Using animation in advertising is a great way to blend publicity with entertainment and boost consumer communications through user-friendly content.
If you’re looking into doing a 3D animation project for your company, you must understand the potential pitfalls and benefits.
Before you start contacting freelance 3D animators for hire, let’s explore how this 3D animation works as a marketing tool, and when it’s most beneficial to use.
The Differences Between 2D and 3D Animation Projects
You’ll probably want to look at 2D animation vs. 3D animation costs, so click this link to read more about it.
Vector-based 2D animation is probably the most common medium you see around.
2D animators can use most graphics programs to generate new content. With many options for them to choose from, it can be simpler than 3D animation.
The joy of 2D animation is that if your requirements change, you can often manipulate your existing graphics into a 3D file. Plus it’s also a lot faster and cheaper to produce.
Benefits of Using 2D Animation
Let’s say you’re on a tight timescale and have a strict budget to stick to. In that case, 2D footage should be your go-to for a number of reasons:
- It’s more cost-effective, with the average animated 2D marketing video cost starting from about $15,000.
- Your animations are flat images; needing fewer labor hours to create, which means the finished product will be ready faster.
- 2D animation is relatively easy to update and less complex than a 3D rendering, so you can update it as you need.
- Businesses can apply their 2D animation to a broader range of platforms, with the option to transform them into static graphic design components, website assets, business cards, or infographics.
2D animation isn’t as fancy as a 3D, but the impact is compelling, and it remains a great way to market your business without spending a lot.
3D Animation as a Marketing Tool
3D animation isn’t commonplace in the business sphere because it takes a lot of time and costs a fair amount.
When it comes to visual storytelling, 3D tops every other medium by a mile, with limitless creative options, dynamic product dramatizations, and mock-ups of assets that don’t yet exist in real life.
Is 3D Animation a Worthwhile Marketing Investment?
There’s no doubt 3D animation takes considerably longer to produce, but it has several compelling advantages:
- Engaging: Beautiful details and a creative animation style can elevate your brand in unexpected ways, encouraging customers to watch your media in full.
- Dynamic: There’s no limit to what you can create, whether it’s a prototype concept you want to bring to life or a realistic animation of how your services could benefit your customers.
- Interactive: Repurposing 3D animations into interactive applications is seriously clever. Interaction is a huge aspiration for competitive business sectors, which can create a sense of brand loyalty that could make a massive difference to your bottom line.
The challenge here is that your 3D animation is only as good as your design team, so generating high-quality content is crucial if you want it to have the desired impact.
The Pitfalls of 3D Animation
We’ve covered the fundamental challenges, which are that 3D animation inherently costs more and takes longer to produce.
That’s because a 3D animation project isn’t something that any just animator can take on.
A specialist 3D animator doesn’t come cheap, and you’ll usually need a team of accomplished professionals, where one person works exclusively on texture, lighting, and models. Another may focus on special effects and a third on character animations.
In many cases, hiring an animation studio or contracting a skillful animator is much more cost-effective than deciding to take on an in-house team, particularly if you’re trialing a 3D campaign for the first time and want to test the return on your investment before diving in further.
Choosing Between 2D and 3D Marketing Animations
There isn’t a right or wrong way to approach animation – it’s all about what you’re hoping to achieve, your core customer demographic, and the channels you use to reach them.
An exceptional 2D animation project will make a much deeper mark on your viewers than a series of low-cost 3D animations. Keep that in mind before making your decision over which one to go with. When it comes to 3D animations, having the proper budget is key to getting a high-quality end result.
