Few things beat animated content when it comes to engaging viewers. Even fewer things surpass the conversion and sales potential of animated marketing material, reason why brands and business owners love it. It’s hard to see a high-flying business venture that doesn’t do serious animation; Coca Cola, Apple, Google… and don’t even get me started with Silicon Valley startups.
If you’re here, you’re probably wondering how you could infuse some of that animation magic into your business or organization. This guide outlines everything you need to help you find and hire a worthwhile animator.
The hiring pitfall
Animation, the kind that pulls viewers and drives sales, is a complex endeavor. It takes skill, dedication, attention to detail and expertise to pull off. Over the last few years however, the market’s been infiltrated with what’s really an impressive list of animation software allowing users to create animated content using pre-made templates.
Many animators you’ll meet use these templating software. And what you get with them is generic, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter (add any other adjective that describes blandness) animated content lacking punch, vibrance or pizzazz.
Some will price their services insanely low (which is its actual worth), and others will still charge you premium prices for this generic content. Either way, if you’re looking to stand out, you should avoid this group of animators altogether. Much later in this piece, you’ll see how to identify them from one mile afar.
Defining your needs
The first step in hiring an animator is understanding your needs. What do you plan on achieving with the animated video? What are your expectations with the animated content? Is it for sales, marketing, promotion? Or is it something more in the lane of edutainment?
Your needs determine the type of animated content best suited for you, and speaking about animation types, let’s do a quick rundown, so you have an idea what your options are.
The types of animation
2D animation
2D or two-dimensional animation are some of the most popular animation videos available now. They’re two dimensional because they’re ‘flat’ and lack depth. Here’s an example to show you what I mean.
The appeal for 2D animation comes from their simple, colorful and often caricature-like styled characters. They’re a fun and catchy way to tell a story.
What is it good for
Sales and marketing videos, including advertorial and promotional content
3D animation
3D animation adds depth to the animation sequence, giving you a more real-life representation of characters and objects. They are more expensive to produce, but you get better, realistic-looking lighting, characters, scenes, and animation texture for the added expense, all of which combine to produce a more immersive viewing experience.
What is it good for
- Explainer videos
- Brand storytelling
- Advertisement and promotional content
Motion graphics animation
It’s easy to figure this one out from the name – motion graphics – graphical elements in motion. They are pretty similar to 2D animation, and in a strict sense, motion graphics are a form of 2D animation. However, in strict animator parlance, the term refers to 2D animation sequences with more graphical contents and vectors compared to human-like characters.
What is it good for
- Explainer videos
- Product launch videos
- Advertisement and promotional content
Animation plus live-action
Animation can be used to add extra flair or context to live action videos. It’s something like this
The human factor sort of makes it relatable to the audience, while animation acts as a means to improve engagement, value and interactivity.
What’s it good for
- Interviews, shows and programs.
- Documentaries and exposes
- Live broadcasts
Whiteboard animation
Imagine using a whiteboard to explain a concept or market a product. Yeah, that’s what whiteboard animations do – use an animated whiteboard much like you’d use a normal whiteboard to explain things. Whiteboard animations are hugely popular majorly because they’re cheap and easy to create.
What is it good for
- Explainer videos to explain a concept or product
- Announcement videos
- Guides and walkthroughs
There are many other animation types, but most of those are more niche-oriented than they are for business purposes. That doesn’t make them irrelevant anyway, in fact, some brands have used such unique animation styles as would be stop motion to carve out a name and unique brand feel for themselves. If you want more info, check out this animation guide produced by the guys at …
Where to find animators
By now, you should have an idea of what you need and how to get it done. Let’s address the problem of finding an animator to help you with your project.
When searching for an animator, you generally have three options of who to hire;
- In-house animator
- Agency animator
- Freelance animator
The choice you make will determine how to find and hire the animator.
In-house animators
In-house animators are digital artists you hire on a full-time basis to help with your animation needs. In-house animators will work as full-time employees of your business. That means reporting daily to work and full-on dedication to your business animation needs.
