In today's episode,
we're going to be talking about pros and cons
when it comes to buying and outsourcing
creative content.
We'll also talk about the challenges
that creatives face
when outsourcing each of those options.
So yeah.
DIY isn't just for mediocre house repair.
Stick around.
Let's get to it.
It's
for everyone.
Welcome back.
My name is Kathryn. And I'm Will.
And we are Open Pixel Studios.
We're the co-founders.
Yeah. Yeah.
I think
at this point we should remind we remind people
who we are
and what we do for a little bit just because,
you know,
it might be
that people are finding us
on LinkedIn,
on Instagram through different platforms, and.
They.
Might start here instead
of starting in episode zero. Mm hmm.
So who are we? What are we doing?
Yeah.
So we are the co-founders of Open Pixel Studios,
were a women owned animation studio out
in Springfield, Massachusetts.
And we basically help companies expand
with the medium of animation.
Yeah, that's what we're here for.
We've been doing it for the last six years now.
And yeah,
but this you know why we're here right now
in in your video setting or audio setting.
Whichever setting you'd. Prefer. Exactly.
This is Behind The Pixel.
It's an Open Pixel Podcast.
And it's the podcast
where we try to bridge
the knowledge gap
between those who buy creative content
and those who make it.
As a quick question, Will.
Yes?
Where would you say
is your current knowledge gap? Ooh.
Knowledge gap. That's a good question.
I really don't know anything about gap insurance.
That's the thing.
Yeah, gap insurance.
Okay. A lot of people talk about.
You know, I guess I know nothing about it.
Yeah, yeah.
Pretty sure there's such a thing.
I don't know which kinds of gaps it covers.
Yeah. Does it cover?
I don't know.
Like all gaps.
Like, is it a stop gap?
Does it cover?
Like, I see. Your clothes at The Gap.
Oh, boy. Okay,
well, similar
to comparing different insurance
options, I guess.
Why don't we jump into today's topic?
In today's topic,
we'll explore where you can buy animated content
and the pros and cons
between those different options.
Yeah, because there's a lot of different options.
Lots of different options.
So one of the problems
we notice with some of the clients that we work
is that they need to get some outside help
to get the animation done on time.
I think that's across the board.
Some of the things that we've seen,
some of the other people that we work with
have also talked about that.
And as a result,
they can turn to many different options.
You have tons of options out there
and so in this episode,
here's what we're not talking about.
We're not talking about
using your internal creative teams
like that is a whole other thing
and you absolutely can do that
when you're working with in-house.
You have a ton of options there
that we can sort of mentioned right now
that will cover in on a later episode.
You can upskill your current workforce, right?
You have some folks that you already have.
Make make them more valuable.
You can hire new talent brings in new people
in that
have some skills
that maybe your in-house doesn't have.
You can learn the tools yourself depending on
how big you are
as a as a business or agency,
depending on where you are.
Or you can use templates
and there's a lot of template options.
Again, I think we mentioned we're going to have
a whole episode on templates,
but when going internal with animated content
each of those approaches that I just mentioned
have their own pros and cons
and again,
we'll get into that in a different episode.
Yeah, I mean,
one can say that like we as Open Pixel,
we really need like an in-house
episode director for Behind the Pixel to.
Keep a track of all the things
that we kind of cover later. All the yeah.
All the episodes that we have on the back end.
Like there's so much. To cover it.
So much to cover. Yeah.
So yeah, we should track those.
But before
we get redirected,
we do a little 303 here.
Let's describe what what we are covering today.
Okay. Yeah, I can take that on.
So what we are talking about
today is the seemingly unlimited options
that marketers have
when they're outsourcing animated content.
So not doing it in-house when they're buying.
Going to the out.
They're going, yeah, yeah.
That's a reference to a previous episode.
But yeah,
when you have a bunch of those options,
that's when things can get really complicated.
Yeah.
And that can mean it's
actually really hard to know
where to look for animated content.
It's hard to determine
what the best option for you is going to be,
and that makes it hard to trust, like what
you're going to be getting
and knowing what you're going to be getting
and the goals of the content
that can actually be achieved for your piece.
So that whole outsourcing process
can be intimidated,
intimidating right from the start.
Yeah.
And then on the creative side,
the problem actually changes depending on
where and how the artist is being hired.
So I think what we're going to do
is we're going to talk about
their problems
within the context of the outsourcing option.
So it's a little bit of a departure
from what we've been doing in the past,
but we don't want to make
any blanket statements around
how creatives feel throughout all these options
because they're entirely different
depending on on your relationship
with that particular option. Right.
And we know that
because this is a departure,
it's a little bit of a change
from what we normally do.
So take a moment.
You know, take a breath. It's okay.
Let's embrace the change.
We know what to change, but trust us.
You'll understand when we get there.
So what we'll do is list out the options,
name some of those options,
talk about the pros and cons, and then address
some of the creative point of views
within those options.
Brochure that that creatives may face.
Yeah,
but what won't change here
is that I'm going to start
by giving the marketers point of view,
and then we can jump into some solutions
there and we'll go back and forth.
So brace yourselves, everyone.
Let's do it. Yeah.
So I'm taking the role of the marketers.
P.O.V. here.
Basically as a marketer
I want to know
all of my possible options
before I move forward
into making animated content.
I don't want to just Google it
because I know that typically on Google, the
the people who pay for their thing
to be seen
first are is what's going to come up first.
And they might not actually have
the best interest in mind
for what I'm trying to work on.
