What Clients Need to Know About Animation Studios

I want the world in 5 days, can you give me that?

You might hate me for writing this article. I might even lose some clients. Because the very first thing I am going to tell you is that most animation companies dislike their clients.

Yup, you did not read me wrong. I said – most animation companies dislike their clients.

Before you close this window in a huff, please allow me to justify my statement. First, I need you to notice that I used the word ‘most’. I need you to hold this in your memory before you read on.

I need to be perfectly honest here. Clients can be painfully ignorant sometimes. Although they are effectively our ‘employers’, they are also the most difficult bunch to contend with. Very often animation companies get ludricous requests from clients that go in the lines of:

‘Oh, I need to do a 30 minute animation for my daughter’s wedding. It would be such a lovely present for her, don’t you think? By the way, I am thinking of Finding Nemo quality wise and my budget’s $500. That should be enough right?’

Ermmm…not quite…While we appreciate your love for your daughter, Finding Nemo cost almost 100 million dollars to produce. It was about 90 minutes in length and that means 30 minutes would cost about 66 million dollars. We are missing quite a few zeros here.

Usually at this point the animation company who receives such a request goes silent for a beat, and then animated guffaws (pun intended!) arise, followed by the tone of a disengaged phone.

Actually all of us are guilty of walking at least once into a restaurant or a store thinking of getting a bite or purchasing a pair of shoes for less than what these establishments are asking for. The only difference between these scenarios and that of querying a 3D service is that we get to see the price tags and we never have to stipulate our budgets, thus avoiding the embarrassment.

The point I am trying to make is – while clients need to be more realistic about their budgets when asking for a 3D service, animation companies also need to be more forgiving towards them as unrealistic expectations usually stem from ignorance. I insist that my company patiently explains the procedure of producing an animated clip.

Even if the client walks away in a daze and says she can never afford the service, at least another person in the world gets educated about the workings of an animation production. As the world becomes more knowledgeable in the way of animation production, I believe that ludricous requests such as the above example would become less common.

This is why I am so proud of my company. Mediafreaks’s mandate is such that we will never scoff at a client’s request and that we will always find the best solution to her needs. So for the record, Mediafreaks is not one of those animation companies who dislikes its clients. We love all our clients and we will endeavour to educate them on animation production so that they know how to set realistic budgets and goals for their animation projects.

You can visit the Mediafreaks blog to learn more about 3D animation and also receive a free report regarding 3D animation services there.

This article was written by the founding Managing Director of Mediafreaks – Aldric Chang – a creative businessman who is active in music composing and production, internet marketing, casual games production, animation production, cartoon production and character licensing. He’s intent on growing his  3D animation studio into a behemoth entertainment enterprise.