The animation studio San Francisco companies hire to show what cannot be filmed.
San Francisco sells software, molecules and money movement. None of it can be filmed, and most of it has not shipped yet when the launch video is due. That is the brief we are built for. As an animation studio San Francisco teams brief remotely, we handle script, design, animation, voiceover and sound design in one fixed scope, with explainer video pricing published upfront.
Explainer pricing published in full. Everything else quoted within 24 hours. No discovery call required to find out whether we are in range. 1,000+ videos delivered, 10+ years in production.
We've received your details and will send your Calendly booking link within a few minutes. Check your inbox, we'll be in touch shortly.
beautifully.
All animation. One studio.
beautifully.
All animation. One studio.
Our Work
Work from an animation studio San Francisco teams can judge on the frame.
Every frame from this animation studio San Francisco teams brief is original. No stock assets, no recycled characters, no template packs that turn up in another company's launch video. The selection below spans industrial, educational and character work. For work built around the city itself, see our 2D animation services in San Francisco guide and our page on explainer video production in San Francisco. Software teams can also see how we approach a SaaS explainer video, where the product is usually still changing while the script is being written.
Bitzer AG, industrial corporate explainer
Enter Tech, educational series
Bee-Bot, character animation series
Industries We Serve
San Francisco sells what a camera cannot see
AI, developer tools and enterprise software
Salesforce was founded in San Francisco in March 1999 and is headquartered in Salesforce Tower, the 61 storey building on Mission Street in SoMa, completed in 2018. OpenAI is headquartered in the city as well, and a dense layer of AI, developer tool and enterprise software companies has grown up around them.
Software is the purest version of the problem. The product has no physical form, and at launch the interface is often not finished, so there is nothing to film and sometimes nothing final to screen record. An animation studio San Francisco software teams brief has to show the workflow and the outcome rather than the buttons, using stylised interface, workflow metaphors and diagrams that survive the next design sprint. Best for: launch films, product walkthroughs before the UI is final, sales enablement and developer onboarding.
Biotech and life sciences
Genentech, founded in 1976 and headquartered in South San Francisco, is regarded as the world's first biotechnology company, and a sign on East Grand Avenue still calls the city the birthplace of biotechnology. Inside San Francisco, the UCSF Mission Bay campus has transformed the district since the late 1990s into a centre for biotechnology and research.
The brief here is a mechanism of action happening at molecular scale, and every claim in it passes through medical, legal and regulatory review before anyone outside the company sees it. An animation studio San Francisco biotech teams commission has to make a molecule binding to a receptor legible to an investor, a partner or a patient without saying more than the data supports. We put the science sign-off at storyboard stage, so reviewers approve the picture before a single frame is animated. Best for: mechanism of action films, investor and partnering decks, patient education and conference loops.
Payments, fintech and banking
Money has moved through San Francisco since the gold rush. Wells Fargo & Company was formed here in 1852 to provide express and banking services to California. Visa opened its new headquarters at Mission Rock in Mission Bay on June 6, 2024, and Stripe is dual headquartered in South San Francisco, at Oyster Point, and in Dublin.
A payment is an invisible event between several parties, and explaining it means showing authorisation, settlement and risk without a single line the compliance team will strip out. An animation studio San Francisco fintech teams hire should draw the flow of money as a clear diagram and flag guarantees, projections and implied returns while the script is still words. Best for: product explanation, merchant and partner onboarding, compliance-ready scripting and investor material.
Consumer, retail and heritage brands
Some of the oldest consumer brands in the country are run from San Francisco. Levi Strauss & Co. was founded here in May 1853, is headquartered at Levi's Plaza, and was granted its rivet patent on May 20, 1873. Gap Inc., founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher, runs Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta from the city, and Williams-Sonoma, Inc., the company behind Pottery Barn and West Elm, is headquartered here too.
This is the one San Francisco sector where warmth matters more than clarity. Consumer briefs ask for a character people remember, a heritage story told in ninety seconds, and seasonal social cutdowns produced at volume. An animation studio San Francisco retail and apparel brands brief has to hold one character consistent across dozens of formats without it drifting off model. Best for: brand characters, heritage stories, social cutdowns and in-store screens.
What We Produce
Every format from one animation studio San Francisco teams brief once
2D animation
Custom characters, environments and fluid motion, built from scratch with nothing pulled from stock libraries. The most versatile format, because it carries a story and a product at the same time, and the one an animation studio San Francisco consumer brands hire is asked for first. Best for brand characters, onboarding series and any brief that needs warmth as well as clarity. See our 2D animation studio.
Most requestedMotion graphics
Animated icons, kinetic typography, data visualisation and interface walkthroughs. Best for AI and software products, payment flows and any subject where clarity beats character, which in this city covers most launches. It is also the most cost efficient format to produce. More on motion graphics.
Best for dataExplainer video
A complete 60 to 90 second piece built to make a product understood in one viewing. Script, voiceover, animation and sound design included, with the price published rather than quoted on the explainer video pricing page. An explainer takes 3 to 4 weeks from approved brief to final file. Best for launches, homepages and sales decks. See explainer video production, or read our buyer's guide to San Francisco explainer studios.