I paid the most. I'm at the top of the list.
You're going to see me.
First, right? Right.
Which could be good or bad,
depending on the situation that.
So what I might do
instead is I might start by asking
somebody I know and trust,
because trust
is something that you don't want to.
Hard to come by these. Days.
Yeah, yeah, that's fair.
I might start to also do
my own research into those options. Right?
If that person gives me
multiple options to go off of,
then I can do my own research into their.
They're giving me basically a head start
and I can get a sense
of what each of these
different processes is like.
Yeah.
And I might even try to go
as far as
getting multiple estimates
or quotes from different sources
and sort of compare between the two. Yep.
And the goal ultimately is that
I want to get to know a little bit more deeply
who I'm going to be working with
so that I can build that trust to.
A long term relationship.
But the problem for me
is that there's no really one place to lay out
all of those different options clearly.
So it's a little overwhelming.
I wish I just had something where it was easy
and I could just be on the beach
and lay out in the sun
and everything's comfortable and nice.
Or lay out like a really nice design.
Yeah.
Or like a really nice spreadsheet.
Yeah. Lay out a spreadsheet.
Shout out to all our business folks.
You can lay out. Laying out nice spread.
Lay out your laundry. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Or lay out a baking sheet.
Oh yeah. You're still going. I see
you maybe lay out that bathroom tile.
Mm hmm.
I'm trying to think of other things you get
you laid out.
All right? You could.
You could buy some Lay's potato chips, boy.
Okay, you're on a roll.
So why don't we lay out
all of the options that people have
for all the people
who are starting
to think about outsourcing animated content,
where can they actually go to that?
So we're going to try to be unbiased here
and we're going to go through each option
sort of in succession as to like most involved
to to least involved with the creative process.
Think about it like that.
So your first option,
if you're going to be
the most involved,
is your DIY, the do it yourself
animation tools that are out there.
There are plenty of tools out there
that are browser based animation
sort of solutions to doing it yourself.
You can work either with
designs that they've already provided.
Usually they provide you
with a bunch of templates.
You can also work with the work, the
the assets, the creative graphics
and things that you have already.
You can import those into into the platforms
and you can start animating on your own
right away.
Today, today, right now. Yeah.
And so there's many pros and cons
that come with that particular option.
Again, we're not going to name them all here
because are so many,
but yeah, so pros and cons.
So one big pro is that they're cheap,
they're less expensive,
they're an alternative
to basically any other solution
and they're probably the lowest option
price point wise, that
you can that you can go to.
And then another pro is
that you're in full control
of everything that is going on in the program
that you're that you're creating that content.
Right?
Instead of asking somebody,
hey, can you move this?
You can just move it. Yeah.
And you know, you're doing the WYSIWYG of the
The what? The WYSIWYG, you don’t know it?
You don’t know WYSIWYG?
WYSIWYG is What You See Is What You Get.
It's a.
It's a terminology.
It's, it's, it's in the developers world.
I see.
Yeah, I, you know, I, I do some development
on the back end and WYSIWYG is...
It's just like what you see is what you get.
Learn something new every day.
Some cons here that we should talk about.
Yeah, obviously
it's tedious
and it's time consuming
because it's it's
all on you
as the person
who's maybe not a creative doing some of these
these things,
these programs aren't really built for animators.
Yeah, because we've used some of them
and therefore they miss a lot of the complexities
that that animators have inside their toolboxes
when they go and animate.
So it's usually a single tool
instead of what, you know, a Swiss
army knife is a good comparison.
There's a ton of tools
and programs
that animators use
that have all different kinds of things
that they can do. Within that custom and forth.
But yeah, yeah.
Whereas usually the tools
online are very limited in in their platform.
And that's intentional though too. Yeah.
Because they don't want you
to move that much that much stuff.
Yeah.
So they want to make the process
easy for you too. True. Yeah.
Another con here
is that it's difficult
to get the quality of motion
that you're looking for.
You might have a set
standard quality from like a template
that they provide you,
but it's extremely hard
to get something that actually looks good
and is representative of your brand
all at the same time.
Yeah, it's hard to change tone and yeah.
In style.
Yeah, exactly.
They don't really take into account
that separation between
visual style and motion style.
It's just like,
here's the motion that we give you, right?
And that could be good or bad again, depending.
It's a con for us because it feels like,
you know,
motion should be branded
to what your brand feels like.
It looks like an and behaves as.
So we've tried these tools ourselves.
I think we mentioned that
and they're really hard to work with even for us.
They are so hard to.
Yeah, I, I'll be honest.
I don't think I've ever made a worse animation before...
Oh, my God. In my entire life.
And that's even from, like,
the days when I was a student
making the projects that I made.
So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is, it is difficult.
It is very. Hard.
We feel for anybody that's that's trying to work.
Yes.
And again, the templates are.
Yeah.
So if you're another con here,
if you're not a designer
or an animator,
you may not know how to make the piece better.
And I think that's sort of a downside
to all DIY stuff like even not animation, right?
You don't really know
if you're going to do it yourself
whether or not that's the right approach.
It relies heavily on your knowledge of animation.
So that could be very little
depending on where you are and you know
how much experience
you have with the medium as a whole.
But you know, the templates that you use can have
that embedded motion in them
and again, we'll get into templates later.
But, but it's really hard to change that motion
to match what you're trying to do.
And then the last con here
is that the animation quality
might not meet the needs and expectations
of your audience.
And your audience
has that expectation of your brand. Right?
