Choosing the right 3D animation studio to work for

Choosing the right animation company for your project will determine the success and failure of your marketing effort! So ... how do you make sure you're picking the right one? The following is my honest advice on this topic:

1. Let me start by saying that some companies excel in certain genres and other companies excel in other genres. There are some, like mine, who mainly specialize in animated commercials, animation for documentaries, medical visualization, character design, and architectural visualization. There are companies that specialize only in special effects or architectural display work. The first thing to do is make sure you find the company that is best suited to what you want to do. Find a company that has a large portfolio or has done something similar to what you have in mind. The first ensures an experienced company and the second gives you the confidence that they have done something similar before and can probably deliver the same.

2. Make sure the company uses more internal staff than freelancers. Many freelancers are unreliable and can disappear when the going gets tough. Ultimately, the company is responsible for its conduct, but you would have wasted your time and perhaps missed a good opportunity to impress with your presentation or marketing campaign. So you will lose out even if you don't ultimately have to pay for the project.

3. Request milestones and deliverables. Understand what the company's pipeline looks like. Any self-respecting animation company could tell you a channel and milestone delivery that sounds logical and reasonable. Click here if you missed my section on working with an animation company for more information.

4. Find a business that responds quickly to emails and phone calls. If your business is taking a long time to return emails and calls, it's probably too busy to answer, not bother to answer, or too disorganized to answer. Either way, you have to go ahead and find the next randari.

5. Find a company that has project managers or account managers. You want to talk to marketers who understand your marketing needs and not animators who think of cool special effects and nice animations.

6. After providing concise information about your company's background and what you want to achieve, see how quick and proactive the company is in coming back with a solution proposal and budget. See if the quote makes sense and if the company can account for each of the listed services.

7. I would not recommend looking for quotes because honestly, each animation company may charge differently based on the strength of their staff, reputation, portfolios, whether they are using freelancers or permanent staff, level of work, etc. There are too many variables and it is similar to comparing the prices of cars of different brands. It won't be fair in this regard. Try to choose any company that can offer you what you need within your budget.

8. Lastly, always work with a company that you feel comfortable with. Go with your instincts. If you don't feel good about the company, it means that you don't have chemistry with the people there and you probably don't enjoy the working relationship. This will affect the final product.