Agree on style and design of the project

- Does your client know what they want their project to look like? (upbeat music) When a client approaches me for animation, they usually just want to say that they want something animated. Unless they have a character that's already designed, I have no idea what look or style they might want, so I start by asking them to provide me with sample looks of something they like, something they might want to emulate. Hopefully they can state an animation that you're familiar with, but I often hear, "I want it to look like a Disney feature animation." After a brief discussion of how Disney feature animation quality costs more than a million dollars a minute, well then we get down to reality.

I ask them to Google images and provide me with a couple samples or tell me the name of a series or character that they like. Looking at the sample styles helps us pick a general look, and that's enough to tell me if we need to create 2D, 3D, photographic, or clay-style puppets. You can't really plan or budget a project until you know the style of look that you need to create. There's different costs to each one. In my proposals and agreements, I also detail the style that we agreed on.

This is important in case a client changes their mind and we need to adjust the budget accordingly. Make sure you spend a few minutes at the beginning of your project to determine the proper look for your project and you can save yourself a huge amount of time and properly move forward with your planning. (upbeat music)