How to go about finding a full-time animator
From experience, the best place to find a full-time animator is on professional sites like LinkedIn. Apart from being skilled artists,, most full-time animators are seasoned professionals, so they most likely than not have a full profile set up on LinkedIn or similar professional websites.
Start by searching for the animation role you plan on filling on these sites. You want to be specific but not too specific with your search phrase – something in the lines of 2D animator as opposed to 2D animator for professional videos.
Your search should bring up several animator profiles. To create a preliminary list of potential hires, click on as many profiles as you can see and check their work experience and recommendations.
Obviously, the more, the merrier with experience and recommendation. With the latter, you should place more emphasis on recommendations from superiors as opposed to colleagues. Bonus points if any of such recommendations come from a recognized industry name.
The head of Pixar studios dropping a recommendation is, for instance, a big deal.
You should’ve picked up two, three or four potential candidates at this point. I’ll address how to screen these candidates later in this guide.
Why in-house
Consistent animation style over time
With something like animation, you want consistency in style and creative imagery, more so if you’re planning on building your brand image. A dedicated in-house animator guarantees this compared to, say, a freelance animator who might quit after your first two projects
Someone who’s in tune with your business and organizational needs
In-house animators are part and parcel of your business, so they understand what’s needed, in terms of style, audience and business objectives than the other two options.
Professional service
Like I hinted earlier, when you staff an in-house animator role, you most likely than not make your pick from a pool of seasoned professionals. Overall, they’re generally easier to work with, require less supervision and produce better quality results.
The drawbacks
In-house is expensive
Any in-house role will require you to pay a full salary plus all the other extra benefits – bonuses, insurance and the likes.
There’s a smaller pool of professionals to select from
Compared to freelance and maybe agencies, , you generally have a smaller pool of animators to work with when you’re looking to staff an inhouse animator role. This can be a problem if you’re looking for a very specific type of animator.
You might need extra talent
Making an animation video goes past sequencing the animated component; you need voice over, character development and maybe sound engineering too. When you hire an in-house animator, you need to make extra provisions for these if you don’t already have them in place.
Agency animator
You can think of an animation agency as some sort of sweatshop for animators. The best ones hire a team of animators who collaborate to produce animated content for the agency’s clients. When you hire an agency to take over your animation needs, you’re plugging into this talent pool. Usually all the other auxiliary talent required to make excellent animated content are accounted for as well.
How to go about finding an agency animator
You can use LinkedIn, but because most agencies float fully established websites, your best bet is starting your search off Google. That’s, of course, if you’re unable to get a recommendation from a friend, family or colleague who’ve had animation jobs done.
Here’s my recommendation of the top animation agencies to hire anyway.
While the advice with in-house was to limit your specificity with search phrases when using search engines to find animation agencies, you want to be as specific as possible. So 2D animation agency for promotional content is very fine.
Searching for something like this should return a ton of results. Again, pick as many as possible, then search for each company. This should bring up their online profile and their Google My Business page.
A GMB page is a business profile page hosted by Google. It allows past clients to review services provided by said business.
You’ll want to take note of the reviews on their GMB page. Are there several negative reviews pointing to one particular issue? Are there any reviews at all? How did they respond to negative reviews? And does the animation agency even have a GMB business page at all?
Answering those questions should narrow down your options, so you have maybe three or five potential hires.
Why agency?
A managed animation service
Compared to the other options, agencies provide a more complete, a la carte, if you will, animation service. You don’t need to bother about how it’ll get done or whether you need a voice over artist or not. Most times, all that’s required from you is your requirements.
Agencies require less supervision
Like the in-house option, agencies are very well professionally-oriented – the good ones, that is. For you, this means less supervision, fluid communication, met deadlines and everything else to make your experience as smooth and stress-free as can be.
The drawbacks
Agencies are hella expensive
Even more expensive than hiring an in-house animation expert. As it turns out with agencies, you’re not only paying for the animation service; everything from management costs to agency profit is included in your bill.
