Having a 3D animation made costs between 250 and 20,000 euros at Dutch studios that publish a price and takes two to ten weeks, yet five of the twelve provider pages Oase Creative checked name no amount at all.
What does it cost to have a 3D animation made?
3D animation costs 250 to 20,000 euros at the Dutch studios that publish an amount. The low end is a simple logo animation. The high end is an explainer or launch video of 60 to 90 seconds. A short product clip for social media starts at most studios at around 2,500 to 3,500 euros.
We counted that on 4 November 2026 across twelve pages from Dutch providers that rank for "3d animatie" and "3d animatie laten maken", the Dutch searches for 3D animation and having one made. Seven of the twelve name an amount. Eight name a lead time in weeks, from two to ten. Five name no amount at all and work with a call or a custom quote.
The gap between 250 and 20,000 euros is not noise. These are different products under the same search term. A spinning logo, a four-second loop on a product page and a ninety-second film with voice-over each take a different number of working days. Ask "what does 3D animation cost" without saying which one, and you will always get a range back.
Below is what the twelve pages say, what drives the price, how long it takes, what you supply and how to choose a studio. We make 3D animation ourselves, so read this with that interest in mind. The sources are linked so you can check the count. We leave one agency unnamed: it is a direct competitor of ours, and its page names neither a price nor a lead time.
What do twelve Dutch providers say about price and lead time?
We opened the organic results for both searches and kept twelve provider pages. We left out a directory of agencies, since it sells nothing itself. For each page we noted whether it states an amount and a lead time, word for word as the provider writes it.
| Provider | Amount on the page | Lead time on the page |
|---|---|---|
| One Media | from € 2,500, € 4,500 and € 6,500 per package | a few weeks, complex 6 to 8 weeks |
| Cooler Media | on average € 7,000 to € 15,000 | 2 to 4 working weeks, custom 4 to 8 |
| Bigfish | from € 3,500 (social), € 7,000 to € 16,000 (explainer, launch), from € 12,000 (high-end) | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Studio Analoog | from € 10,000 | 6 to 10 weeks for 60 to 90 seconds |
| Bigfish Animatie | € 8,000 to € 20,000 for 60 to 90 seconds | 6 to 10 weeks or longer |
| De Animatier | € 500 to € 10,000, logo from € 250 | 3 to 6 weeks |
| Phil & Flo | from € 5,000 or € 10,000 per package | 3 to 5 weeks |
| Animation Agency | no amount | 6 to 10 weeks for 30 to 60 seconds |
| Artsis | no amount | a few days to months |
| E-commerce agency (unnamed) | no amount | no lead time |
| Bleck | no amount, custom quote | no lead time |
| Verwey Creatives | no amount | no lead time |
The amounts almost always appear as "from" or as an average, not as the price of a defined product. Only Bigfish and Phil & Flo tie an amount to a type or package. Phil & Flo even lists the number of correction rounds and the lead time per package, which makes theirs the easiest page to compare.
At the same agency the amounts even differ by domain. Bigfish names an entry price from € 3,500 on one address and an average of € 8,000 to € 20,000 on the other. Both can be true, but it shows that an "average" mostly tells you which client the page wants to attract.
And the page with the strongest e-commerce focus is exactly the one that names no amount. If you buy for an online store, you find the least to hold on to where the topic comes closest to your question.
Why does the price run from 250 to 20,000 euros?
The price of a 3D animation follows the hours, and those hours sit mostly in four things: whether a model exists, how long the animation is, how real it has to look, and how many versions you need. A spinning logo touches none of the four. A launch film touches all of them.
The model. Every 3D animation starts from a 3D model of your product. If you have a CAD file from the factory, it gets cleaned up and given materials. If you have nothing, someone rebuilds the product from photos, dimensions and a sample. That is a separate step, and with us a separate service: 3D modeling. You can reuse the model afterwards for still renders, variants and the next animation.
The length. Every second has to be animated, lit and rendered. At Studio Analoog an animation of 60 to 90 seconds takes six to ten weeks on average. A four-second loop for a product page is a fraction of that.
How real it has to look. Photorealistic materials, glass, metal and liquid cost render time and craft. For a concept project for Nespresso we made loops with coffee pouring into a cup. That fluid simulation took several days of rendering per variation, as our project page describes. A stylised animation without real materials is much faster.
