The animation market has seen explosions before. It exploded in 1913 with the invention of celluloid, and again in the 1990s with the advent of personal computers. Most recently the techniques and hardware for revolutionizing animation have been developing at a break-neck pace, making skilled animators, on one hand, harder to come by and, on the other, more diverse in their skill sets. While a single graphic artist can produce complex and dynamic content without the use of actors, expensive sets, or props, that doesn’t make the choice of 3D computer graphics any simpler or any more affordable.
How Does This Affect Your Business?
The rapid advancement of technology has made computer animation available to the masses and the animation industry is one of the fastest growing industries. For those looking to utilize this exploding tool to reach their clients, target audiences, and influential decision makers, this boom offers you a wide array of options. As you yearly or quarterly assess your business’ marketing strategy, it is critical to make sure you’re finding space on the web to promote your business. This often means creating engaging and dynamic web content, but can also mean proactive PR and innovative brand design principles.
If you choose to explore animation to promote your business, you can either a) learn to animate yourself, b) hire a freelance animator, or c) hire an animation studio or company. The perks of learning yourself are tenfold, but it takes endless hours of training and likely conflicts with your existing time and resource commitments. Freelance animators can be an excellent option if you have a clear enough marketing strategy to work with. Additionally, it’s best if you have a demo video and a script for the freelancer to work with. While hiring a company may be the most expensive option, the bundle of services that you can attain will likely be worth it. The pre-production marketing conversations that need to be deliberated before animating are critical for you to get the correct message across. So whichever option of the three you end up choosing, be sure to do the grunt work ahead of time so that your output animation is congruent with your business plan.
Outsourcing
Overseas studios have been booming like their stateside animation counterparts for years. There are hundreds of animators using state-of-the-art equipment and techniques from India to the Philippines and many places in between. India stands out as it has a cheap, yet qualified English-speaking workforce well trained in Hollywood, the domestic animation market, and in the wider global animation arena. Taking a brief glance at the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry’s impressive resume will offer enough credibility to such outsourcing outright, but is it the right choice for your business?
Infographics
Although you have surely seen many on the interwebs, to clarify, infographics are graphic visual representations that quickly and clearly present complex information. Not only do they allow the human brain to pick up on visual patterns and trends, but they are proliferated easily via social networking platforms. It is no wonder infographics have grown in popularity in this digital era and that they are quickly evolving to become increasingly interactive and animated. Because of this, infographics have become a widely used tool for marketers and companies to create content that others will link to, thus boosting the company’s online presence. It may seem either scary or futile to jump into the infographic world at this point, but indeed, it’s not. Not every market is as saturated with infographics as sports statistics and national election campaigns. There’s likely plenty of room in your market to promote your business using creative animated or interactive infographics.