So it might actually hurt
your brand more than helps
because you're doing template sized stuff
and it kind of looks cool,
but that might not be actually representative of
of what you're trying to do.
I want to acknowledge, too,
whether that's internally or externally, right?
If your audience is internal
and they have an expectation of your brand.
That's true.
Yeah.
We've done like employee like employee
training videos that, you know,
they have a certain level of quality internally.
It hurts morale.
I think it can. Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
So right
does the opposite of what you want
quickly put together and not,
not up to the standard
that we know that the brand's capable. Yeah.
And then you know
you get to a point where you like,
you know, my supervisor
didn't really care about this.
They put 10 minutes into. This, right?
Like how, how, how should I take that information
in if you didn't put the time in?
Yeah, it's interesting to think about for sure.
Yeah.
But yeah, I want to touch a little bit on
this is where we changed our approach
a little bit to talk
about the creative point of view here. Yeah.
So if I'm a creative and you're going,
you know,
you as the marketer,
you're going to outsource through DIY tools.
I am mostly out of the loop entirely,
but in stage, right? Yeah.
And that can be a bit scary to think like,
oh, is everybody
now going to just switch to DIY tools and am I
does my role exist anymore like that?
That's a big fear, yeah.
But I do recognize that there are people
who opt for this option for a variety of reasons.
Usually it's
that they're looking for kind of the
both the cheapest thing possible and the thing
that requires
the most creative control from them.
So they don't have to go to me to change out
every little thing all the time.
Yeah,
but what we see as open
pixel happening in this situation
is that when somebody outsources
through DIY options,
we typically find that they realize
they need to move into more of a custom solution.
At some point.
DIY will only really take you so far
and at some point you realize
it's just not cutting it
because every time you're probably redoing it
and you're paying more and you're
basically paying more to hit the redo button
every single time.
So you never want to pay for a redo.
Button, but can you imagine?
And every time you undo it.
That's like pay to play, but like like awful.
Like, well, I guess pay to play as well.
If you had. To pay for every undo that you do.
Oh, my God.
Oh, boy.
It's $0.02, though. Yeah, very little.
No, nobody, nobody take that idea.
That's a
that's a terrible
there's a difference between bad
ideas and terrible ideas.
So the next option
is freelancer platforms and databases.
So this is obviously
the gig economy is
what we're really talking about.
Some of the most famous platforms
include Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer.com
There's a ton of others.
These top Toptal
I think is how you say that lots of platforms,
these platforms
basically connect you with a freelancer.
That's their entire real job, right?
Connect. I'm trying to find someone.
Most of the time it's an individual.
Sometimes it's a company.
You can find companies on there.
Some allow you to look
through individual profiles
to find someone that you'd like to work with,
and they also require you to post your job
and the requirements of your job
that you're looking to create.
Yeah, some of that.
Sometimes it can be like a long form
and sometimes it can be just a couple sentences.
Yeah. Depends on the platform. Yeah.
So pros and cons
here, going into the pros,
you have a review system much like Yelp
or Google or I don't know,
is there a different review site?
I don't know. Apple Pay, Apple Podcasts.
I mean, anything that has a review system,
you can read through people's reviews
that people give them,
there's star ratings oftentimes.
So you get to see what they've done
for other people, it's kind of nice.
There's a pricing system
so you can see what
someone is going to charge you.
Depending.
It could be on an hourly basis,
it could be on a project basis.
Really depends on the platform.
Depending on how they're set up,
there's messaging systems.
That's another big pro.
So and oftentimes the platform will force you
to communicate directly with the freelancer
through their messaging system
so that they have a record
of what was actually said just in case.
If there's anything that goes wrong
because lots of stuff.
Goes wrong, should always have a record. Yeah.
And then, you know, it's it's all kinds.
Another pro is that it's all kinds of work.
So it's not just limited to creative work.
You can get developers on these platforms,
you can get like a lot of technical work,
but something like, you know, TaskRabbit,
you can get a plumber to your house and you know,
try to find try to find someone so
not limited to creative stuff.
Another pro
and this is
subjective is that they claim to be fast
and you know, they're generally sort of
this cheaper, faster option.
We connect you with a
with a freelancer really quickly
and they get you back your work really quickly.
Right.
Get your project made yesterday, right?
Yeah.
Yesterday.
What's beyond yesterday?
Get your project done in the.
Past, we yeah.
We connect you with time travelers
to take you back in time.
So you already have your project.
Yeah. Oh, my God. In the future.
So they claim to be fast
and, you know, cheaper, faster, therefore better.
I think that's usually what people
kind of think about.
Yeah, but I think we all really
most of us will probably know the saying,
you know, cheaper, faster or better pick you.
Yeah, that is that is a yes is not equals in the.
Industry does not equal better.
Yes.
Which brings us to the cons
long list of cons here.
We have a ton of issues with platforms.
We're not necessarily against platforms, but
we do have some issues
with the current platforms that are out there.
So one con
is that
they require you
to have some level of expertize in animation,
if that's what you're looking to get done.
The marketer.
You, the marketer,
you, the person doing the requests right,
because you need to know to some extent
exactly what you're looking for.
I mean, usually on these platforms,
they have a big old box
that says Description of your job
and you're looking to put in all of that
knowledge that you already know much.
Clearer as you possibly can. Yes.
So there's no format around
that specifically for animation,
because that's not what they're built for.
They're built for the connection,
not necessarily
for extracting the right information.
So depending on the platform,
you'll need to input input those requirements.
And you might not exactly know
what it is that you need,
especially if it's yeah.
