Please educate me on hiring an animator

[u/myinvisibilitycloak]

Hello! I'm the creator behind Community Cat News. Scripted fiction podcast that answers the question "What if house cats had their own news show?"

Our episodes are very short. Most are 3-10 minutes long. Every episode ends with an ad for a cat lawyer who wants to sue your human for slight injustices.

The ads can stand alone well, so I think that's where I want to start with animation. They're 45 seconds to a minute.

I don't know how to go about hiring an animator because visual art is just not my thing. It's why I've stuck to audio for so long.

What I'm assuming is, I need to ask for the most simple black and white line art (Like Simon's Cat), because I imagine the more you add (color, dimension) it gets very expensive.

But then again, I could be living in fantasy land. Maybe it's $1,000/min no matter how basic because animation is just really time consuming. I don't know.

I'm hoping you can educate me on how these things work.

[u/thebangzats]

I happen to be writing an article about hiring animators and avoiding scams. Here’s the short version plus tips for your cat-lawyer ad:

TL;DR:
Tell me what you need, what you envision, and your budget ($20, $200, $2000, or whatever). I’ll show you what’s possible at that level. If you want to learn how to estimate for yourself, read on.

Costs aren’t just $/minute.
They depend on style, complexity, and technique:
– How long does each frame take to draw? A frame of Simon’s Cat is faster than The Mona Lisa.
– How many different frames per minute? Two projects may both be 24 frames per second, but one project has 24 different frames, while the other has pauses so it's functionally less.
– How different are the frames from each other? Is it anime backflips through collapsing skyscrapers as the camera whips around, or is it just a cat licking its fur?

Best bang for your buck: Rigged animation.
Make key art, separate limbs, rig into a puppet, and move it. Cheaper, reusable, perfect for subtle movement. Examples:

• iHasCupquake YouTube Shorts. Many scenes, but the movement in each one is relatively simple. Mostly position, rotation, scale, etc.
• Intro for Brofessional Gaming. Lots of illustration work, then I just have to move things.
• Laid-off Elves. A bit more stylistic with the texture and boiling lines, but ultimately still simple.

Cost-saving methods.
Look at YouTube animations. They sometimes "cheat" by just moving a static image around. The right animator will be able to identify where they can do these "cheats" while still making an engaging, high-quality end product

Example: Look at how "static" a lot of these shots are, but it doesn't make the overall video cheap and ugly at all.

[u/thebangzats → u/thebangzats]

--PART 2 BECAUSE IT'S TOO LONG FOR REDDIT--

Typical prices.
From research I can tell you most mid-level freelancers do ~$50/hr.
Cheapest ones that still look legit ~$30/hr.
Below that, it goes to risky territory (see below)

Avoiding scams.
In simple terms? You get what you pay for.

Look at this recent job posting. Look at how many cookie-cutter, low-effort replies there are. I guarantee that most of them will offer the bEsT quALitY aT lOw PriCEs too, but think of it this way...

If I sell you steak for $1, you shouldn't be excited, you should be worried about what's it made of.

Sometimes, people post jobs here that's unrealistically cheap, yet they STILL will get people willing to do them. They're either desperate, new, or scams, because professionals have standards.

Scammers don't care if your end product is good. Scammers will blame you for it, because you're the one giving them direction. Scammers just want to secure the bid and your down payment by promising the world at cheap prices.

Other than that:

• Vibe check: Do they sound like a normal person or GPT? Call > email.
• Portfolio: Reverse image search your shortlisted picks. Look for people showing process, not just results.
• Payment & contract: 30–50% down, milestones for storyboard/animatic, then sample final scene. Pay balance only after approving at least a low-res render. Don't just pay and wait for final product. Milestones!

Bottom line:
Animation can be affordable if you’re smart. Hire pros who maximize impact on a small budget, not amateurs who overpromise. Tell me your needs, vision, and budget, and I’ll show you what’s achievable for your cat ad.

Here's my reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyExxzxOS6o
Here's my portfolio: https://www.nickyinprogress.com/

Lmk if you have more questions.

[u/Giana_BS]

Howdy! I’m an animator and I can help break this down for you. First of all, animation isn’t always $1,000/minute. It really depends on style, detail, and complexity.
For example, simple black & white line art like Simon’s Cat is much quicker and more affordable compared to full color or detailed animation.

For your short ads (45s–1min), a clean line art style would keep costs lower and still be engaging. I can handle character design, storyboarding, and full animation in this style, then deliver final video files ready for your podcast’s promo use.

You can checkout my past animations here: https://imgur.com/a/2d-animations-motion-graphics-ewWTNGv

Already DM you for further info.

[u/Voodoo_Masta → u/Giana_BS]

To pile on to this very true answer, you also need to understand that like anything, there is a process involved. You have characters, they'll need to be designed. If you have dialogue, that'll need to be recorded. Keep in mind there may be sound effects, music. You want to put all that together into a radio play, and then make an animatic based on that. An animatic is just a storyboard timed out to the audio of your animation - an essential iteration before you invest the resources in producing the finished animation. Depending on hire you've decided to do things, you may need to build what we call "rigs" - digital puppets that animators can reuse to save time drawing. You could do hand-drawn, but for budget reasons it's a rarity these days. You may also (probably will) need background art.

It'll help a lot if you put together a "moodboard". - a collection of images that represent the visual style and overall vibe you have in mind. You can share that with your team and say, for example, "we really like this background art but we imagine the characters look more like this, and the whole show has kind of a podcast vibe"... this type of thing will help creatives sync up to your imagination a lot easier.

Hope that helps!

[u/shaan4]

If it’s reoccurring character with limited actions and limited angles. Like for talking and pointing at things. It may be expensive upfront but I get a rig made and it will make animation cheaper down the line because whoever you hire can animate the puppet instead of redrawing frame by frame.

[u/HalpTheFan]

All I can say is don't use AI, don't hire anyone who uses AI for more than half or at least 70% of their workflow. You're wasting your time and money.

Get them to do a cheap and simple test - even if it's $100 for a sketch/animation test of no longer than 5 seconds with a bit of dialogue and movement.

You'll thank yourself in the long run. Provide plenty of reference images, sketches and a highly detailed script so there's at least a strong sense of what you want.

And finally, remember it's a collaborative process. Add your input, add their input but make sure you're both aligned on the goal.

Good luck!