When commissioning short animated videos from production companies or freelancers, choosing the right theme and effective communication with designers are crucial for success. This requires understanding market trends, audience preferences, and the key information you need to convey.
"I don't know how to make (commission) a short animation... It seems difficult..." You might be thinking this, and it's understandable since the process differs slightly from live-action. Particularly, creating an effective short animated video while controlling costs through techniques like frame count (frame rate) and the amount of movement can seem like a challenging task at first glance.
Of course, it's important to think and experiment internally to build your own know-how, but the top priority is finding the shortest route to the right solution. Just as society has evolved by learning from history, leveraging proven tips and case studies from experienced professionals allows you to achieve your goals faster than starting from scratch.
Therefore, this time we will explain in detail the specific steps and key tips for producing short animations. Drawing on insights gained from the author's nearly 10 years of experience, we provide concrete solutions covering clear theme selection, effective communication, and methods for high-quality production within budget.
While there are several types of animated videos, short animated videos possess the following three key advantages. Above all, their ability to convey the desired message without boring the audience makes them highly effective for commercial use in corporate PR and promotional campaigns.
Matching the “benefits and purpose” of short animations
・Encourages viewers to watch until the end
・Can be produced in large quantities at low cost
・Allows testing with multiple video formats
・Easily generates interest in products or services among many viewers
Additionally, animated videos, including short animated clips, offer the following two key benefits:
・Characters can foster viewer familiarity without requiring on-camera appearances
・They allow for creative freedom when live-action representation is challenging
・They tend to stand out more on social media due to the prevalence of live-action content
While live-action videos convey a solid, high-quality impression, they struggle to deliver the same sense of approachability that animated videos provide.
Furthermore, animation has long enjoyed broad appeal across age groups. This strength allows for tailored control over characters and world-building to resonate effectively with target customers. Whether creating business-oriented characters or beloved mascot characters, they can be produced to align perfectly with the brand.
Consider the “disadvantages and risks” of short animations
・Requires producing a large volume of content
・Not well-suited for educating viewers to sell high-priced products
・Requires efficient video editing that constantly captures attention
Short animated videos, precisely because they are brief, are effective at sparking interest among many viewers. However, they are not suitable for high-priced products or services that require viewers to thoroughly understand the offering, develop a need, and go through a consideration period before purchasing. If you want to sell high-priced items, you need to direct viewers to platforms like YouTube, email newsletters, or LINE@ to build a relationship with them first.
Furthermore, just because a video is short—say, around one minute—doesn't guarantee it will be watched all the way through. Viewers may swipe through it quickly, so it's crucial to craft the video structure to keep them engaged every two seconds.
The impact of animated videos on YouTube Shorts (TikTok)
Source: YouTube
The impact of distributing short animations on the YouTube platform is undeniably significant.
YouTube's broad user base across age groups enables reaching diverse audiences. YouTube Shorts, in particular, are well-suited for reaching new demographics. Utilizing short animated videos amidst the prevalence of live-action content allows for capturing viewers' attention quickly and effectively conveying the intended message.
Animation, with its strong visual appeal, can convey emotionally rich messages visually that are difficult to express through text or static images alone. This is particularly useful for building brand image and increasing product awareness.
Furthermore, YouTube makes video sharing easy and has strong viral potential through social media. Once a video goes viral, it can reach a large audience without significant advertising costs. Furthermore, animated videos on YouTube are highly entertaining, allowing information to be conveyed while viewers enjoy themselves. This characteristic makes it easier to gain long-term fans.
However, to succeed on YouTube, it's also crucial to explore themes viewers want to see, regularly update content that interests them, and maintain their engagement.
7 steps when outsourcing
Release scheduling when outsourcing short animations
Creating a short animation involves several fundamental steps. By understanding and executing these steps, you can produce an effective short animation.
Below is a detailed explanation of the basic steps for creating a short animation.
Idea and Concept
First, develop the fundamental idea or concept for the animation. This can include the story outline, characters, and setting. This step forms the crucial foundation of the animation.
Plot and Script (Screenplay)
Based on the idea, create a plot (similar to a proposal) and write the specific screenplay script. Since short animations must convey the story within a limited time, it's essential to focus on key points and communicate them concisely.