There’s limited flexibility with agencies
Sometimes you might need to make a modification mid-project, or maybe you’re not just feeling the animation style. Modifications or adjustments of this sort will almost always come with a rate negotiation when you’re working with agencies. You sign a contract at the start of the project, and its terms remain binding with little to no room for change until project completion.
Freelance animators
When an animator who’s not occupying a full-time position in a company sets up shop independent of any agency, they’re, for the most part of the phrase, freelance animators. Of all three options, freelance animators are the most popular. Popular enough to be the preferred option for most startups today.
How to go about hiring a freelance animator
The first step to hiring a freelance animator is locating them online. Luckily there are several freelance websites with fully established animation subcategories. Fiverr and Upwork are my go-to platforms for the flexibility and amount of options available on there, but anyone, including niche graphic design sites like 99Designs, should work.
Searching for a freelance animator on these sites is a simple case of inputting a search keyword (the type of animation you need done) and letting the search algorithm do its work. As was the case with searching on Google, you should get a list of potential hires to work with.
Freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork are big on freelancer performance, so freelance animators on search results are ranked based on their performance over a specific period. This is all roundabout way of saying you get the best of the bunch when you search for a freelance animator on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.
Alternatively, you could navigate to specific animation subcategories on these sites, but this only works if what you need done is a popular service that has its own subcategory.
Check reviews
Now any freelance animator from search results on freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork is probably good enough – that’s because they’re weighted on performance to make that list. To make your selection, you want to check individual reviews of freelance animators on the search list. Here’s how I approach the situation.
Pay little attention to the five-star reviews
Most will have an abundance of it, and all will basically say the same thing, so no need to go through these.
Focus more on the three-star to one-star reviews
These are from disgruntled customers, and their pain points might be something you consider important as well. For three, two-star reviews, what I do is note reviews that mention something important to me.
If there are any, I assess how the freelancer responds to them (most freelance sites allow freelancers to respond to reviews). Does the response address the issue? Does it make sense? Is it justifiable?
With one-star reviews, I skim through individual reviews to see if there’s a repeating pattern. Are reviewers complaining of the same or similar issues? If yes, then that’s not my freelance animator.
With this, you should be able to narrow down your selection list to about two, three freelance animators. I detail what next to do to make the final selection in the Hiring an Animator section of this guide.
Why freelance
It’s cheaper
Freelance animators charge lower rates compared to agency or in-house animators. Partly because they have lower overhead costs and also because the competition among individual animators is fiercer. Note, however, that cheaper is not always better, and as a general rule of thumb, you get what you pay for
There’s a large pool of talent to make your selection from
Freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork have a huge population of animators with different styles and different skillsets. It’s easy to find someone good at what you need and even easier to hire them without too much of a hassle. And like I just noted, the increased competition animator side tends to drive animator rates down
Easier to hire (and fire)
Picking up an animator from sites like Fiverr is akin to making a purchase on Amazon. All you need do is sign up, search, screen and select. The stress and hassle it takes to hire an animator on these sites is several orders of magnitude lesser than what it’d take to hire, say, an in-house animator.
The drawbacks
Probably not the most skilled talent pool
You need to take care in selecting a freelance animator, many are amateurs, and a significant other are just not good enough. Reviews on sites like Fiverr can be faked. If you’re not careful with your selection process, you might end up with an animator who seemed good on the first instance but will only end up delivering a botched job.
Professionalism is a scarce trait
A friend of mine describes the freelancers on Upwork and Fiverr as attention deficit cats, and he’s not too far away from the truth. Again, if your selection process is not carefully knit, you might end up with a freelancer who’s poor on communication, unable to meet deadlines and overall tough to collaborate with.
Despite the drawbacks, freelancers are still the most popular hiring option for persons and businesses seeking an animator. The majority of small business owners will go this route; Big name businesses will resort to freelancers every now and again to supplement their agency or in-house team.
The reason is simple, asides from the cost savings, freelancers offer more flexibility and variety to businesses. You could hire one freelancer today, fire them the next week, then go on to hire another with a different style as per your business needs.
