The Game Studio’s Guide to Animation Outsourcing: Workflow, Costs & Best Practices

I will tell you the truth; my initial outsourcing experience in animation was a nightmare. I wrote numerous, weak briefs, retrieved asset that was not compatible with our game engine, and was in revision hell. However, this is what I have learnt after discussing with studios that reach to the point.

The Workflow Which Really Works.

This is what is unique about outsourcing animation: it is not a case of sending files and receive animations back. You need a real system.

Start with a killer brief. I mean the finer stuff, of your art style, technical details (how many polygons, in what file formats, which specific engine want you to use) and references. The recording studios I interviewed indicated that 90 per cent of the issues are as a result of poor briefs. On one of the devs, I was told that now he adds the screenshots related to similar games and says to make it fall like this.

Break it into phases. The studios that get this nail are ones which have a checkpoint system. The initial step is you give a go-ahead on ideas and style frames. Then there is animation review of animatics and draft animation. Lastly, you have the refined assets and good integration. By so doing, you are not learning about big problems only after finishing and having to pay a lot of money to fix them.

Set up async feedback loops. When you are with a studio in the Asian or Eastern part of Europe, time will play tricks on you. Frame.io can be used as a platform to add frame-specific comments. I also got to know how to write extensive feedback comments and then step aside to leave them with work as I sleep. Do it right and it is like a 24-hour production cycle.

Test in-engine early. Checklist Do not wait long until the final delivery when you find out that the assets are working in Unity or Unreal. Integration testing: make it a milestone of your project. I have also heard of some instances that beautiful animations simply did not import. Uncomfortable and quite costly to repair at a later stage.

What It Really Costs (And Where Insidious Costs Lie).

The 40-60% rate of savings with offshore outsourcing is not a myth talked about by everyone and yes, it is true. But what they fail to mention initially, let us talk about it.

Base costs are regionally outrageous. Indian or Eastern European offshore studios have the largest savings – up to 60 percent low compared to employment in the consumer country. Partners located further away (as a nearshore partner) are more expensive but the time overlap is greater. Onshore studios: Onshore studios are of premium prices, and communication is painless.

This is the point that beginners are burned: a re-write does not go on and on. Typical contracts are 2-3 phases with revision. After that? You’re paying extra. I had once observed a studio accrue to 2K of the revision expenses due to their indecisive character designs.

The scamour of dreadful murder is scope creep. You begin by asking someone to give you walk cycles of three characters and suddenly you find yourself asking them to give you swimming and fighting moves. Without recording these adjustments and renegotiating, you will pay the opium tax or waste goodwill with your partner.

Factor in your own time. Running teams that are outsourced consumes hours of time – in reviewing assets, providing feedback, coordinating schedules. One of the indies informed me that he spends approximately 10 hours weekly on managing two outsourcing partners. Budget for that.

The smart play? Begin with mini-paid testing. Expenses under 500 dollars but demonstrates the functionality of a studio before you invest 10000 dollars in a character animation package.

Best Practices That Distinguish between Wins and Disasters.

Having listened to what worked (and what, definitely, did not), the most important thing is as follows:

Create a rapport, not a business. The studios that make various projects with the same partners perform much better. Why? The outsourcing team gets to know your style, procedures, knows your engine and finds problems before you do. Make them feel like an extension of you and not a vendor.

Create reusable templates. Write a style guide Be one time only – color palettes, art direction, technical requirements, all of it. Use it for every project. Likewise in the case of feedback templates and review checklists. Miscommunication is reduced by half with this consistency.

Be a visual communicator as opposed to a spoken communicator. When we say make it snappier we mean nothing. There are results to saying reduce this transition to 1.2 seconds to 0.7 seconds as in this reference video. Highlight frames, playback videos, provide examples of other games.

Protect your IP properly. Always sign NDA prior to the sharing of concepts. Ensure that your contract clearly states that you will own all assets, source files as well as derivatives. Even a single studio that I am familiar with logs the audit trail on their file shares to ensure safety.

Plan for integration work. Even the perfect are things that require adjustments as you take them into the pipeline. Build buffer time for that. It is a mistake to base your launch date on the assumption that outsourced assets will plummet.

Choose the right partner to the job. It is not all studios that do all things well. Some crush stylized 2D work. There are also motion capture experts. Find a match to your project requirements on their experience record – scan portfolios like a maniac.

This is What I Would Do differently in the future.

Assuming starting my initial outsourcing venture, I would use two weeks in the planning process rather than two days. I would do a small test with three studios and select the best one and then expand gradually. And I would with the revisions as with the gold – feedback done right makes it save it all down the line.

There is a reason why the market of game animation outsourcing is reaching $1.27 billion in 2034. Studio which works out the workflow correctly, realistically budgets and uses proven practices? They are producing games that are quicker and do not reduce their quality. The ones who rush in blind? They’re the cautionary tales.

Begin with small stages and keep a record of it all and have in mind that with practice they become adept at outsourcing.

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