On average animation costs $100,000 per animated minute. Luckily we have a lot of team mates that are willing to accept less then market rate and some are here working pro-bono because they love the project so much. Through their support we’ve been able to complete much of the pre-production phase without funding. However, we are now getting to the point where the production of the film is accruing costs. These costs impact phases such as advanced rigging, final layout, lighting, texture, special effects, grooming, cloth-sim, color-timing, audio, etc. All of these phases are expensive and yet they do not include additional costs such as renting server space, access to rendering farms and other infostructure costs.

Currently we don’t have sponsors because it is imperative that I retain ownership over the project. Finding the right type of sponsor(s) is something our team is working hard to obtain. Maintaining ownership is important to achieve the ultimate goal of making this short the calling card to the full animated feature. From the feature we are hoping to get fiscal sponsors and change the way the film industry pays their artists. One of my biggest goals is to get to the point where we can give artists royalties on the content they create. The only way to do that is to own the project being created.