That is quite an ambitious project, and it will not be cheap.

There are established rates for free-lance animators: https://work.chron.com/freelance-animator-pay-scale-2698.html.

Rates are per second of animation and even at the low end you are looking at at least $200 to $300 per second for 3D animation. As there are 5400 seconds in 90 minutes, this will add up.

---

Is that American?I’m actually pitching an animated movie to producers tomorrow, I live in Canada so we basically take our pitches to the National Film Board of Canada or Telefilm for funding. My email to them this morning I said you can get five or six animators to do a feature if it’s not complex, Pay them about 50 grand each so they can eat and pay rent... shoot the movie with mo-cap. The overall pitch was getting a feature for under a million Canadian.

Yes, it refers to the US situation and for commercial productions as far as I can tell. Of course, I never earned any of that, but given the OP's question I was kind of curious.

In Canada things may be different. But for a realistic budget it would be good to get some numbers that refer to Canada.

---

Yes I can send me mail sokomba40@gmail.com and check out my Instagram page @therealbennydee and YouTube nightlight tv

way too much $$$. Thanks for the info. I better start learning this software.

Hi theWW,
I'm very much the amateur here but I wonder whether you have checked out Reallusion's Pop Video software?
You can film real people with a real camera against a green screen background and then insert the results into 3d scenes created in Iclone.
The filmed actors are inserted as billboards, I think and, as such, can be placed anywhere and resized.
If your main intention is to get a 90 minute story told, this could be one way - assuming you can enlist some members of a local drama group and sort out their release requirements. 

Using "inexpensive" 3D software does not equate to an "inexpensive" animation.  If you really want to know how much a production is going to cost, I suggest you make a one minute trailer, or scene, that represents the style, level of quality - basically a "finished" product - and see how long, and how much it costs.  It's not money or time wasted as it's a perfect way to get investors, or film boards, to finance your feature.  It will also help you create a "credible" budget.  One minute scene $$$ x 90 (plus at least another 25% for the many challenges that you aren't expecting).

thank you, that is good info to know!

You have the right idea now....
Why should you pay someone $ for animating, when you could animate and someone could be paying YOU!