Summary

FAQs

• What I will get if I order an animation or animated ad?

  I'll send you your animated video in a file which will have: - mp4 video format; - orientation (aspect ratio) of your choice: 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or any other; - 24, 25 or 30 FPS frame rate or any other; - FullHD resolution (1920x1080 in case you choose 16:9) or more, if you need. I can convert short animation to an animated .GIF image of a desirable size & resolution. Or, if you need, I can deliver the animation as a .png image sequence.

• Can you make a video of a specific resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate, bitrate, file size or use specific video codec?

  Yes, sure. Let me know what specifications your aim for before placing an order as it may affect the delivery time and the final price.

• Can you add a voiceover and music to my video?

  Yes, I can add to your video any sound - voiceover, music or any specific sound effects. As an experienced sound engineer I will professionally mix them for you. I don't record voiceovers myself. I expect that you choose the music, record the voiceover and send me all the audio files.

• Can you work with texts in languages other than English?

  At the moment I work with English texts only. If I don't understand the language, I can't confidently and properly synchronize what I hear and what I see on the screen. Of course I won't recognize spelling mistakes and typos, if there are any. In case your language uses characters other than Latin, I can't even tell whether the font is readable, whether it has a good design. So if you are OK with all that and ready to make corrections more often than usual (and pay for that) - we can try.

• Can I just come up with a rough idea of the animated video and ask you to do the rest?

  Yes. I can do most of the stages of production of the quality animated video myself even though I prefer to focus on what I do best - on rigging & animating. I can't do two things: I can't record a voiceover and I can't choose the music for you because I'm a classically trained musician with very specific musical taste and I'm very picky about the music.

• What will be the price of high quality, lively 2D character animation?

  US$25 per one second of cut-out animation of medium complexity, with one 2D human-like cartoon character rigged in Moho, which is talking, expressing emotions with facial features, gesticulating, walking, running or idling. Animating more complex shots will cost more, for example when the animation involves multiple characters in the same shot, or involves character's interaction with various objects - handling and throwing weapons, handling and using gadgets, the character is partly in front of and partly behind other objects, e.g. character is sitting behind the table and at the same time character's hands are in front of the table. For work on 2D character rigs, for modifying pre-existing character rigs, for drawing backgrounds and props, for designing characters and for other types of work I charge US$25 per hour.

• Can animation itself be cheaper?

  Of course! By default, I aim to make animations as high quality, lively and captivating as I can, with lots of detailed movement of various body parts and of the face features. This takes a significant amount of time and dedication. If you need, we can discuss what can be simplified and which subtle movements we can omit to make the work done more quickly, easily and therefore cheaper for you.

• What can we do to reduce the final cost of the animated video besides of reducing the animation complexity?

  Basically, let me focus on what I do best - on RIGGING and ANIMATION - and do by yourself as much planning, thinking, decision making, drawing, as you can: - write a detailed script from which is absolutely clear what, why, when and how exactly your characters do and say; - draw a storyboard; - choose the music to your taste; - record a voiceover; - draw backgrounds and all props; - draw characters (and their hands and feet) in all angles and specific poses that will be needed; - draw all possible character's emotions if they need to look in a specific way; - provide a size chart (to have a clear reference to the relative sizes of the characters, props and background objects).

• How many revisions you will do after the delivery of the animation? Why make "storyboard" and "animatic"?

  I offer one free revision, just in case. If I've made any mistakes I will correct them for free as well. But if you'd like to be able to tweak character poses, camera angles and movements, frame composition and timing to your taste - it's way easier to plan all that ahead, before the animation stage (and even before character rigging and before drawing backgrounds) by making a storyboard and then an animatic. Seriously, it will be much quicker and cheaper than redo the final animation several times. Storyboard is a set of very simple and rough static pictures usually drawn by hand where you can visualize scene by scene your future animation ahead of the time and choose the best camera angles, frame composition and key character poses. After making a storyboard it is becoming clear which backgrounds will be required, how exactly I need to rig characters, what controls and functions character rigs must have and therefore how complex and expensive rigs will be. Animatic is a simple video made of your storyboard images edited together with a voiceover, music and other sounds to illustrate how a sequence will flow to get the timing of your future animation just right. Of course if you aim for a very simple animation and you trust my creative decisions I can work without drawing a storyboard. But if you decide afterwards that you want to tweak the final animation again and again - be prepared to pay for every iteration and to wait significantly longer.

• Can you create and animate characters in 3D?

  No. I make 2D animated characters only. I can draw and rig them in Moho in such a manner, that they will look and turn like they have a depth and volume due to the perspective. We call it 2.5D or 2D+.

• Which version of Moho do you use?

  Moho Pro 13.5 or 14.1

• I want my character to be able to turn to the side or back views. Any requirements?

  If the character have to rotate/turn, then I need images of the character in all views that he/she/it needs to rotate into (front, 3/4 front, side view, 3/4 back, rear view).

• In which file format I can send you the character design?

  (.jpeg) or (.png) images are fine. If you have multilayer Photoshop (.psd) or Illustrator (.ai) files they are suitable too.

• What if I don't have a character design yet? Can you draw it for me?

  Yes, for an extra fee. Describe how you imagine that character, what features and personality it/he/she has, how it should move, what goal it should help to achieve by its presence in the video. Will be great if you show me examples of characters that you like. I will definitely come up with something suitable for your project.