The art of 2D animation has captivated audiences for decades, bringing characters and stories to life through carefully crafted drawings and meticulously timed movements. And the question that often arises in the world of 2D animation services is: how long does it take to create a 2D animation? Creating a 2D animation takes from 2 months to several years. The answer is not a simple one, as the production timeline for a 2D animation can vary greatly depending on a myriad of factors whether it’s a 30-second commercial, a feature-length film, or an episodic series.
How Long Does a 2D Animation Take?
The length of your story influences the production time:
30-Second Animation: A short animation might take 2 to 4 months to complete. It could be a catchy animated commercial ad, a social media explainer video, or a dynamic title sequence.
60-Second Animation: Doubling the length often translates to roughly 4 to 6 months of production time. This timeframe is suitable for creating a more nuanced story or an informative explainer video with a few characters and environments.
90-Second Animation: Stepping into the realm of longer animations, a 90-second piece could take 6 to 9 months or more to produce. This could be a pilot episode for an animated series, a music video with elaborate visuals, or a detailed product demonstration.
5‑Minute Animation: Production time can vary from a few weeks for simple styles, up to 4 to 6 months for detailed, professional work.
10‑Minute Animation: Extrapolating from per-minute estimates, expect around 400 to 800 hours, or 2 to 4 months for 2D animation.
30‑Minute Animation: A 30‑minute TV-style animated episode generally requires 3 to 6 months to complete.
2‑Hour Animated Movie: Full-length animated films typically take 2 to 5 years, depending on complexity, technique, and team size.
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Examples of 2D Animated Project Timelines
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Total Production Time: 36 Months – 3 Years
Running Time: 135 minutes
The Lion King (1994)
Total Production Time: 42 Months – 3.5 Years
Running Time: 150 minutes
Timeline Duration of the 2D Animation Production Pipeline
Here is a breakdown of the typical timeline duration for major phases of a 5-minute 2D animation production pipeline:
Pre-Production
- Story Development and Concept Art: 2-4 weeks
- Scriptwriting: 1-2 weeks
- Storyboarding: 3-6 weeks
- Character Design and Visual Development: 2-4 weeks
- Asset Creation: 1-2 weeks
Production
- Layout and Scene Staging: 2-4 weeks
- Animation (Rough and Final): 6-10 weeks
- Background Painting: 3-6 weeks
- Effects Animation: 2-4 weeks
- Ink and Paint (Digital or Traditional): 3-6 weeks
Post-Production
- Editing and Compositing: 1-3 weeks
- Sound Design and Music Scoring: 1-2 weeks
- Final Adjustments and Print Mastering: 1 week
In total, the production timeline for a 5-minute 2D animation can range from approximately 4 to 6 months, depending on the complexity of the project, the size of the production team, and the specific requirements of the animation.
8 Factors That Impact 2D Animation Production Timelines
Understanding these pipeline stages underscores why 2D animation schedules can stretch from weeks to years. What accounts for so much variance? Here are some of the key factors:
Project Length and Complexity
The runtime length of a 2D animation project has an obvious correlation with production time. A 3-minute animated short will take exponentially less time than an 85-minute 2D movie. The number of unique backgrounds, diverse characters, and level of storyline intricacy also play into complexity. For example, an action-packed adventure film with detailed fantasy environments took around 5 years to animate, while a simple 30-second commercial spot may only need a handful of static scenes.
Frame and Shot Number
The total number of individual frames and camera shots needed factors into animation timelines. Quick-cutting action scenes or music videos may require thousands of unique drawings per minute. In contrast, dialogue-driven animated films with fewer cuts can leverage more prolonged scenes with sustained character poses and expressions. The frame rate (e.g. 12, 24, 30 fps) impacts the drawing workload too.
Visual Style
The artistic style chosen for a 2D production makes a marked difference in labor requirements. Achieving smooth, lifelike human character animation demands drawing volumes of in-betweens, breakdowns, and advanced techniques like smears. In contrast, simplistic shapes and limited animation styles like cutout puppets or geometric patterns reduce drawing needs. Visual effects like blurs, glows, and particles also add complication.
Team and Studio Size
2D animation studios range from solo indies to hundreds of artists. A larger 2D animation agency can assemble separate teams for key animation, in-betweening, clean-up, inking, painting, scanning, compositing, etc. to work in parallel and expedite turnaround. Smaller teams require more versatile all-around animators who handle all phases sequentially, impacting total throughput capacity.
Reuse of Existing Assets
Whether creating sequels, reboots, or serialized storylines, repurposing character designs, prop assets, layout scenes, and even animation cycles from prior works can accelerate new 2D productions immensely. However, some legacy artwork may require touch-ups or recreating to align with modern standards and workflows.
Experience Level
Just as with any art form, experienced 2D animators leverage decades of accumulated knowledge to draw more efficiently than novices. Veterans develop muscle memory for things like solid drawing, animating physically plausible movement, and creative acting skills to portray strong character personalities quickly. Conversely, student films take longer while skills develop.
Animation Technique
Traditional hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation as a type of animation is extremely labor intensive compared to techniques like rotoscoping or motion capture which map human actions to drawings with software interpolation. However, the subtleties of human expressions are often best realized by talented draughtsmen drawing from life. Stop-motion animation, meanwhile, can be a very meticulous and slow process.
