Animators: No Matter How Affordable Your Rates Are, Someone On Fiverr Is Undercutting You

Animators: however cheaply or efficiently you can work, someone on Fiverr is almost certainly undercutting you.

One of the mainstays of the gig economy, Fiverr is a platform for freelancers to sell all kinds of service on the cheap — including animation. In the video above, Youtuber and animator Josiah Brooks (a.k.a. Jazza) puts Fiverr’s artists to the test, handing out commissions and rating the results. The animators he picks offer very competitive prices: one promises two minutes of cg animation for $107.23 AUD ($73.58 USD), with a seven-day turnaround.

For the most part, Brooks is fairly happy with what he gets, although he is judging the work (both 2d and 3d) with their very low cost in mind. In one case, he concludes that the vendor misled him, providing animation of far lower quality than the sample clip featured on their profile. He also has trouble actually obtaining the product from another vendor.

Needless to say, this service — like the online gig economy in general — treats all freelancers equally, which means that it benefits them unequally. An animator based in a country with low living costs will stand to gain more from Fiverr than someone in the United States; vice versa for clients. Transactions on the website are conducted anonymously. Is Fiverr a force for good in the animation industry? Have you ever been a Fiverr client or service provider? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment below.