Versions and extras. Every extra format, language version and voice-over adds up. One Media, for example, charges € 189 extra for a voice-over, on top of the package.
| What you have made | Range on the pages | What mostly drives the price |
|---|---|---|
| Logo animation | from € 250 | Style and length, usually no product model |
| Short product clip or loop for social and web store | from € 2,500 to € 3,500 | Whether the model exists, number of formats |
| Explainer or launch film of 60 to 90 seconds | € 7,000 to € 20,000 | Length, script, voice-over, number of scenes |
| High-end campaign or complex technical work | from about € 10,000, varies by studio | Simulations, realistic materials, direction |
How long does it take to have a 3D animation made?
Plan for two to ten weeks. That is the spread across the eight pages that state a lead time in weeks. A short, simple animation can be ready within four weeks. A film of a minute or longer takes six to ten weeks at most studios. Cooler Media names two to four working weeks for a standard explainer and four to eight for custom work.
Most of the weeks are not spent rendering, but in the steps before and the rounds after:
- Storyboard. What you show, in what order and for which channel. The key decision is made here, and this is also where most waiting happens if several people inside your company need to sign off.
- Model. A clean CAD file saves days. A product that has to be rebuilt from photos adds days.
- Animating and rendering. This is the actual making. With simulations or many realistic materials, rendering alone can take days per version.
- Feedback and revisions. Each round costs the studio a few days and you the time you need to respond. Animation Agency names feedback speed, next to complexity, as the reason a 30 to 60 second project takes six to ten weeks.
One advantage of 3D is that you do not have to wait for the product. Because everything comes from the model, the animation can be ready before the first batch leaves production. For a launch that means the product video is ready on the day the stock arrives, instead of a few weeks later after a photo shoot.
Working towards a hard date, such as a trade fair or a launch? Name it in the first call and ask which step is on the critical path. Usually that is the model or your approval of the storyboard, not the animation itself.
Which 3D animation do you need: loop, product video or explainer?
Choose the type by where the animation will live, not by what is possible. The same 3D production delivers something different for a product page, a marketplace or an ad. They are also three different price brackets.
The loop on your own product page. A few seconds of motion that repeats, or plays when someone hovers over the product. For the supplement brand ELVOU we made a sequence of two to four seconds per product: lid off, capsule out, jar floating up. It runs on their Shopify store. Read the ELVOU case for how it is built. For Optimice we made rotating 3D animations of the products for the same spot.
The product video on a marketplace. Here the platform decides the format, not you. On your own store you can build in loops and hover effects. On bol and Amazon you have no such control. bol shows one video per item and converts every video to 16:9. A portrait video made for Reels will appear there in landscape with bars. What a bol item page does allow is in our piece on bol item pages.
The explainer or commercial. A minute or longer, with a story, often with copy or voice-over. This is the most expensive type and usually the reason for that 20,000 euro ceiling.
On length, one thing is well researched. In a study in the Journal of Advertising Research, researchers compared 7, 15, 30 and 60 second versions of the same commercials. A seven-second version was remembered almost as well as a fifteen-second one, and reached 60% of the recall of a thirty-second version. That was about commercials, not product animations. The lesson still holds: one good master plus short cut-downs for social is usually smarter than three separate productions.
| Type | Typical length | Where it lives | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loop or hover animation | 2 to 6 seconds | Own web store, product page | Matched to your product photos |
| Product video | 15 to 60 seconds | bol, Amazon, own web store | Landscape 16:9 for bol |
| Social clip | 6 to 30 seconds | Reels, TikTok, ads | Portrait 9:16, square 1:1 |
| Explainer or launch film | 60 to 90 seconds | Website, presentations, YouTube | Landscape 16:9 |
What do you supply when you have a 3D animation made?
The more complete your brief, the fewer hours go into searching and asking. That is money: on an hourly rate you pay those hours yourself, on a fixed price they sit in the amount as margin. This is the list we want to have ourselves at the start of an animation.
| What | Why | Don't have it? |
|---|---|---|
| CAD file or 3D model (STEP, STP, OBJ, FBX) | The product is right to the millimetre | The model gets rebuilt, which adds days |
| Photos or a physical sample | Material, gloss and colour are right | Colours get estimated and corrected later |
| Logo as a vector file and brand colours | Labels and packaging are sharp and correct | The studio redraws the logo |
| The channel and the formats | Decides camera, framing and length | Risk of re-rendering per format |
| Copy, claims and voice-over | The animation's timing follows the copy | The animation has to be adjusted later |
| Examples you like | Quick agreement on style and pace | More storyboard rounds |
| Your deadline | Planning of model and rounds | Rush costs more or does not fit |
Often forgotten: the choice of material on a product that does not exist yet. A render of a bottle that should be matte, but leaves the factory glossy, has to be redone. So fix which finish is final.