Published pricingAnime animation
Genuine Japanese anime visual language, frame by frame: dramatic composition, expressive characters and cinematic camera work. We are one of very few studios producing authentic anime style work for commercial clients rather than fan projects. Best for gaming, entertainment and youth brands that need to stand out. Quoted per finished minute. See our anime animation studio.
Specialist work3D animation
Product visualisation, technical assemblies and photorealistic rendering. Best for Bay Area hardware and device companies, and anything that has to be shown from the inside. A separate production pipeline, so it is always quoted individually and scheduled with the quote. See 3D animation.
Custom quoteWhy Magic Motion Studio
What we do differently from other animation studios
Explainer pricing published, no quote wall
Every explainer plan and every inclusion is listed on the pricing page. You find out whether we are in range before you spend half an hour on a call discovering we are not.
100% original assets, no templates
Every character, environment and prop is built from scratch for your brand. Spotting a reused stock character is the fastest way to tell a cheap animation studio San Francisco buyers get offered from a serious one.
A specialist team, not one generalist
A strategist writes the script, an art director sets the visual language, animators handle the motion and a sound designer mixes original audio. Four disciplines, four people who do only that.
Anime from the same team as your explainer
Genuine hand drawn anime production with a dedicated pipeline behind it, not a filter applied to vector artwork. The team that writes your product explainer can also produce the anime spot for your gaming or youth campaign.
You own everything on delivery
Full ownership transfers on final payment. No licensing fees, no annual renewal, no restriction on running it as a paid ad or in any territory. Ask for this in writing from anyone you hire, not just us.
Remote, which is the point
Animation is produced on screens, reviewed on screens and delivered as files. A downtown address adds rent to the quote and nothing to the frame, so working with an animation studio San Francisco teams never visit costs the video nothing.
From brief to broadcast-ready in 5 steps.
Every project follows a structured five-phase workflow developed over 10+ years of production. Each phase has defined deliverables and a client approval gate, so you are never left waiting or guessing. It is also why working with an animation studio San Francisco teams have never visited feels no different from working with one in SoMa.
Strategy and Script
We define the messaging first: your audience, the one message that drives action, the tone, and the call to action. Then we write the full production script. A weak script produces a weak video regardless of animation quality.
Art Direction and Storyboard
Our art director sets the visual style guide, then produces a full storyboard showing every scene, camera angle and transition. You approve the visual story before any animation begins, which removes expensive revisions later. On biotech and fintech projects, this is the stage your medical, legal, regulatory or compliance reviewers sign off.
Voiceover Recording
Runs in parallel with art direction, not after it. You choose from three to five professional voice samples matched to your brief. Recorded in a treated studio and delivered as a broadcast-quality WAV that becomes the timing track.
Animation Production
Every scene built from scratch, frame by frame or rigged depending on the style. Lip sync on every speaking character and motion curves adjusted by hand. A senior animator checks each scene against the storyboard.
Sound Design and Final Delivery
Licensed music, sound effects timed to motion, and mastering to broadcast loudness. You receive four cuts on the same day: 16:9 MP4, 16:9 MOV, 1:1 square and 9:16 vertical. Full commercial rights transfer on payment.
Pricing
What animation actually costs in San Francisco
Asking an animation studio San Francisco side what a video costs should not require a meeting. Both explainer video plans are listed in full, inclusion by inclusion, on our pricing page, so you can budget before you speak to anyone. Every other format is quoted on the brief and we come back within 24 hours. Because no SoMa or Financial District rent sits inside our number, the same fixed rates apply from Mission Bay to the Peninsula and the East Bay.
| Plan | What is included |
|---|---|
| Standard | One complete 60 second animated video. Script, storyboard, custom animation, professional voiceover, sound design and revisions, all included. |
| Pro | Everything in Standard, plus 60 to 90 second runtime, five revision rounds, social resizes, cutdowns, animated GIFs, still images and source files. |
| 3D animation | Quoted per project because 3D runs on a separate rendering pipeline with different cost drivers. |
| Series and longer runtimes | Per minute cost falls once characters and environments are built, because those assets carry across every episode. |
Nothing is added later. No licensing fees, no renewal fees, no charge for the files you already paid to have made. Anime work for the city is quoted per finished minute and covered on our anime animation studio San Francisco page. The full breakdown is on our explainer video pricing page, and any animation studio San Francisco buyers shortlist should be able to show you the same level of detail.
See the full pricing breakdownKnow your number? Get it scoped.
Send us the brief and we come back with a fixed price and a schedule, usually within 24 hours.
Buyer's Guide
Six questions for any animation studio in San Francisco, including us
Ask every animation studio San Francisco has on your shortlist the same six. Compare the script and the storyboard, not just the showreel. A showreel is selected highlights. A sample script and storyboard from a project like yours tell you what working with that animation studio San Francisco side will actually be like.
Will you show me the price before a call?
