Ghost Animators

What is a ghost animator and why should you, as a client, care?

A ghost animator is just like a ghost writer. A ghost writer is defined on Google as “a person whose job it is to write material for someone else who is the named author.” A ghost animator does the same thing, but for animation.

A client comes to the agency asking to work with a specific animator. They might have worked together before, they might have come recommended to them by a friend or colleague, or perhaps they saw their work and liked it. But the problem with a lot of agencies (especially ones that do “cheaper” work) is that they overload their animators, and they especially overload their good ones.

So, what happens then? Well, the agency will hire a contractor. But they won’t tell you they’re hiring a contractor. And then they tell the animator to manage the job, email the clients, put their name on the video, and pretend that they animated it. So slimy, right?

And the animator is given no choice in the process! They’re especially unhappy, because they now also have to spend time managing contractors, when they’re already overloaded with animation work. And if you’ve ever worked with contractors, you know it can be entirely hit or miss.

They could be great, deliver the project on time, communicate effectively, take instruction, and be honest about their deadlines. Or you could have a contractor that doesn’t deliver the video until two days after their deadline, makes excuses for why they couldn’t do the animation requested, ignores and doesn’t reply to emails, and takes on too many projects at once and pretends that they’re working only on yours… it’s apparently just taking 3 times longer than it should.

It just seems so incredibly rare to get a good contractor, and it is so incredibly frustrating when you get a bad one. It completely throws a wrench into your project. You’d think an agency would be able to differentiate a good contractor from a bad one. And yet…

One of the final straws that pushed us into starting MOGRAPHWORKS was when we were working at a top explainer video agency. We were already working on two rush projects with incredibly tight deadlines. Every minute counted, we were working nights and weekends to get these videos out on time for our clients. Then production asks us to take on another rush project. We say “no, absolutely not, my schedule is so tight it’s not possible.” They say “okay, understood” and let us get back at it.

They then message us 30 minutes later. “We’ll hire contractors for those videos, but you have to manage them.” Oh goodness. But we stayed optimistic. It became significantly harder to stay optimistic when we found out that our agency had never worked with this contractor before. It seemed like a pretty big risk to take on an important video with an incredibly tight deadline. And we really didn’t like the idea of having to put our name on the work done by an unvetted contractor.

The contractor sounded shaky on the initial phone and didn't respond to most emails or phone calls throughout the week. He accidentally let it slip at one point that he'd actually never worked on a video of this type before. We brought up our concerns, but we were told it was too late to find another contractor. So, is it any surprise that this contractor didn’t deliver on Friday? And didn’t deliver on Saturday? He was told the absolute latest the video could be delivered to make the client’s presentation and still have time for the client’s revision was by noon on Monday and he still delivered it at 6PM. It was sub-par and riddled with errors. We ended up getting the project file and fixing what we could before sending it to the client. It was a mess and incredibly stressful.

The worst part, though, was knowing that the client thought this was our work. It hurt, because the client specifically requested us because we had worked so well together before. They gave us great feedback and were really happy with the previous video we had animated for them. So, what’s the point of having us be the “face” of the video, if they’re going to receive a sub-par video anyway? It just hurts our reputation, and the company’s reputation. And even more so, this nonsense “managing” takes away from our other projects that we already don’t have enough time for.

It’s not often talked about, but at so many of these agencies that charge lower prices in an attempt to compete with overseas animators, their profit line depends on speed. They need to get these videos out super-fast to make the low price they charge profitable. The animators are already stretched paper thin, and the quality suffers.

Taking more time to “manage” a project is a nightmare. You’re not really managing anyway. You’re not given revision power if the contractor sends back a video that isn’t up to par. You can’t ask for changes to make it up to your standards. They call it management, but it’s really just using your face, your image, and your work to give the company credibility.

And it’s incredibly unfair for the animator to be forced to put their name on work that they didn’t create. If you’re like us, you take pride in the quality of your work. You want to be happy with every project you sign your name to.

What happens if a ghost animator delivers a terrible video, the managing animator has no ability to ask for changes, and is forced to send it to a client? Then the client gets a terrible image of that animator, and if the animator ever leaves that agency and happens to encounter that client again in another setting, that could cost them a job. It would be very easy for the former client to say “Oh, I worked with that animator, and he delivered really bad work.” It’s not fair for agencies to do this to their clients or to their animators.

Agencies do it because they doubt the client would be happy and at ease with an unvetted contractor working on their video. And they shouldn’t be happy or at ease about it!

It’s an entirely ineffective process and a bad use of resources. A better way to go about it would to just be honest. Tell the client that their preferred animator is busy and cannot animate the video but will manage the project. But let them actually manage. Let them have revision power.

Or perhaps they should stop overloading their animators and taking on more projects than they have animators for! Be honest with clients. These agencies tell every client that they are the priority. But every client cannot be a priority at once! If everyone is the priority, then nobody is the priority, and everyone’s video suffers. It’s crummy to tell a client that their video has been in the works for the last two weeks, but then deliver a product that was clearly made in two days.

So be aware of ghost animators. Confirm with your agency that they’re not using a ghost animator. And if you get the feeling they are because the videos don’t appear to be of the same quality that you’ve been used to from that animator, you can know they’re lying to you.