If it's a medium that you're working with
that's new like animation.
You might not know exactly what you're
needing out of that description.
But hopefully through Behind The Pixel
you will have some knowledge to go off of
that will give you,
you know,
that level of expertize
that you need to work on your next project.
Good upsell, good.
Often we've seen things on these platforms
like, you know, quote,
need a two minute explainer video right
and no context whatsoever on strategy and
what the project entails,
what style type we're talking about, does it
include characters?
What kinds of assets do we need to make all the.
Things that help determine the price? Yeah. Yeah.
And also
that determine
how the freelancer approaches
that project and make creative decisions
they're going to make.
And so, you know, a big disconnect there.
Another big con is additional fees.
So the fee structure for these platforms
kind of changes
depending on which platform you're dealing
with some charge on a recurring basis
because you're content,
you know, you're consistent,
they're a SAS company,
they're software as a service.
They're charging recurring.
Some are based on the freelancer.
So the freelancer has a rate,
they're charging you a thing,
and then they'll do a percentage of that rate.
And actually most platforms
actually charge twice.
So they'll charge you for putting up the job
and then they'll charge the freelancer
for taking the job.
So they're actually getting paid twice
to make a single. Connection, right?
Which, you know, no shame on them.
That's how they're running their business model.
It's a business model.
Just one thing to keep in mind,
the other sort of con
is that
you're searching
through a pool of mixed level talent.
And what we mean by that is,
you know,
the industry as a whole,
the animation industry hasn't really defined
what it means to be a junior or a senior
or a mid-level.
I mean, it's just in the title, but you can.
Sometimes it's just years of experience,
but you can have years of experience
and maybe not be at the at the right level.
You need to be like there's there's
so many ways you can misinterpret. That, right?
So the con here is that
the platform is charging you
to get someone
who could have a lot of creative talent
but doesn't actually have a lot of experience
working on
multiple clients
or working with clients
through their process and workflow. Right?
So it's a double edged sword.
So you have to kind of decide
what kinds of risks
you want to take
when going to these platforms
with a specific person.
And then the other last con here is that,
you know,
again, pro or con kind of your view on it.
It's it's global.
The platforms are global.
They're not necessarily tied to the U.S.
So you could run into a language barrier
that happens a lot.
I think famously,
I think it was Upwork
who put in a checkbox button
that said, like only show this job to the U.S.
clients or something like that,
because they were getting so many issues
with language barriers on projects.
So most projects require multiple revisions.
You're going back and forth
and sometimes that language barrier
can come into play.
Yeah, which I would say as a
as a clicks I'd note solution here.
You know,
if you're
running into language barriers,
you could just learn a new language.
Yeah, that is one aspect right now.
Hong Yoga and I say must. Mm hmm.
I go gonna say Muska. There it is.
We're learning Japanese.
Yes. So learn new languages.
It's actually a wonderful thing to do.
Yes, it takes time,
but could be worth it for the long run.
Yeah. To help expand your capacity too.
If you know somebody that's super talented
but you know there's a language
barrier there, help!
Help it out. Yeah.
Yes.
So we've
talked a lot about the pros and cons here.
I want to talk from the creative
point of view again. Yeah.
So for me as a creative, if I'm a freelancer, I'm
setting up a profile and it's actually,
you know, pretty easy to do for the super simple.
Yeah.
I mean, I have a nice portfolio of work
that I can pull from
and I can showcase and I probably have
like profiles at all of the
platforms that I possibly can write
because I want to get
exposed as much as possible
to the different clients.
But what that means is that selling
my service can actually be a lot harder
because my potential customer
has so many different options to choose from.
How do I convince them
that going with me, either
directly or going through this platform
or wherever it might be, is the right way to go.
And I might not have thought
about selling my services
through a platform, right?
I might have thought about it from
just making a website or whatever,
or going through Instagram.
And so because I might I might,
I need the work, right?
I need this work to come in.
So in a way, I have to use the platform.
And as a result, I'm
now competing
against all of these other creatives.
And I might have to reduce my price
to get the amount of projects.
That are released. You feel like you do?
Yeah.
And I feel like
I'm just
doing that whole thing that we see
in the creative industry of racing to the bottom.
Yeah. And that's frustrating.
Yeah.
So it's important to kind of remember
from the marketer's
point of view
when you're getting this outsource work
from these platforms, you, the marketer,
you, the communications person,
whoever's buying the content,
you might not be paying the creative
what they're actually worth.
So, you know,
you have to sort of have a conscious lens
when going through
and searching through those platforms
because the platforms incentivize
creatives to basically fight each other on price.
Yeah.
And the more we fight, the more we get paid,
they get paid, you know.
And so yeah, it's,
it's a lose lose situation there.
And I cannot stress this enough
that people deserve to be paid for their time.
Okay.
And that includes us.
I want to acknowledge
so if for any reason
you're thinking about
becoming a sponsor for this time.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Trying to throw in a little thing
that we're not taking sponsorship dollars
just throwing that in.
So another option.
Yeah, moving. Along. Right.
So if we're talking
kind of staying in the freelancer realm.
Yeah.
About platforms,
but another option that you have
is just hiring an independent freelancer.
So directly director. Free.
Yes, this is someone who is paid
for the thing directly.
D to f direct to freelance.
There you go.
That's that's not going to get John.
But sure.
So typically we've seen freelancers
hired for tasks
within a specific stage
of the animation workflow.
Though this is not always the case.
Sometimes a freelancer can get hired
from start to finish on a project. Yeah.