Also often forgotten: who gets the model and the source files. For ELVOU we delivered the files in Blender and Cinema 4D, so they can have new variants added themselves. Agree on that up front. A model that stays with the studio means going back to the same studio for every new colour.
How do you choose a studio for 3D animation?
Choose on what you get, not on the lowest "from" price. Two quotes of five thousand euros can be very different products: one with a single correction round and one format, the other with three formats and a loop version. So ask every quote the same five things.
| Question | A good answer | Watch out if |
|---|---|---|
| What is included in the price? | Length, number of formats, number of revision rounds, voice-over or not | Only "from" without a description |
| How many revision rounds? | A fixed number, with what a round covers | "Unlimited" without limits, or no answer |
| Who makes the model? | They work from your CAD or build it and charge it separately | The model is "included" but you never get it |
| Do I get the source files? | Yes, with the model, in a common format | Only the mp4 |
| What result can you show? | Work that is live, at a client you can call | Only other people's numbers |
That last question is tricky, because the industry leans on borrowed numbers. Bigfish writes that Shopify reports stores with 3D content see an average 94% increase in conversion. In Shopify's own current 3D guide we did not find that number. Shopify advises measuring it in your own store instead: compare the conversion of visitors who engaged with 3D media against those who only saw photos.
That applies to us too. The ELVOU case says visitors stay longer on the product page and that conversion went up, but without a number. A figure we can stand behind here, we do not have. A studio that is honest about what it has and has not measured is more reliable than one with a nice percentage from someone else.
Finally, check who actually does the work. Ask who makes the storyboard and who animates, and whether those are the people you speak to in the first call.
Can AI video replace a 3D animation?
For a quick mood clip, sometimes. For your product, usually not. A 3D animation comes from a model of your real product: every dimension, label and colour is checked. An AI video tool makes an image that resembles your product. You see the difference mostly in details such as text on a pack, a closure or the number of buttons.
Buyers notice too, or at least they say so. In a June 2026 survey of 2,273 US online shoppers, Baymard found that 60% have less confidence in a purchase when they know the product image was made with AI, and 17% then do not buy the product. That was about still AI product images and it is self-reported, not measured conversion. The research says nothing about 3D renders. It does show that buyers use product imagery mainly to check what they will get.
So we use AI next to 3D, not instead of it. We make the model and the main animation in 3D. AI is useful for backgrounds, mood variations and quick tests of an idea before you put hours into it. We worked out that trade-off in CGI versus AI product visualisation. What you actually buy with an AI image is in our piece on the terms of AI product photos.
For one product in one colour, a regular photo shoot is often faster and cheaper. What that costs is in what product photography costs. 3D becomes interesting once you have variants, colours or a product that does not exist yet.
What does 3D animation cost at Oase Creative?
We bill 3D animation by the hour. The rate is 100 euros an hour and is on our prices page. After the storyboard you get an estimate of the hours, before any animating starts. That includes two revision rounds and the formats landscape (16:9), square (1:1) and portrait (9:16), plus a loop version for your product page.
To be fair: our 3D animation service page currently states no total amount and no lead time. Our page is not one of the twelve we counted, but it has the same gap as the five without an amount. We are going to change that. Until then it helps to set an hourly rate next to a fixed price. An entry price of 3,500 euros equals 35 hours of work at 100 euros an hour. Ask every quote, ours included, how many hours are in the price and what they are for.
Our 3D animations mostly live on product pages and in web stores, for brands that want to show their product before it is in someone's hand. Three examples:
- ELVOU: hover loops of two to four seconds per product on a Shopify store, with the source files included.
- Optimice: rotating 3D animations of the products for the web store, as part of a rebrand.
- Nespresso: a concept project with three six-second loops in 4K. The client never put them live, and we say so.
Animation with us always builds on a model. If you have one, we reuse it. If not, we make it first through 3D modeling. Want to know what your animation costs? Send us the product, the channel and the length you have in mind. After the first call you get an estimate in hours, which you can set next to any other quote.
