Hi everyone. Our development is genuinely interesting architecturally but static images fail to convey how the building relates to its surroundings and how it changes through the day. Considering an animated piece for our website and investor presentations. What actually makes these effective rather than just expensive, and how long should one be?

Good day. What makes them effective is having something specific to communicate rather than simply moving a camera around impressively. If the relationship to context and changing light is the story, that's a legitimate brief. Architectual animation handles time-of-day transitions well, which stills fundamentally cannot. On length, ninety seconds is roughly the ceiling for web and investor use, and shorter usually performs better. Costly caveat: every second of animation multiplies render time, so a five-minute piece is dramatically more expensive than two minutes, not slightly. Storyboard first and cut ruthlessly before anything gets rendered - changes after that point hurt.