a great tool to use on a website or social platform to quickly and efficiently get across what your business does and the problems it solves to your customers or clients. They can be used by almost all businesses, for example:

          A tech start-up explaining the problem it solves

          A healthcare brand giving details on a supplement they have created and the benefits

          An eco-friendly brand showing the steps they take to minimise that impact within the product's production

          And so many more!

There are a lot of factors that affect what a 2D motion graphics style animated explainer video can cost but a rough idea is around £2,000 - £5,000 per minute for companies in the UK, currently around $2,800 - $6,800* in the US.*Subject to exchange rate changes.

Essentially, it comes down to the more money you have in your budget, the more time we can spend on making the animation bespoke to you. We love making really unique animations to fit your brand perfectly but understand this doesn’t fit everyone's budget.

On the lower end, we might utilise stock elements like backgrounds, characters, or graphs to reduce the time we would spend designing them and just tweak the colours so they match your brand. This way, you get really high-quality stock designs at a much lower price.

The upper end would consist of us making each element everything from scratch, unique to your brand. This means we have full control of each asset, and you won’t see the same thing pop up in someone else’s video! We can build any custom elements and unique characters that can be used with your brand. Your video will stand out as unique, well-thought-out, and appear to be made in-house by someone who knows your brand inside and out.

Other things that affect the price and the percentage they might affect the total budget are:

          Scriptwriting 0%

We don’t offer scriptwriting as a service, as you know your product much better than us, but we do offer unlimited free script revisions to all our clients. We know what works best to tell a story and get the information across, so we can offer script suggestions to make sure it's the right length and gets the information across in the best way. We can tweak the script multiple times as we go through, and the animation starts to take shape too.

Storyboarding is a small but really crucial part of the animation process and can help us keep timelines and costs low. Making a rough storyboard means we don’t start making final artwork straight away and plan it first so that we can spend time only on artwork that you use and nothing more.

Creating the asses for the animation can take about half the time of the whole brief, which is why it can be so cost-effective to reduce this part if you are looking for something on a budget.

The animation part takes a good chunk of the timeline too. We try not to reduce this part of the budget if we can, as slow and simple animations will really affect audience retention and how interesting the video is to watch. We want the viewer to make it to the end!

We offer two rounds of feedback at every stage, but at the initial stages, these rounds of feedback will overlap. For example, when you give storyboard feedback, any shots that don’t get edited will start moving into the design phase. When we create a full version of the video, you will have two chances to change anything about it before we sign it off. Anything after that or adding in new material will incur extra costs that we can discuss.

We don’t make voice-overs or music in-house, but we have a bank of really great voice-over talent on hand to make you a great recommendation. We also keep some stock music on file, but I would really recommend getting some bespoke music made. Voice-overs can start from around £200 per minute, and music from around £400 per minute. We can arrange and deliver it all for you so you can just add the cost onto our last invoice.

£2,000 - One minute of simple motion graphics animation, mostly stock elements mixed with original, stock music. 

£3,500 - One minute of motion graphics with one character and a few scenes, some stock backgrounds and simple character animation. Stock music and a voice-over.

£5,000 - One minute of animation with multiple scenes and characters, complex animated sequences and transitions. Landscape and portrait versions supplied. Original music and voice-over. 

The other option for an explainer is to make a video with actors or use stock footage to put together a basic video. Hiring a company to make a live-action video is a lot more expensive, as they have to hire all the filming equipment, actors, and catering. Stock footage is repetitive and not relevant to your company, so it’s hard to tell if it’s for your brand. You’re limited to your budget and what you can afford, and an animated helicopter is much cheaper than hiring a real one! A great benefit of animation is that it gives the option for simple updates down the line. You could update a logo or brand colours for very little and have the new video the same day.

We typically recommend that you make an animated explainer video around 60 seconds. Any shorter than 40 seconds and you risk rushing or losing clarity. Any longer than 2 minutes and the video can get confusing and the message lost; it's better to split into smaller, more specific animated explainer videos. So 1 - 2 minutes is the best length for an explainer video.

The production timeline to make a one-minute animated explainer video is usually around one month from beginning to final delivery. We have made them in as fast as one week and can take up to two months for an ambitious project, or if you are too busy to give regular feedback. If we have to make a project very quickly, this can make it more expensive, so it's best to give us lots of notice.

Explainer videos could be the difference between a customer or client buying your product or service or not, so they are so important if you have something you need to explain. Here are some examples of where you can use them -

          • Homepage / landing page.

          • Social media (cut into shorts/ads).

          • Internal comms & training.

          • Trade shows & events.

When we make an animation for you, if you can tell us where you want to use it, we can maximise its usage, making a video that works landscape on YouTube and portrait for Reels or TikTok without adding much to the overall cost. We can also provide clips and GIFs as part of the delivery, so they are just ready to post! Even if you decide later, we can edit the original files to make something that works or update an old video; we keep everything on file for at least five years, so you can always come back and edit with ease, making it a super cost-effective marketing strategy.

Sometimes people think that a longer video is better, but often a shorter video gets across the same information much more clearly and memorably. It also makes you reduce the information to the really important parts and cut anything extra, so you don’t overcomplicate the core message.

Cheap templates are as obvious as stock footage; they lack uniqueness and can make a brand look cheap, damaging credibility.

It’s a common misconception that animation is expensive; when it’s done smart, it can be a really cost-effective, for now and in the long term.

As a client, it's great if you can come to us with a few things:

An idea, a style you like, a budget, and a deadline if you have one. This way, we can asses and give you a precise and quick idea if it's possible and how we can make it with you.

If your budget is too small for your idea, timeline, or style, we can suggest a few workarounds to make it fit. Usually, we can work with ANY budget to create something you’re happy with. It might just need changing in a few small ways to make it happen.

If you’ve got this far, you must be pretty serious! I look forward to getting your email.

Contact us today at jenny@afterdarkanimation.com and we can arrange a call at a time that's convenient.