Number of Revisions
The reality of the collaborative creative process means reworking storyboards, redesigning characters, redrawing scenes, tweaking performances, and altering compositions across multiple feedback cycles before locking the final animation. This back-and-forth revisioning substantially impacts productivity rates. Clear creative vision and minimizing do-overs through advance planning are paramount.
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Time‑Saving Techniques & Efficient Workflows
You want to get your 2D animation project done faster, right? It’s not about working harder. It’s about working smarter. You can spend more time on the fun, creative parts. You just need a good plan and some clever tricks. It all starts at the very beginning.
Using Asset Libraries, Cycles & Templates
The pros don’t start from scratch. They have a bunch of time-saving tricks. They use an asset library. This is just a collection of pre-made backgrounds and characters. They can reuse this stuff fast. You can make your own in programs like Adobe Animate and Toon Boom Harmony. They also use animation cycles. These are reusable animations for things like walking. You only animate it once, then use it a lot. To finish it off, they use project templates. This lets them start a project with all the settings and file folders already set up.
Choosing Motion Graphics or Limited Styles for Speed
The style you pick for your animation really changes how long it takes. Frame-by-frame animation is beautiful. But it can take forever. For projects that need to be fast, like commercials, you can use motion graphics. This is much faster to make. This style is often made in Adobe After Effects. It uses simple shapes, movement, and text, and it’s much faster to make. Or, you could use limited animation, which holds character poses for longer and uses fewer drawings. Think of shows like South Park—that style is a perfect example of how you can still tell a great story while working super-fast.
Software Tools & Automation Shortcuts
In today’s world, being an amazing artist is just half the battle. You also have to be good with your 2D animation software. You can save a ton of time with the right tools. A few automation tricks are a huge help. The tools stop you from doing the same thing again and again. It’s about letting the computer handle the boring stuff. That way, you can just focus on the creative part.
Key Software Shortcuts & Script Automation
Drop the mouse! Seriously, becoming a master of your key software shortcuts is one of the quickest ways to speed up your process. But you can go even further with script automation and expressions. An expression, including facial expressions, is a little bit of code. It does things for you automatically in programs like Adobe After Effects. So, it can make a character’s arm follow their body or express different emotions on their face. You don’t have to animate every single frame by hand. It’s like an assistant for the boring stuff. This lets you be more creative.
Batch Rendering for Final Export Efficiency
You’ve finished your animation, but now you have to wait for it to render? That can be a huge time sink. This is where batch rendering is a big help. You can render a bunch of different scenes or videos all at once. This feature is in software like After Effects and Toon Boom Harmony. You can set it up at the end of the day. Then your computer does all the work overnight. The next morning, everything is done. You don’t have to waste time waiting for a loading bar.
Planning Strategies that Reduce Rework
You know the saying, “measure twice, cut once”? Planning things out at the start is a huge time-saver. Most project delays happen because you have to redo work later on. When you plan everything perfectly, you save yourself a massive headache and so much time.
Smart Pre‑Production: Storyboarding & Animatics to Avoid Later Revisions
Before you animate a single frame, you need a good plan. A storyboard is like a comic book of your animation. It shows every shot. An animatic turn that storyboards into a timed video. You can see how the whole thing flows. This is your chance to make big creative decisions and fix mistakes. It’s way easier to move a drawing than to re-animate a whole scene.
Early Feedback Cycles: Maintain Efficiency & Quality
Getting feedback early is super important. Finishing a project and hearing a client say “That’s not what I wanted” is a terrible feeling. It’s a huge waste of time for everyone. That’s a bad feeling. So, a good idea is to not wait until the end. Just share your work with your team or the client as you make it. This includes the storyboards and early drafts. It keeps everyone on the same page. You can fix problems fast before they turn into a huge mess.
Conclusion
The creation of a 2D animation is a journey that demands patience, perseverance, and a deep understanding of the various factors that shape its production timeline. From the initial sparks of imagination to the final polished frames, each stage of the process presents its own challenges and opportunities for creativity.
Whether it’s a team of seasoned professionals or a passionate independent artist, the ability to navigate the complexities of project length, visual style, animation techniques, and the inevitable revisions is what separates a successful animation from a mediocre one. It is this unwavering commitment to excellence, coupled with a love for the art form, that has kept 2D animation alive and thriving, captivating audiences generation after generation.
FAQs
What's the average production time for a feature-length 2D animated film?
A full-length 2D animated movie, such as those from Disney, could take 3-5 years to produce.
How long does it take to make a 2D animated series?
A 2D animated series typically takes 1 to 3 years to complete, depending on the number of episodes, complexity, and team size. Large productions with high detail or longer seasons may take even longer.
How long does it take to produce one episode of a 2D animated show?
Producing one episode of a 2D animated show usually takes 2 to 6 months, depending on the animation style, episode length, and production workflow. More complex art styles or larger teams can shorten or extend this timeline.
How long does hand-drawn 2D animation take?
Hand-drawn 2D animation is very time-intensive, often taking 2 to 4 weeks to animate just one minute of polished footage. A full project can span several months or even years, depending on length and complexity.
How long does it take to animate an anime episode?
Anime episodes can take 2–12 months to make. For example, One Piece is produced on a tight weekly schedule, with work starting months before airing.
Does 2D animation take longer than 3D?
2D animation is generally quicker to produce than 3D animation, which involves more complex steps like modeling, rigging, and rendering that extend production time.
How long does it take to make a 2D explainer video?
A typical custom 2D explainer video takes about 4 to 8 weeks from script to final delivery. Simpler, template-based projects may be completed in just a few days.
