There's one thing that's been bugging me about the information I've found on the internet, so far.
The going consensus on the internet for a common, general budget for each animated episode for a TV cartoon series is around $200K. People seem to spit that number out everywhere, but no one seems to be able to break it down any further than that. I was wondering if anyone here could shed some light on where $200k goes for a single episode?
Do you think this budget is appropriate more for traditional animation, or digital animation? I'm sure the cost of drawing supplies and equipment could potentially add up, but if all animators were using Flash or Toon Boom Studio, I can't see the cost of materials being high between each episode.
There's music and actors to consider, but still...
Am I doing the math wrong, or what am I missing?
Thanks in advance!
The budgets are often factoring in costs spread over the entire order for the series, and building a studio from the ground up.
Initial start up costs can be high because you need to "hit the ground running".
The costs are not that hard to figure out, especially with a sensible production schedule in mind.
What I mean by this is that a budget is made up of mainly two things: equipment, and wages.
If you have an idea of how many people it takes to do a given task in the production, you can figure out what equipment they need to use and what a reasonable living wage is for them.
If you have your ballpark figure of around $200K per, its just a matter of assigning X amount of $$ to X amount of people over X amount of time.
Heh, c'mon........this is as easy as simply making note of the names on the credits of any given episode--which will also have those folk's jobs.
Now, all that said, the reason you do not see these numbers laid out more clearly all over the place is that budgets tend to be proprietary information that studios withhold--simply because its no-one else's business.
And the budget you have quoted above could apply to both digital and traditional animated shows.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
When you think about how long it takes to make an episode, times the number of animators/cleanup/ink&paint/VFX artists, plus voice talent, producers/directors, plus supplies and overhead, it adds up pretty quick.
Can you do it for less? Sure. Some Adult Swim cartoons have minuscule budgets, but it shows in the animation as well.
Company website
My Animation Blogspot Site
As beeblebrox says the quality of animation is the deciding point.
Keep in mind the monies you mentioned for the 200k budget (which seems low) only cover production costs- traditionally, most TV production companies are "work for hire" and they don't make money until later in the re-run cycle or overseas distribution.
If you happen to own the property that is being produced than you are in a better position - but now a days that includes being in partnership with a network.
If a production company is doing three TV shows and one of them is canceled then there is the dilemma of what do you do with 1/3 of your work force - it's a tough business!
Thanks.
Larry
web site
http://tooninst[URL=http://tooninstitute.awn.com]itute.awn.com
[/URL]blog:
[U]http://www.awm.com/blogs/always-animated
[/U] email:
larry.lauria@gmail.com
The last project I worked on was very simple and limited, a series of six-minutes-shorts, traditionally animated. All the animation was done in-house by no more than four people at a time, not counting compositing. Eight frames per second was the norm, animation on 2's discouraged, on 1's forbidden. There were no model sheets to speak of and blown-up storyboard panels served as our scene layouts.
Between light tables, paper, pencils, a single scanner, some PCs and the Animo package, just the animation budget for every episode was a mere €5000/$6330. The scene quality didn't feature into the animators' pay: a twelve-second-scene with just standard dialogue mouths and an eyeblink repeated over and over would pay more than a harder to do four-seconds-action scene.
Well, it's a living.
Thanks so much for all of the responses! These are all very good points.
Jeremy
blog.nexusinfinite.deanlabs.com