So some of the pros that you have here
are that you're having direct contact
with that freelancer, right?
You don't have to go through a platform
or a third party or a middleman.
You don't get charged.
For connecting with someone.
Exactly in charge.
So you get the direct contact with them
and you get to maintain that contact.
I mean, you can just send them a DM
on Instagram or LinkedIn, right?
It's actually super easy to distance.
Like, why would I have to pay someone else?
Right. Right.
Another pro here is that
their workflow is typically customized
to their own needs.
So based on the work that they do,
both their tools,
their workflows
and their systems are actually custom
to how they operate.
And what that means
is that you don't actually need
to fit your project request into sort of this
one size fits all platform.
Yeah.
Usually just an open box that's says description.
Right, right. Yeah.
So the way in which you're requesting
that work to the freelancer
is actually going to be a lot easier
because they can help guide you
through their workflow
and you can get a better sense
of what that process is like.
They'll be the ones to kind of ask
you those questions that you need
to get to get to that.
Correct.
Like budget for the project. Yeah.
So they're going to be helpful
in, in guiding you through that process.
Yeah.
A third pro here is just consistency.
You know what you're going to be
getting stylistically
for every project that you work on with them,
which is a beautiful thing
to not have to question it, to say like,
I know what they're capable of doing.
Here it is.
I know what I'm getting.
Yeah, and that's that's great. Yeah.
That's like, you know,
consistency
across both communication
but also style in other options.
I think sometimes
when you get into multiple animators
on a project, it's a little bit harder
to get consistent animation
in motion across the project. So.
All right. We'll talk about that. Yeah. Yeah.
But I want to take a second here
to shout out
all of the great, fantastic freelancers
that we've worked with over the years.
Yeah, there's a. Couple of them.
We love all our freelancers.
Yeah, yeah.
It's one
that's something to maybe keep in mind
that, you know,
on our side as studios,
we're also hiring freelancers. Absolutely.
So there's it's
there's a beautiful market of freelancers that
you should consider hiring.
Yeah.
We have our own database that we use and,
you know, feel free if you're a freelancer to
to check that out,
you know, different kind of platform, but.
Yeah, yeah.
We're trying to find ways to support
freelancers on multiple fronts. Yeah.
Yeah. So
you want to talk about some of the cons?
Yeah, it is to acknowledge that
because that said, there are pros and there are.
Yes, let's let's talk about it.
So
as a marketer,
you're going to need
to be active about staying compliant
with different state laws.
Right, because you might be hiring
people from different states
and also all over the world.
Right? Yeah.
So each state in the U.S.
has different thresholds
for what they define
as what a freelancer is,
or you might see it as a contractor.
So you need to look at those laws
to make sure you're staying compliant.
Ten, ten. Any night.
An example of this is
if you're continuously hiring one person
over the course of the year
for a certain amount of hours
or certain amount of,
you know, time in the schedule,
the state might actually consider them
a full time worker. Yeah.
And this actually it
it goes to the last option for the platforms.
It's a big selling point for the platforms
to hire them
instead of hiring a freelancer directly. Right.
So try to make sure you're staying compliant.
Correct.
It's all about compliance
whether you know,
if you're talking
about a giant corporation like Pepsi or Coke or,
you know, some big entity like that,
the platforms are saying,
hey, we keep you compliant.
If if we go through like I don't know if
if you're a freelancer out there
that's on some of these platforms,
they'll actually call you if you've only had one,
one person on, on or one job
through their platform,
they'll call you and triple check that
you have other invoices out to other
companies and clients.
Right. So.
You know,
they are doing a little bit of that legal fee.
It is
just a note
that you won't get that
if you're just hiring a freelancer directly.
Yes.
So another con that we see here
is what we're calling these sort of all eggs
in one basket problem.
And it's basically if a freelancer becomes
unavailable for any reason, you know,
you run the risk of needing to hire
somebody else for that project,
which can create some scheduling conflicts
and create a little more stress
that you might not have been prepared for.
So a potential solution
there is to just always
make sure you have like a backup option
just in case.
But yeah, that can definitely create some issues.
One more con that we see here is that cost
tend to fluctuate.
This is pretty standard.
Yeah,
every freelancer will have a different way
of charging for their services,
which means
as always, just a general solution here.
Always add padding to your budget
because depending on who you're hiring,
especially if you have to bring on
somebody else in the middle of the project,
their rate might be different. Yeah.
And also in this economy, I mean, I feel like,
you know, in this economy you're trying to do
you're doing more with less,
which is a terrible way of looking at it.
But that's
that is the situation
that a lot of marketers find
themselves in is I got to do way more with a lot
less money. So.
Right.
And it's just keeping in mind
that there's no one standard
like to determine those costs. Yeah.
So keep it in mind.
The final con that we see
here is sort of a limited skill set.
And what that means
is that, you know,
a freelancer can be incredibly awesome
and talented and do amazing work,
but they might not be able to meet
all of your creative needs. Right.
If you have different projects
with different styles
and different challenges
that you're working with.
So it might be that you again
need to find somebody else
or for some other aspect of the project
or other things that a freelancer
wouldn't be able to provide.
You know, I mean, it's typically why
a lot of companies will hire
multiple freelancers
or have a freelancer database, right?
Yeah. And, you know,
it's I think it's safe to say that,
you know, if you studied animation
or you're
an animator specifically, that you're
you might not be the best designer
you're really good at.
You're really good at motion
and less on the design. Yeah.