Creating Storyboards
To visually represent the story's flow, create storyboards and storyboards. These can be considered separate or treated as the same thing; think of them as blueprints for the visuals, visualizing the overall progression. This clarifies scene flow, camera movements, and character expressions.
Character and Background Design
Design the characters and backgrounds appearing in the story. Since character traits and background atmosphere significantly influence the story's impression, meticulous crafting is essential.
Animation Production
We actually produce the animation. Production methods vary widely, including hand-drawn animation and computer animation. We select the appropriate method based on the required techniques and style.
Sound and Editing
We add sound effects, music, and voice-over dialogue by voice actors as needed. We also perform editing to ensure the visuals and audio complement each other effectively.
Final Review and Release
Once all processes are complete, a final check is performed. If no issues are found, the animation is released. Release occurs via methods suited to the purpose, such as online platforms or film festivals.
Short animation production is a field requiring creativity and technical skill, but beginners can take on the challenge by following the basic steps. Bringing your own ideas to life and entertaining viewers can provide a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
Key points when outsourcing the creation of short animations
When producing short animations, especially for advertising or promotional purposes, there are several key points to maximize their effectiveness. Below, we explain these points for creating effective short animations in greater detail.
Define the Objective
First, clearly define the goal you want to achieve with the short animation. This includes researching the ideal audience and themes, identifying messages that meet needs, and eliciting the desired reactions or actions. The clearer the purpose, the easier decision-making becomes during production, leading to a more effective animation.
Prioritize Storytelling
Short animations unfold their story within a limited timeframe. Strong storytelling captures viewers' attention and creates an emotional connection. The story must not only be engaging but also skillfully incorporate the brand or product message.
Crafting Character Designs
Designing characters viewers can relate to and feel close to is essential for an animation's success. Characters should be designed to resonate with the target audience, reflecting their age group, cultural background, and interests.
Pursuing Visual Appeal
The visual elements of short animations are crucial for capturing viewers' interest. Color choices, animation style, and background design must maintain consistency with the story's theme.
Ensuring Consistency Between BGM/Sound Effects and Visuals
Effective BGM and sound effect design enhance the anime's atmosphere and appeal to viewers' emotions. Music should be carefully selected to harmonize with the story's progression and reinforce the scene's emotional impact.
Keep the Message Clear and Simple
Short animations have limited time, so conveying the message concisely and clearly is vital. Avoid complex content, and ensure viewers can understand it after just one viewing.
Consider Integration with Marketing Strategy
Animation should function as part of a broader marketing strategy, not as standalone content. Consider its use across various platforms like SNS, websites, and events, ensuring a consistent brand message is conveyed.
By incorporating these points and adopting a comprehensive approach to short animation production, you can generate greater impact and brand recognition.
What to communicate to outsourcing partners
As mentioned earlier, short-form videos are an effective way to capture the interest of a wide audience. To keep viewers swiping through your content, it's crucial to craft videos that keep them engaged every second.
Key points to communicate when outsourcing short animation production
The recommended purpose for utilizing short animated videos is to introduce your brand or featured characters to a wide audience and spark their interest.
・Create content that makes viewers stop what they're doing and watch within the first 2 seconds
・Eliminate unnecessary scenes throughout the video to prevent boredom
In this sense, commissioning TikTok creators to produce videos is also a good approach. This is because TikTok creators possess the planning and expressive skills to build a dedicated fanbase, making your content more likely to gain recognition.
A key point to note is that this is merely a starting point for gaining awareness. In other words, even if a video created by a TikTok creator creates an opportunity for viewers to see other videos on your account, it will be wasted if you don't have other videos that viewers will actually enjoy.
Key points to focus on when outsourcing short animation
When outsourcing short animation production or assigning it to in-house designers, it's often the case that those handling brand promotion and other production tasks lack detailed expertise. While animation is a powerful communication tool, ineffective production results in empty visuals that fail to leave a strong impression on viewers.
Below are key points to consider when outsourcing:
Are the purpose and target audience defined?
Before commissioning a short animation, it's crucial to clearly define the objectives you wish to achieve through the animation and the target audience. This enables the production company to propose an appropriate concept and style.
Are the budget and schedule realistic?
