Content Creation Service & Rates

Ad Art is uniquely positioned to create digital content that is best suited for our customer’s digital signs.  Our creative staff have decades of real world experience, deep technical knowledge, and artistic talent that can be put to good use when customers need digital content produced for their displays.

Service Summary

Capabilities:

Non interactive content creation services - Illustration, graphic design, 2D and 3D animation, motion graphics, visual effects, character animation, video post production, video editing, video compositing, and sound design.

Interactive content creation services - HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript programming is available for web browser based interactive applications.  Custom programming is available for server side or natively compiled interactive applications.  Custom scripting is available to integrate live data feeds from third party providers.

The Process:

We consult with the customer to define the scope of work, giving recommendations within the project’s time, budget, and technical constraints.  We conceptualize, create, and develop content not already provided by the customer.  If necessary, we can script and/or storyboard the presentation for client review.

For 2D and 3D animation projects, we model, surface and test render all objects used in a scene for client review.  Next we set up the actual scene by placing environments, objects and other elements.  We next keyframe animate all moving scene elements and test render for timing and aesthetics.  After final client approval, the scene is finally rendered and sent to editing.  Final touches like music, narration audio, 2D compositing, and visual effects are added during editing.  The end deliverable is a quality digital movie that can be output to various digital formats for delivery.

Video compositing, editing, and finishing projects are handled in a similar way as the above animation process, except different tools are used. 2D motion graphics and compositions are likewise handled similarly.

For interactive projects that require software development, we use an application lifecycle management process.  It is an iterative process that is divided into 4 major phases:

1. The inception phase – the primary objective is to scope the system adequately and define its requirements as a basis for validating initial cost and budgets.
2. The elaboration phase – the primary objective is to mitigate the key risk items identified by requirements analysis and to document the architecture of the project in its basic form.
3. The construction phase – the primary objective is to build the software system, its components and features.
4. The transition phase – the primary objective is to ‘transit’ the system from development into production, making it available to and understood by the end user.

These major phases are both incremental and chronological. Each phase may be broken into smaller iterations.

Source Materials:

Ad Art staff has access to a modest library of pre-created content, like background animations, stock photos, etc.  We will also spend a limited amount of time searching for “creative commons” licensed stock video footage and images on the Internet.  However, specific images, videos, or animations that require a license to be used are the responsibility of the customer and shall be provided by them. The customer is also responsible to acquire any production or B-roll video footage intended for inclusion.

Digital Content Creation Tools We Use:

• 3D modeling/ surfacing/ rendering/ animation software
• 2D graphics creation & editing software
• 2D animation/ compositing/ VFX software
• Audio/video editing software
• HTML5 Javascript/CSS frameworks for web applications
• IDE software and frameworks for natively compiled applications

Rates and Terms

Rates:

Our standard rate for digital content creation services is $150.00 per billable hour, in increments of ½ of an hour.  A billable hour is actual production time. Consultation and communication time are included with the service at no additional cost.

Terms:

Standard Subscription Model:  For typical interactive or non-interactive content, Ad Art staff will provide the agreed amount of billable hours of service every month on a subscription basis using the chosen “plan” outlined on our website.  Hours are charged at our standard rate.  The more hours of service a month the customer agrees to, the higher priority their content requests have.  The customer shall be billed a subscription fee every month in order to retain our services, with the intention of using all “agreed to” hours.  If their need for content creation exceeds the “agreed to” hours within any given month, then Ad Art staff will charge their standard rate for every hour the customer exceeds.  If the customer does not use the full amount of “agreed to” hours, they lose whatever remaining service time for that month when the month expires (service hours do not accrue month after month).

Case by Case Rate Model:  For other interactive or non-interactive content, we require a unique agreement with the customer for each project.  An estimate of time at their standard rate shall be provided after Ad Art creative staff consults with the customer to define the project’s scope of work, timeline, budget, and technical constraints.  Once signed, work will commence and payment will be made as defined in the agreement.

Estimating: Billable hours vary per media item request, based on complexity.  Since that is the nature of digital content creation, Ad Art can only estimate how long it will take to complete a media asset based on the complexity of the request and how well creative staff is equipped to meet the challenge.  However, as a general guide, some basic time estimates are as follows:

• Single still image - ½ to 1-½ billable hours.
• Single 2D motion graphics animation - 4 to 8 billable hours
• Complex 2D or 3D animations, like character animation - 10 to 40 billable hours
• Interactive HTML5 applications - 8 to 40 billable hours

Revisions:  Time spent revising a media asset is billable time. Therefore, it is best practice for the customer to communicate clearly and provide all assets and message text in advance.

Assets: When specific elements are required by the customer to be included in a media production, it is the customer’s responsibility to provide those assets.  Especially is this true when they request assets that require purchase of a license.  Assets may include (but are not limited to) fonts, photos, video footage, backgrounds, animations, software code, libraries, etc.  Ad Art can only provide stock assets it has in its limited library, or assets with “creative commons” licenses on the Internet.

Please visit our website for more information:  electronics.adart.com

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Content Creation Service & Rates