Animator Wizben Mateli

Wizben Mateli, an Animator who has been running his creative business for 2 years now. He shares his challenges, compromises and what he takes into consideration when billing a client.

We are a creative agency dealing in animation, photography and marketing. I first discovered animation while in campus at JKUAT and it was fascinating. I quickly taught myself how to do 3d animation and how to edit videos which all came in handy in the process. Soon people around the school were requesting me to do their projects, some would pay and others I would do out of excitement.

After I finished school, I held a job at an ad agency where I learnt quite a lot including how to deal with clients, how to get leads, even how to be patient with client requests (they are usually many lol). I also learnt a lot about design and 2d animation. Finally, I decided to start my own business and partnered up with a photographer friend of mine. We are still running till today.

I knew animation was a very creative medium that can be used to send a message. Take an example of an explainer video; with animation you only need an animator, designer and a creative director, who will do the scripting and animation and voila, you have your video online in less than a week. As compared to shooting live action where you need directors, producers, actors, filming locations, editors and lots more, and still the outcome may not be what you wanted.

With this in mind, we sat down with my partner and we decided to create a company that provides these animation services and puts the customer at the centrestage by creating a product that best fits the client, no matter how many changes they request. That has been our mode of operations ever since.

Our biggest challenges are recruiting other talented people-- although we have around 10 employees-- finding talent is still a challenge. The other is finding clients who are motivated enough.

Our clients find us, for the most part through word of mouth and lots of referrals. People who know us really refer us to many others.

Per month we take 1 or 2 clients. We don’t take a lot of work at once because we want to dedicate our best to satisfy our customers. We have worked with brands like Dominos pizza an Betway kenya. We also work with individuals and influencers.

When billing for work done, we take into consideration the scope of the project, i.e. how long is the final output, mode of animation i.e. is it 2d or 3d animation, working hours i.e. for how long is the project going to run. Bigger & recurring projects are more favorable than one-time small projects. Our rates vary depending on the size of the project.

Best experiences are whereby the client gives you a detailed & conclusive brief which definitely makes the work easier. Worst experiences are whereby the client takes forever to give feedback after you already sent the project a long time ago.

Do you see a need for a platform like CreativeList? Yes

Why? A platform that gives opportunity and exposure to creatives is important. I don’t know if this is common, but most creatives are not outgoing people and networking is a challenge for them, thus a platform like this is essential.

#Animator