The budget directly impacts the scope of expression possible in the short animation and the smoothness of motion, i.e., the quality. Communicate your budget and desired delivery date to the production company and discuss the balance between quality and timeline.
Additionally, short animations combine more elements than live-action content. To complete the project on time, consider perspectives like “How much can we reduce the number of animation frames?” or “Can we reuse existing in-house assets?” rather than solely focusing on speeding up delivery through increased manpower.
Is communication fostering shared understanding?
Communication to ensure the production team understands your vision and intent is crucial when advancing production discussions. Avoid handing everything over without input; clearly convey your expectations and requests, and thoroughly align on initial concepts like drafts or rough sketches.
Does the final product align with your company?
It's vital to confirm that the produced animation harmonizes with your brand's image and message. You must ensure the content reinforces, rather than undermines, your brand's value.
Are there any legal (copyright) issues with usage conditions?
Particular attention must be paid to copyright and licensing issues. Verify that the music, characters, and visual materials used are legally permissible, and obtain necessary permissions or licenses when required.
Is significant revision in the early stages (two draft versions) feasible?
In short animation production, the very flexibility of expression means that if the vision deviates, revisions can sometimes mean starting over from scratch. Therefore, during the direction-setting phase (like the first draft), it's crucial to determine whether multiple patterns or significant revisions are acceptable.
Furthermore, in the latter production phase, since all materials are completed based on the direction set earlier, avoid requesting major revisions at this stage.
By paying attention to these points, even beginners can effectively outsource short animation production and successfully convey their brand message.
One notable example of a popular short animation creator is “Karameru.” Karameru is also active on Twitter, boasting 1.358 million followers as of late September, making them extremely popular domestically.
Their surreal art style and punchlines are popular, and most videos are short animations lasting around 10 to 30 seconds. They create animated videos tailored to modern trends, perfect for watching during spare moments.
Recently, there has also been an increase in short animated music videos (MVs) featuring songs paired with these short animations.
How much does outsourcing short animation production cost?
Video Type
Price Range
Production Time
Ideal Usage
Short Animation
¥50,000–¥100,000
1–2 weeks
TikTok, Twitter posts
The cost to produce short animated videos is relatively low per piece due to their short length, and the production time is also shorter. However, a single video rarely achieves the desired effect. Therefore, we recommend creating a longer animation video (around 5-10 minutes) and editing it into multiple short animated clips.
A good visual reference might be the “cut-and-paste videos” often seen on YouTubers. By having a base video and editing clips tailored to specific themes, you can create content that resonates with a wider audience.
Tips for creating short animations while keeping costs down
Source: YouTube
When producing short-form videos, there are several key points to maintain high quality while keeping costs down.
Identify and cut unnecessary scenes
To achieve maximum impact within a limited budget when creating short videos, eliminating unnecessary scenes is crucial. Determining which scenes are essential for viewers and which are superfluous enables efficient video production.
Clearly define the video's purpose and message, and focus on selecting scenes that align with it. For example, in a product introduction video, prioritize scenes highlighting the product's features and usage methods, while cutting scenes with low relevance. Keeping the video short helps control production costs while capturing the viewer's attention.
Secure materials in-house
One method for producing high-quality videos affordably is gathering necessary materials yourself. For instance, using free or low-cost stock footage, music, and images, or selecting them yourself, allows you to reduce costs while advancing production as quickly as possible.
However, the critical factors here are the quality of the materials and the usage rights. Carefully verify copyright and usage permissions, selecting materials that are free of issues. Even when using original footage or illustrations, confirm that the creator holds the copyright.
For most videos used by companies, unless they are feature-length films, they are primarily a means to achieve a specific goal. The key is to create content that is compelling to the audience, regardless of how low the production cost is. To achieve this, the commissioning party must deeply understand what interests their audience.
Choosing an outsourcing partner (production company)
When you want to produce a short animated video, what criteria should you use to select a video production company? There are two main points to consider when choosing a production company.
・Choose a production company whose strengths align with your production objectives
・Choose by analyzing the context of use (their expertise) from their portfolio
Let's look at each point.
Select a production company whose strengths align with your goals (sales, awareness, etc.)