So that's that's what we mean
by limited skill set.
Why don't you talk to us
a little bit about the creative
point of view here? Yeah.
So depending on my experience
as a creative,
I may or may not be used to freelancing.
So it depends on who you are as a freelancer.
You might be just starting out.
Some people have been freelancers for decades.
They've been all over the industry
very well known
freelancers out there that that work
solo.
So I think, oh look,
I don't know that song.
Oh, Frank Ocean.
Oh, okay. Sorry. Go ahead.
Sometimes, though, I get put into a position
where it feels like
I need to do everything that the client wants.
I think that's a position that freelancers are
consistently in, which can get frustrating,
especially if I have multiple clients
doing sort of the same things.
To me,
or I'm in a position where I'm a new freelancer,
maybe I want to impress and like
make sure that I get everything done on time
and with their expectations and and or
I'm in a position where I'm running short on time
and that could be a little bit of a hiccup.
So in all these scenarios, yeah,
I feel like there's the
from my perspective as a creative, I'm,
I might be ebbing and flowing from
being comfortable
with a client
to being being sort of constricted by a client.
I think that's fair to say.
If I'm a seasoned freelancer,
I have probably a typical workflow that I have
that works really well for me.
But I might be actually
running into with newer clients
some misinformation on terminology
that people are using
when they're in the conversations
that that I now have to go through
and probably find myself
explaining that over and over
and over again to many different clients
that are new,
that don't that don't quite know
how to use those terms.
We covered this
in a separate episode on terminology.
It's not all the terminology
that you need to know,
but it's it's
some of the ones that we come across for sure.
It doesn't this
this misinformation problem doesn't
prevent the work from happening.
Right.
So you still kind of get the work done,
but it makes the conversation
a little bit harder.
Communication can sort of fall
because you're not quite expecting the right
the right thing.
Yeah. On both sides of this. Yeah.
Those conversations, you know, and misinformation
for the algorithm sake
is not only applicable to elections
and vaccines, it's all in saying.
Sure, sure,
you're not wrong. You're not wrong.
Misinformation is everywhere.
So hopefully we're providing you
with as much truthful in.
The algorithm. As possible.
As a freelancer.
I'm basically a business.
I'm a solo business.
Solopreneur is
is a thing,
but I want to build relationships directly.
I have those relationships
that I know
I want to reach new clients,
but I might actually have
my own marketing problems.
All right I'm
I'm a business with marketing problems.
I just have one person at my business
and this whole topic
is like a whole other episode really.
And we can talk about in the future
if you're interested.
We're not really here to teach freelancers
how to be better business owners.
Because there's other programs, there's.
So many programs out there
that are fantastic by the. Way. Yes.
They look into it.
You're freelancing.
Absolutely.
And, you know, we can name some,
but we don't want to push anyone
in any direction.
But if you're a freelancer and I would absolutely
look through through those options
because they're they're fantastic.
Yeah.
And I don't you know,
I don't think we're actually qualified
to talk about being really good business owners.
Reminds me of like a
like I'm shaking in April right now
and I'm
looking at it being like,
you know, are we qualified?
Looks hazy.
Try again.
Which brings us to the next option.
Right? Right. The animation studio.
Is hiring an animation.
We're going to take a hard look at ourselves.
Yes, you're doing some introspect in here.
Yeah. Yeah.
To provide hopefully some some clarity.
So. Yeah, pros and.
Cons, tell us about that option. Yeah.
So if you're hiring either an animation studio
or you might call it a production company.
You know what I heard?
Sorry to cut you off, but you know what I heard?
Prod co.
Prod co. Yeah, boy.
Oh, I.
I saw it
written and I was like,
what is a prod co production company?
I got that totally makes sense.
Okay, well, I won't be using that, but
we define a
production studio or animation studio
as having multiple team members.
So more than one. Yeah.
With multiple skill sets that create all sorts
of different creative projects,
namely in the medium of animation.
That's what we're talking about
when we define this right now.
So this is slightly different from what
you might know as a creative agency,
but we will get there. So hang tight.
Or just an agent? It was just an agency. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So some of the pros here
for working with an animation studio,
you are going to have creative flexibility
and reliability.
So, for example,
if one person has to step away from a project,
another person within the team
can immediately take it on.
And generally,
there's always more than one person
that has an eye on the project at any given time.
So there's a level of accountability there
in terms of schedule,
in terms of creative content,
yeah, you have a little more reliability
to make sure that your project's always
being at the forefront. Yeah.
You also have the benefit of management, right?
Typically you'll have
a dedicated project manager,
sometimes on both sides of the project,
but almost always within the animation studio.
And they're going to help you navigate
both the client relationship that you have,
and they're also going to help
navigate the communication with the artist.
So they're keeping everybody
on track in the same schedule.
That's their primary focus.
It's a beautiful thing.
A third pro here is that as a team,
you're going to have
a deeper understanding
of the overall strategy
of an animated video project as it pertains
to executing on your campaign as a marketer.
So a team of people is going to be more involved
in the different
of the production workflow that are going to help
to build something that complements
your strategy as a whole.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think,
you know, the size of your composition
becomes really important here. Yeah.
The size of your team composition,
because you never want a situation
where you have
too many cooks in the kitchen
and it becomes a kitchen nightmare.
Boy. Shout out to that show.
Boy, you.
You nailed it.
Nice. Yeah.
Also a good show.
Yeah.
We'll have a bake off later. Nice.
We're going to keep
yeah, we're going to do a whole episode,
just a bonus episode about our favorite, you.
