When it comes to whiteboard animation, should you hire an artist or just do it yourself? Let's talk about sweat equity.

You can set up a video camera yourself and use video editing software to create a Whiteboard Animation. However, it will probably require a few weeks of your time and your results will be far from a professional studios quality. Poorly drawn images and written words that are unreadable might be expected.

Whiteboard animation software can cost as little as $500, plus a few weeks of your time. These cheap programs use a static image of a hand and clip art. But the final product is not unique and its value is equal to a good Power Point presentation. Another option is Adobe AfterEffects  an industry standard animation software. It’s what they use to make National Commercials. It costs $1600 however, and learning the software requires a bachelor’s degree.

Hiring an artist or a studio

Our studio’s animation prices range from $1800 per minute to $15,000 per minute with the average being $5500. Those prices include audio, storyboards, animation and the video from A-Z. The cost is all artist-hours. How much time and how many artists do you want working on your project? How much thought? The more time artists have and the higher their quality of talent, the better. (*Pro tip: Voice over talent today is cheap. It amounts to a fraction of our budget totals. Today someone with a decent microphone and good acting skills can become a voice over actor)

Why pay for a high-quality animation?

Why do companies spend $15,000 to millions of dollars on animations? It’s because they want their image to be as professional and as ahead of their competition as possible. If a Fortune 500 company wants to be perceived as the market leader they need to look like it, that is one reason why companies spend so much money on Super Bowl commercials. Production value is real and consumers can tell the difference, having a unique, quality video allows you to stand out and be memorable. Haven't you ever shared a commercial -"because it was so good"?

Why hire a studio?

You should hire a studio because you want professionals. You wouldn’t want to do accounting yourself if you don’t have a degree in it. Similarly, you want to hire a studio with a proven track record, vast and decades worth of experience. Truly, the hourly rate of studio employees is low compared to the value.

One animation is equal to the cost of designing, printing, and sending postcards, however our product can never be destroyed and it can reach millions of viewers. A good test of a studio’s worth is watching a video and seeing what you remember when the video is over. It’s not about how many things they flash in your face. It’s about burning an image into a viewer’s mind and, then, motivating that viewer to act.