When creating animated videos, it's easy to get caught up in thinking, “Let's just make something visually appealing.” However, the most crucial factor is the purpose: “Why are we making this video?” If you don't choose a production company that aligns with this purpose, even the highest-quality (visually stunning) animation may fail to deliver the desired results.
For example, the story and direction of a video “to sell a product” differ significantly from a video “to increase brand awareness.” If the goal is sales, you need a video with hooks that stimulate purchasing desire. If the goal is awareness expansion, you need unique expressions that are easy to share.
How to Choose a Production Company
If the goal is sales promotion? → Choose a production company specializing in promotional videos that convey a product's appeal quickly
If the goal is awareness expansion? → Choose a company skilled in creating animated content that tends to go viral on social media.
If the goal is to strengthen brand image? → Choose a company skilled in creating animated content focused on world-building and design.
Furthermore, commissioning production with an ambiguous goal increases the likelihood of problems like “it's not what we envisioned” or “the brand message isn't being conveyed correctly.” That's precisely why it's crucial to clearly define “Why are we making this video?” and choose a production company whose strength lies in that specific area.
Video production is like cooking. Simply wanting to “make something delicious” doesn't determine whether you'll make ramen or cake. Similarly, without a clear understanding of “what you want to convey,” you cannot design the optimal expression or story for your video.
Choose based on understanding the application context (expertise) from their portfolio
Even if you think, “This production company's anime commercial looks high-quality and promising!”, whether that example truly suits your company's objectives is another matter entirely. Relying solely on subjective judgments like “the visuals are beautiful” or “the characters are cute” may prevent you from achieving the desired effect.
For instance, the structure and messaging of a video differ significantly depending on whether the goal is to sell a product or promote the company. Nevertheless, if you reference examples that “just seem good,” the direction of your video might drift away from the message you want to convey.
Therefore, it's crucial to understand the background and purpose behind “Why did this animated video succeed?” and assess what insights the production company possesses.
Strengths of Potential Partners Revealed Through Usage Context
Animation for YouTube Channels → Skilled at storytelling and series development to increase subscribers
Corporate PR animations → Specialize in relatable narration and character design to enhance brand trust
Product sales animations → Specialize in structures that quickly convey product appeal and stimulate viewer purchasing desire
As shown, the suitable animation style varies by purpose. Therefore, the key to selecting the right production partner is not just looking at their portfolio, but discerning whether the examples align with your company's specific objectives.
Recommended outsourcing partners (production companies) for short animations
However, thoroughly considering the two key points for selecting a production company, as explained so far, can be quite challenging. Therefore, this section divides the process into two phases and introduces recommended short animation production companies for each phase.
Crevo Inc.
-For comprehensive consultations based on production objectives, not limited to animation
By choosing a production company that excels in consulting services, you can receive support that includes a marketing perspective—such as where and for what purpose animation should be used.
Source: Crevo Inc.
Crevo Inc. excels in producing a wide range of videos, regardless of the medium. They create both animated and live-action videos, and offer flexible pricing options tailored to your needs.
This production company is recommended for those who “prioritize quality for branding purposes” or who “want to create memorable, impactful videos.”
Understanding that each production company has different strengths allows you to commission the one whose expertise aligns with your specific requirements.
Marketing Perspective in Japan: Beyond Just Creation
NOKID provides creative planning and production for PR using characters, events, and video content. Effective videos balance business and creative perspectives, e.g., short clips optimized for TikTok, designed to capture attention in the first 2–3 seconds.
For first-time animation or PR-focused content, feel free to consult with us.
Tokuma Kanna
Founder and CEO of NOKID Inc., a premier creative studio specializing in short-form animation and graphic design. With a focus on narrative-driven visual storytelling, he has spearheaded high-profile projects across the global entertainment landscape. His portfolio includes the acclaimed VALORANT: YORU TYPICAL DAYS cinematic, the Hatsune Miku x Seven Premium 15th Anniversary campaign, and Koda Kumi’s music video "100 no Kotoba-tachi e." As a leading producer in the PV and MV sectors, Tokuma continues to redefine the intersection of animation and contemporary digital media.
Behind the scenes of the short-form anime production process! The secrets to capturing viewers' attention through planning, production, and outsourcing