Know, favorite. Cook shows.
Cooking shows. Yeah.
So what are some of the cons with studios?
As much as we like to admit we're perfect.
They're definitely you know, I actually.
Sorry, I take that back. There are no cons.
There are no cons. Right, right.
All right.
So we just keep going.
Reality check. There are cons.
Let's talk about them.
So one of the cons here
is that working with an animation
studio can be more expensive, right?
The studio tends to be more expensive because of
additional costs
that you might not be considering
when you first thinking about hiring them.
Yeah, things
like especially
if they're in a physical location
dealing with overhead. Yeah, right.
And if a company's not remote.
So that's something to keep in mind.
Yeah, they're we're remote.
We don't have that issue.
But yeah.
But there are different costs
that are associated. Yeah.
So another thing to think about
that's a con is capacity.
So this varies from studio to studio
based on both the size
and the artistic limitations that they have.
Yeah, studios may take on too much work at one
time, right?
We're taking on as many projects
as we can expense.
We're trying to survive or we're trying to like,
you know, try to grow and grow.
We're trying to expand.
And that might mean that one
or more projects might suffer on the back end.
Yeah, because of the strain on the creative team.
So that's something to keep in mind about
maybe even asking a studio
how they manage their projects.
Because if you're talking us
and we're working on anywhere
from five to as many
as like 15 projects in a given month,
how do we ensure that everything stays intact?
Yeah. And on time, really? It's really on time.
Yeah, exactly.
So something else to think about
that's a con here is the stylistic range.
As much as we might hate to admit this style
choices are also limited
within a studio environment. Yeah.
Depending on the set up that they have
or the total talent that they have at the studio,
it also limits the styles
that they can hit for your project,
and they might have to go and hire freelancers
or hire other people in house. Hire other.
Studios, hire the studios.
That happens for sure. Yeah.
So that's something to keep in mind
because that might up the cost
on your project as well to consider.
Yeah, a final con here that we have is
sort of the
internal studio dynamics that are happening
within the projects we're talking about.
There's no issues.
It's never issues in companies.
So studios will
might also hate to admit this, but
there's always a layer of office politics
that are going around
with other people at the studio
who are probably running your project, right?
Yeah.
And those politics can sometimes get in the way.
They can vary the level of success
or effectiveness on a project.
So it's really just something to be mindful
and looking out for.
One thing
you could try to determine for yourself is like
looking at a studio is this studio
approaching things on
sort of like a Game of Thrones vibe, office
politics,
or are we talking about like Ted Lasso politics
very two. Very different.
Both shows.
Very great shows. Yes.
Fantastic.
Very different approaches to team building.
Sure.
Absolutely.
So keep that in mind.
Not cutthroat.
Right? Right. Yeah.
Creative point of view.
Yeah.
In a studio environment.
So as a creative working in the industry,
the reality is that I'm
basically staying employed
because of the work that comes into the studio,
because of the sales
that the studio is is giving us.
So
that means that some projects
might not be exactly what I want to work on.
Yeah. Right.
As a creative, you kind of have these
these ideas about what you should be working on
on your own,
and the studio is giving you work
that you may not be entirely excited about others
I might be really excited about.
So there might be different levels
of of excitement
depending on the projects that come in
as an artist.
I never
really have considered your marketing strategy
right at a studio necessarily.
I usually as an artist
leave that to the strategy people
because almost always
there's a separation there between
at the sales point.
Here's the strategy we're going for, right?
That's a different role.
That's a different set of people.
Usually that that aren't
necessarily
the people who are working on the project. Right.
Or the creative directors
focusing on the strategy curve of the artists
and then rolling that information back. Yeah.
So I, I also really just want to expand my own
skillset, right?
I'm again
internally working through some of the stuff.
So it's at artists,
at studios
might struggle between
producing the best content that they possibly can
for a project that they
may not actually believe in. Yeah.
So that's kind of the,
the point of view there
usually and that's a whole
I think that's a whole other episode as well.
How do you work on things
that you're not super excited about?
Yeah, sure.
But it's important for studios to recognize
this of their artists. Yeah.
And where they. Are. Yeah, that's.
All right.
Well,
so why don't we jump a little bit further up
the ladder here into your last option?
So we're talking about now hiring an agency.
Yeah, which we mentioned a little bit before,
but I think it's really important
to start by defining what we mean by agency here.
So agencies are multiple people again,
but they're working on multiple aspects
of different business goals
for a company or for a client.
And this is typically generating
more revenue or profit over time. Yeah.
So agencies are developing strategies
and executing on campaigns
with their internal marketing and creative teams.
Right.
So you wouldn't necessarily hire them
for just a single piece of content.
You usually you're looking for a broad range
of services
that they can provide
in this sort of all in one inclusive package.
Yeah.
So a pro to working with them
is that you can work
on multiple campaigns at a time,
especially if you're a company
that's expanding
and trying to test out multiple things.
The largest agencies have hundreds,
if not thousands of people.
Yeah, so all be able to work on your project.
They are downsizing today. But.
But yes, they are still pretty big. Yeah.
But they're set up for a larger scale.
Yeah. Regardless. Right.
So agencies will usually need to work
on large
projects and longer projects
so they're able to understand
the needs at that scale. Yeah.
And they're also highly knowledgeable
of the different global trends that are happening
that might help
to make some of your business decisions
a lot easier.
So, you know, in a way, I can use all of the data
that tells me that
I need to trend towards a culture of
toxic nostalgia, perhaps.