Hiring the animator – the process
Regardless of whether you choose to go the freelance, agency or in-house route, you’ll need to perform a thorough screening to ensure you’re not hiring an unskilled animator. The actual screening process might vary according to your needs and or requirements, but here’s a streamlined rundown to get you started.
Ask for portfolios
Portfolios are the one true way to assess a potential hire’s technical skill and expertise. As a general rule of thumb, portfolios from any freelance animator you plan on hiring should:
- Have enough samples – at least five is the minimum threshold
- Contain relevant samples – You want to assess samples closely related to your project. Animation is a very specialized skill; a 3D animator might not be good with 2D animation and vice versa.
- Contain relevant samples verifiably produced by the potential hire
- Additionally, you might also want to ask about past clients. Much like portfolios, the caliber of people, businesses and organizations an animator has worked with speaks volumes about their expertise and experience.
Check their reviews
I already touched on this for each animator category. But to recap;
- Don’t pay too much attention to the five-star reviews
- Look out for negative reviews. Is there a pattern with the complaints? How did the animator respond to criticisms?
- Ask questions when in doubt.
Schedule an interview or preliminary consultation
Going through these steps should’ve helped you double down on one or two preferred candidates. To make the final choice, an interview might be necessary.
Any potential hire who’s made it to this point on your list is give or take good enough. With interviews, you want to test the soft unspoken skills that separate great animators from good ones. Specifically, you want to assess their:
Passion
How passionate is the animator about his/her job? Is it something they do to earn money on the side, or are they animators who take great pride in their work? Just listening to how they talk about animation in general should provide clues, but if you want to dive down, ask questions like;
- Who/what motivates you?
- Which is your best animation piece?
- Who is/are your greatest influence(s) in animation?
- How long have you been doing this, and what keeps you going?
Many freelancers have happened on questions like this from past clients and are pretty much used to giving boilerplate responses that are neither here nor there. It’s up to you to spot the nuance between genuine and make-believe answers.
Industry experience
Who’ve they collaborated with, and how did that collaboration go? Industry experience is a reliable indicator of collaborative, communication and workplace skills. If an animator has been part of several high flying teams, it’s all the more likely that they’ll integrate smoothly with your business organizational set-up.
Animation process
The animation process should give you insight into their creative faculty and problem-solving skills. A good way to ask this question is to describe your need and then ask them to plan an animation that would address this need.
How did they approach the problem? Was it head-on or calculated? What solution did they suggest? Is it creative or cookie-cutter – note that cookie cutter is not necessarily bad, although you’d want someone who tasks themselves to come up with something ingenious.
Of course, an interview and the following questions only make sense if you’re looking to staff an animator role in your company or embarking on a significant animation project. It makes no sense to ask these questions if the animation guy is only going to create a gif or something trivial for you. In such scenarios, a portfolio assessment and review check should suffice.
Hiring the selected animator
Congratulations if someone wowed you enough to consider giving them the job. You’ll need to discuss the terms of the jobs and possibly sign a contract.
Negotiate the pay rate and payment method.
Usually, this is something you should’ve asked about at the sourcing or interview phase. Most freelance and agency animators list their rates on their profiles, so you typically have an idea of how much they charge before going in.
Explicitly define deliverables
What kind of animation will be produced? How long will it take to produce? What format will it be produced in? Set any relevant milestones. Make room for modification and revision requests.
As a friend of mine would put it, anything that matters, matters.
Set up the contract
If you’re hiring an in-house animator, you might need to do this yourself. Here’s a template to get you started.
Agency and freelance sites usually have built-in contract functionality that allows you to speedily create and sign a contract.
Sign the contract or on freelance sites, accept the contract
Conclusion
Long read, I know. But in reality, it’s not so much an extensive process to hire an animator. Most of the work lies in drumming up your list of potential hires, especially if you’re looking to staff an in-house role using sites like LinkedIn.
The portfolio assessment and interview process are pretty much straightforward. So also is the hiring process. Go step by step, and you should be fine. In the end, regardless of how tedious it might pan out to be, I’m sure you’ll be pleased when the animated content you get meets all your expectations and serves your business needs.
