The new digital world offers countless alternatives and styles for creating explainer videos. But is it worth investing in 3D explainer videos? Is it worth spending a little more to get a much higher quality?
The answer is, of course, inconclusive, but it is worth understanding the benefits of 3D explainer videos to make the right business decision while considering budget constraints.
Let’s start with a brief overview of the main options for producing animated explainer videos.
The range of options is huge, and the price range is extremely wide. Explainer videos can now be produced for hundreds of dollars from ready-made template-based videos or for huge investments in a prestigious outdoor shoot with a professional photography team combining drones and aerial photographs, costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Here are a few possible options for producing animated explainer videos, from the lowest price level to the highest.
We propose that the measure of the decision will always be cost versus quality, considering the budget allocated for the project.
Do It Yourself with Ready-Made Templates
Numerous websites offer video creation from ready-made templates. You can find websites for 2D animation templates with a variety of options for ready-made characters and elements, a variety of backgrounds, and the ability to upload images and videos, enabling SMEs and small business owners to create basic, low-cost videos. Some sites offer unlimited videos for a monthly subscription fee.
The leading examples are sites like POWTOON VYOND PROMO BITEABLE
Basic quality do-it-yourself videos can be produced for tens to hundreds of dollars per video.
Whiteboard Animation Videos
An excellent option for large businesses and organizations, as well as small businesses, is explainer videos using whiteboard animation. Most of the videos are in black and white, but some have additional colors. The whiteboard animation style simulates writing on a whiteboard—hence the name.
You can find video production companies that offer whiteboard videos at low prices, or you can contact companies that specialize in this popular style. A video can cost as much as $10,000 per minute. In the United States, the market leader for whiteboard seems to be Whiteboard Animation.
We at Video Guru offer a unique style at price levels of about $1,500 per video.
2D Animation Videos
Our most popular style is 2D animation. We offer a range of 2D styles including Motion Graphics, which offers modern graphics and dynamic, high-quality animation, or character animation, which offers greater engagement with unique characters, expressions, and emotions, while connecting to the viewer and video message through sympathy for the characters.
We offer a wide variety of animation styles and options for 2D animation starting at $2,000 per 60 seconds.
3D Animation Videos
The more upscale option that allows for real differentiation and uniqueness versus the standard 2D video style is 3D animation. In this article, we will focus on this option—producing high-quality 3D videos.
3D videos are more expensive than 2D, and the production time is significantly longer. For example, a 2D video takes an average of three weeks to create, while a 3D video production will take about eight to ten weeks.
In terms of the number of team members involved in a 2D video, it takes about two or three staff members—a designer or illustrator in most cases, along with a single animator. The team that creates 3D videos will typically be around ten to twelve people, with each team member having a different area of expertise in the 3D production process—hence the higher cost structure.
We offer 3D video production for around $3,500 to $5,000 per 60 seconds, depending on the complexity of the requirements and the quality of reference materials, such as CAD files and product illustrations.
Why Consider a Larger Investment in 3D Videos?
The answer is simple and clear. While the cost of 3D explainer videos is higher than that of the 2D alternatives, the result is significantly higher quality. The level of illustration, animation, and editing makes it possible to present a company, product, or service at the highest possible level.
3D explainer videos allow for almost unlimited flexibility in displaying products across multiple domains and multiple applications. Here are some examples of applications where 3D explainer videos are very well suited to the task if the budget allows:
B2C Target Audiences
When the company, product, or service is directly addressing the consumer audience, and the animation must be at the highest possible level, 3D animation is a great option.
Here are a couple of examples for a company that produces unique food packaging materials and solutions.
B2B Business Audiences
When a video is made for a business audience, potential partners, distributors, or marketing and sales companies, and the video quality and messages are critical to business development or signing agreements to distribute and promote the product in new geographies and markets, a 3D explainer video may deliver exactly the required result. In many cases, these videos are also intended to raise funds from investors or crowdfunding.
Here is a great example of a startup preparing for an investor roadshow.
Products in Development
When it comes to a product in development with no practical way to photograph it, and visualization is required to illustrate the product’s usefulness to the target audience, 3D animation can help most effectively. In many cases, the company can provide 3D illustrations in formats such as CAD or SolidWorks.
Startups developing products for both medical, health care, and high-tech areas often require a futuristic look and feel to give the video as advanced a visibility as possible, taking viewers into an experience that simulates the future and the visibility of the future as it is perceived today.
Watch our visualization show-reel
Additionally, medical videos may require images of body systems or internal organs, and visualization of health processes mostly require high-level animation to see the problem and the proposed solution.
Real Estate and Architecture Firms
The presentation of real estate projects requires project visualization and requires great flexibility in presenting projects in their future environment. Modern technologies enable glimpses and photography of projects on the move—walk-through animation—and offer a unique real-time presentation and project imaging for planning purposes, pre-sale, or as part of project submissions for authority approval.
Watch a couple of construction projects 3d animation
3D Explainer Videos Release the Customer from Limitations
Producing 3D Explainer Videos allows a company, organization, or entrepreneur to present ideas at every stage of the product’s life and every project milestone in the highest quality, enabling it to achieve the marketing and business goals the video aims to promote.
Contact Us Today
We would love to understand the challenges you face and jointly design and produce high-quality 3D explainer videos that are of great use and put the project in the right place to achieve the most effective work.
Call us today. We would love to create 3D Explainer Videos for you.