Have you been a nineties Khan yet?
Oh, my gosh, no. Is that a thing?
Very nostalgic.
Yes, it's here.
It's in Connecticut.
Oh, man.
They're probably all over at this point.
I could see the multiple ones.
Yeah, but speaking of cons.
Yeah, let's get into, like, the guns.
So top of the list, they're expensive.
Number one, agencies tend to be super pricey.
You know, they employ lots of people.
They have lots of overhead.
Therefore, they need lots of money.
And you need to be sort of
at the top of their list
in terms of their client list,
in order to make the sort of
move them to do anything for you.
Their strategies
might not totally align
with your morals or your values or your goals.
Usually your goals, but not morals and values
depends on the agency.
But some agencies tend to have a process
for success
that you might have a different view on.
And if those don't sort of jive and work well,
you might face some pushback in unexpected ways.
Another big con here
is that the results that you get from
these agencies could be skewed
after the agencies run reports.
They have to run reports
to sort of prove their effectiveness.
That's their whole job. Right.
So those reports can really be made to say
whatever they want.
You know.
I think public facing side,
they want to look good.
Everybody wants what want.
Yeah.
So manipulating numbers
kind of comes becomes part of the job.
Another con that you may not be aware of.
Agencies also outsource their creative work.
Almost all.
All agencies. Studios. Yeah.
So where on some of those list
they have an approved vendors list.
Almost always.
And they go through that which usually ends up
marking up the price on those things.
Right.
And then last con here, agency personnel
move around a lot.
The one account manager might change
over the course of the campaign.
So, you know, you're running campaigns
for about six months to a year
and, you know,
the people there might change over the course
at the time that you're running that campaign.
So the next person might not be as good,
might not be as in. Fact, companies might merge.
All sorts of things can happen.
Yeah.
Okay,
so let's talk a little bit about the creative
point of view here. Working at an agency.
So as a creative at an agency,
I am typically well aware of my role
and the function of being a creative year.
Yeah, right.
I'm usually better equipped
to understand that sort of y behind
what we're doing.
Yes.
Because it's talked about more frequently
and I can even work on things really fast.
Usually I have to yeah.
I'm used to be able to being able to juggle
around multiple projects
and different timelines all at once.
But with that does come this sort of like base
level of stress.
Yeah, right.
And it's
because the expectations
that I'm working off of are quite high now.
I need to be able to do it.
A little bit everywhere.
Everyone's doing less with more,
more with less mirthless.
Yeah. Yeah.
So and so sometimes as an addition here
I am dealing with a lot
more of those office politics
that are going around.
Yeah, I might need different levels of approval
at different
points of the production from multiple people,
which can actually block
some of my creative capability
for being able to do
the work that you're asking me.
Yeah, we talked a little bit about going upstairs
and that staircase gets way bigger and bigger.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
It's an escalator at that one. Yeah. Yeah.
And in this situation,
there's a lot more cooks in the kitchen.
Yeah, there's a lot more.
Paul, Hollywood's that you're trying
to get a handshake from.
Right. And it's very difficult.
Like one handshake is hard enough.
You're trying to do that
like multiple times over.
I think we watch too many cooking shows that
there might be too many
cooking shows in the world.
That's. Oh, that's.
Yeah, that's a debate.
Is there enough.
Well I think that's it.
That's, that's the end of the episode
in terms of our content.
Yeah.
I mean hopefully you got
a sense of some of the pros
and cons between each of the options
that you have
just to give a sense of maybe
which one you might be leaning to.
Yeah, more than another.
So just to summarize,
you have a couple of options here.
You have your DIY option, you do it yourself.
Go to the
go to go,
go to a browser and animate on your own.
You get your platform solution.
Find a middleman
that will connect you to a freelancer.
You've got your direct
a freelancer situation, you've got your hire
a studio production company
somewhere in the middle there.
Or you can go all the way up to an agency model
that again will help you with strategy
from the
jump on a larger kind of thing.
Yeah so we hope you can you.
It'll give you some thought
about which options to consider. Yeah.
Which options might be right for you,
which options might not be right.
And let's also to say that like,
you might go with different options
at different times. Sure you can. Yeah.
So here's the tease for the next episode.
Our next episode will be another hack.
Got to get our hack game
in order
to make doing some of that short form content.
We also have a bonus episode
where we are going to talk to the creative
this time.
Nice about working on creative content,
how they handle those issues
as communication issues.
What is it that they experience?
This is someone we haven't worked with before,
but we are very excited to talk to.
You always this person.
Really, really good conversations.
So yeah.
Yeah.
And we're excited
to be on their podcast later on.
That'll be a bonus episode for us as well.
So it's going to be a special episode.
It'll be great.
So yeah, so at least for this episode,
a big
thank you to Emilia for producing this podcast.
Yeah, the producer is Jackson Foote and our music
was created by Hidden
and licensed to film meet dot com.
Until next time.
You jump right into it.
I was I was shocked usually we usually we
you know we say.
I'm just trying to get over it.
I'm trying to get over it.
Let's see how this is.
Trying to I'm trying to get over it quickly.
Uh huh.
So you're prolonging.
This. I see.
That was my.
Until next time.
Stay open line wrong.
I did it wrong.
Now I'm now I'm just in an excuse
to prolong it even further. Until next time.
Stay on us.
Stay open.
You did it right.
This is brilliant. Keep it going.
Okay, we've got this.
Until next time,
stay honest.
Stay creative. Stay seated.
We should do it.