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how is it possible to have such huge budgets for animation movies??? can anyone explain what are the biggest cost drivers for pixar in spending 200+ mills on a

by slt2021 3y ago

how is it possible to have such huge budgets for animation movies??? can anyone explain what are the biggest cost drivers for pixar in spending 200+ mills on a movie??

teej 3y ago
Just watch the credits to see how much human labor goes into animation.
- macintux 3y ago
  No kidding. Those lists go on forever.
- slt2021 3y ago
  So what, I could get a list of any free open source product contributors and get even longer list. They dont work fulltime 40 hours per week on a single movie, do they? Its more like few hours here and there, as needed
  - khazhoux 3y ago
    > They dont work fulltime 40 hours per week on a single movie, do they? Absolutely not. They work 50+ hour weeks for 2+ years (discounting the much smaller team doing pre-production).
lozenge 3y ago
I don't know, but it will include... A million for each main voice actor $100k for supporting actors Orchestral score (not many people can do those) $50k per licensed song Work on the "game engine" that supports the film (each film used to break technical ground... Fur in monsters Inc, hair in the Incredibles, etc) Motion capture, clay modelling, 3D modelling, rigging, animating... everybody needs a studio quality machine and display... The only thing I feel confident isn't a big chunk of the cost is the actual rendering.
- an_account 3y ago
  Pixar famously spends quite a lot on compute for their render farm. https://nofilmschool.com/why-pixars-24000-core-supercomputer-still-takes-24-hours-render-each-frame https://nofilmschool.com/why-pixars-24000-core-supercomputer...
- Kye 3y ago
  A good video on what goes into a score for an episode of an animated TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiiDNusHdp0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiiDNusHdp0 It can get more complicated (and expensive) if you want to hire someone to play one or more parts for real.
tzs 3y ago
To elaborate on some of the items others have mention, here are head counts for Pixar's most recent film, Elemental, based on the credits on IMDB: 1 director 3 writers 20 voice actors 5 producers 1 music composer 2 cinematographers 12 editing 5 casting 1 production designer 2 art directors 2 production managers 14 art department 42 sound department 85 visual effects 68 animation 46 music 1 continuity 77 additional crew That's 387 people. These kinds of movies take years to produce (7 for Elemental), although not everyone works on them full time during the full length of production.
- Fluorescence 3y ago
  Just curious, what distinguishes a "visual effects" staff member from an "animation" staff member when making an animation? Are "animators" doing the original character/flow design work and then visual effects people punch up backgrounds/lighting/textures etc. and doing the rendering?
  - khazhoux 3y ago
    Animators do the characters. Visual Effects do wind, water, smoke, fire, cloth, etc.

how is it possible to have such huge budgets for animation movies??? can anyone explain what are the biggest cost drivers for pixar in spending 200+ mills on a movie??

teej 3y ago

Just watch the credits to see how much human labor goes into animation.

macintux 3y ago
No kidding. Those lists go on forever.
slt2021 3y ago
So what, I could get a list of any free open source product contributors and get even longer list. They dont work fulltime 40 hours per week on a single movie, do they? Its more like few hours here and there, as needed
- khazhoux 3y ago
  > They dont work fulltime 40 hours per week on a single movie, do they? Absolutely not. They work 50+ hour weeks for 2+ years (discounting the much smaller team doing pre-production).

lozenge 3y ago

I don't know, but it will include... A million for each main voice actor $100k for supporting actors Orchestral score (not many people can do those) $50k per licensed song Work on the "game engine" that supports the film (each film used to break technical ground... Fur in monsters Inc, hair in the Incredibles, etc) Motion capture, clay modelling, 3D modelling, rigging, animating... everybody needs a studio quality machine and display... The only thing I feel confident isn't a big chunk of the cost is the actual rendering.

an_account 3y ago
Pixar famously spends quite a lot on compute for their render farm. https://nofilmschool.com/why-pixars-24000-core-supercomputer-still-takes-24-hours-render-each-frame https://nofilmschool.com/why-pixars-24000-core-supercomputer...
Kye 3y ago
A good video on what goes into a score for an episode of an animated TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiiDNusHdp0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiiDNusHdp0 It can get more complicated (and expensive) if you want to hire someone to play one or more parts for real.

tzs 3y ago

To elaborate on some of the items others have mention, here are head counts for Pixar's most recent film, Elemental, based on the credits on IMDB: 1 director 3 writers 20 voice actors 5 producers 1 music composer 2 cinematographers 12 editing 5 casting 1 production designer 2 art directors 2 production managers 14 art department 42 sound department 85 visual effects 68 animation 46 music 1 continuity 77 additional crew That's 387 people. These kinds of movies take years to produce (7 for Elemental), although not everyone works on them full time during the full length of production.

Fluorescence 3y ago
Just curious, what distinguishes a "visual effects" staff member from an "animation" staff member when making an animation? Are "animators" doing the original character/flow design work and then visual effects people punch up backgrounds/lighting/textures etc. and doing the rendering?
- khazhoux 3y ago
  Animators do the characters. Visual Effects do wind, water, smoke, fire, cloth, etc.