If you are planning a development of an architectural 3D animation for your project, you will definitely be faced with the question of its cost. And, of course, you are interested in getting a good result at an attractive price. Read how to achieve this in our article.
5 Factors That Affect the Architectural 3D Animation Cost
3D animation – it is attractive and spectacular. But the cost of its development can be “biting”. You may admit, no one wants to spend the entire marketing budget on just one video. How to find a balance between what you want and reasonable costs? Is it even possible? Yes, of course! We will consider further how to do it and what the cost of architectural 3D animation consists of.
1. 3D model and environment
It is obvious that the future video aims to show a very specific building. The cost of the model itself depends on the complexity of its modeling. It is clear that a small simple house will cost less than a high-rise building with many details. You may already have a ready-made 3D model that you can provide to developers and thus be able to reduce the cost of future video. However, it should be noted that only the 3D model can be used, the format of which meets the requirements of the developers. Otherwise, the modeling will still need to be performed from scratch. Keep this in mind.
The next thing that affects the cost of 3D architectural animation is the environment of the main object. Regardless of the location of your project, the visualization team will create exactly the environment you need. Of course, this is painstaking resource-intensive work, but if you are interested in bird view, there is a way to get a stunning result at a lower cost. If one of the tasks is panoramic pictures from air, it is not necessary to create the whole environment in 3D. Alternatively, you can use aerial photography by drone. Everything you need will be added as a CGI, but the overall frame will look much more photorealistic and detailed than a 3D environment alone. Since this method does not require detailed modeling of the environment, you can save a little.
2. 3D animation length
Keep in mind that the cost of architectural animation is estimated per second of video duration. Therefore, it is very important to carefully plan the path of the camera movement. You should choose only those angles that best demonstrate the benefits of your design and are crucial to your presentation. If you find it difficult to imagine, the CGI team will always be happy to help you with this.
Also, when the 3D animation is ready, you can ask to cut it into several short versions and adapt for different marketing channels. This way, you get a lot of different visual content to post on the site, on social media and for other marketing purposes.
3. Complexity of camera movements and visual effects
Impressive camera movements, stylized transitions between shots and various visual effects help to create CG video with a unique atmosphere. But such artistic additions can greatly complicate the work, and this will inevitably lead to higher final cost. So, if you want to stay within the planned budget, consult with the team of 3D animation developers. They can offer solutions to fully realize your vision at a reasonable price.
4. Time of day and weather
The flexibility of CGI means that you can choose any time of day and lighting for your video. One of the most popular options is a sunny daytime environment.
But if you want to give your viewers a better understanding of your concept, you can show the architecture in different settings within a single video. The simplest solution is to switch from daylight to sunset or night darkness at the end. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate the movement of natural light during the day and the placement of artificial (exterior or interior) in the evening.
Architectural animation gives you endless options for weather and season settings – nothing is impossible, winter or summer, rain or snow. In some cases, you may be completely satisfied with just one option. But on the other hand, it can be a smart decision to show what your building will look like at different times of the year. In this case, the cost of animation will increase, but it’s worth it if you want to surprise the audience or get a diverse content.
5. Soundtrack and sound
Adding a soundtrack or voice-over is the perfect finishing touch to your video. Sometimes you can find a decent melody in free music archives. This is a great solution for making video cheaper. The most important thing with music and voice acting is to perfectly synchronize them with the video frames, because the choice of track will affect the tempo and transitions in the video. Therefore, at the beginning of the project you need to specify your sound requirements to avoid additional edits. But if you need voice acting, most likely, you will have to order it from specialized services, and this will entail additional costs.
Now you know the 5 factors that affect the price of your video. Also, keep in mind that corrections are an integral part of almost any project, and their number reduction makes work performance cheaper. Think carefully about these points and you are guaranteed to get the most out of your next architectural 3D visualization project.
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