An animation studio San Francisco buyers approach that will not state a range until it has qualified your budget is pricing you, not the project. In a city where a seed stage startup and a public company can brief the same studio in the same week, the same sixty second video should not cost two different amounts because one of them looked better funded on a call.
Red flag
"Contact us for a quote", a wait, a discovery call, then a number that was never in your range.
Where we stand
Both explainer plans published in full. You can budget tonight without speaking to anyone.
Who owns the files when it is finished?
Ask directly, and ask specifically whether editable source files are included. Plenty of studios retain the project files and charge an export fee later if you want the video changed.
Red flag
Ownership is not mentioned in the proposal, or source files appear as an upsell.
Where we stand
Full ownership on delivery. No licensing or renewal fees. Source files on the Pro plan.
Is voiceover and sound design inside the price?
This is where cheap quotes hide. Professional voiceover casting, direction and recording, plus sound design and an original music mix, are often quoted as a separate line item that only appears once you have said yes to the animation. A quote without them is not a cheaper video, it is an incomplete one.
Red flag
Audio listed as "optional" or "client supplied" anywhere in the scope.
Where we stand
Included at both plan levels. Script, voiceover, sound design and music.
How many revision rounds, and what happens after?
Unlimited revisions is either untrue or priced in somewhere you cannot see. A fixed number of rounds at each stage, with a stated rate beyond them, is the honest structure.
Red flag
"Unlimited revisions" with no definition anywhere of what counts as one.
Where we stand
Fixed rounds at every stage. Scope changes are flagged before they are billed, never after.
Have you worked in my sector before?
This matters more in San Francisco than in most cities. AI and software, biotech, payments and consumer brands each carry their own vocabulary, audience and review process. An animation studio San Francisco teams hire that is learning your sector on your budget will take longer and get it wrong more often. Ask to see two projects from your own industry, not the general reel. The reel is the best work. You want the typical work.
Red flag
Every example shown is from a different industry to yours.
Where we stand
1,000+ videos across finance, healthcare, logistics, software and manufacturing.
Can I see the script and storyboard before animation?
Any animation studio San Francisco companies hire that animates before you approve a storyboard is setting up an expensive argument. On a biotech or fintech brief, the storyboard is also the point where your reviewers can sign off on the picture. Approval gates protect you far more than they protect the studio, because they are the only point where changes are still cheap. Changing words costs nothing. Changing finished frames costs weeks.
Red flag
The first thing you are shown is a near-finished animation.
Where we stand
Script, then storyboard and style frames, both approved before a single frame is animated.
Bay Area Animation Heritage
The Bay Area has been animating motion since 1878
1878
The Horse in Motion sequences shot on Stanford's Palo Alto farm
1995
Toy Story, from Pixar, the first fully computer-animated feature film
2002
Shrek, brought to its final look by PDI, wins the first Best Animated Feature Oscar
Milestones on the Bay Area animation timeline
Every date below is on the public record. Together they explain why any animation studio San Francisco buyers hire is held to a high bar.
1880, the zoopraxiscope
Muybridge projects his sequences in motion
1978, ILM moves to San Rafael
Founded by George Lucas in 1975
1980, PDI founded
Sunnyvale, by Carl Rosendahl
1986, Pixar incorporated
Spun out with funding from Steve Jobs
2005, Letterman Digital Arts Center
ILM and Lucasfilm Animation move to the Presidio
2009, Walt Disney Family Museum
Opens in the Presidio
The record starts with The Horse in Motion, which broke a single movement into a sequence of frames, the same job every animator still does. Industrial Light & Magic, founded on May 26, 1975, moved to San Rafael in 1978 and has been based at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco since 2005. Pacific Data Images, founded in Sunnyvale in 1980, produced Antz in 1998 and took Shrek to its final computer-animated look. Pixar became a corporation in February 1986, released Toy Story while still in Point Richmond, and opened its Emeryville campus in November 2000.
Bay Area buyers have grown up around world-class animation, so they tend to brief for craft and story rather than a logo that moves. That is the standard an animation studio San Francisco companies hire is measured against, with or without a Presidio address.
Areas We Serve
An animation studio San Francisco wide, across the Bay Area
San Francisco neighbourhoods
Peninsula, South Bay, East Bay and Marin
Common Questions
Hiring animation studios in San Francisco, answered
Still have a question about hiring an animation studio San Francisco side? Email info@magicmotionstudio.com and we reply within 24 hours.
Explainer video pricing is published in full on our explainer video pricing page, both plans, inclusion by inclusion, so you can budget tonight without a call. Every other format, 2D character work, motion graphics, 3D and anime, is quoted on the brief and we come back within 24 hours. A local agency carrying a SoMa or Financial District lease typically has that rent inside its quote, because the office is part of the number. Ours is not.
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Animation is produced on screens, reviewed on screens and delivered as files, so for animated work a San Francisco address adds rent to your quote without adding anything to the video. We work as an animation studio San Francisco teams brief remotely, with every review held on a shared screen and every file delivered straight to you.
Yes. We design a stylised version of the interface and use workflow metaphors to show what the product does, so the video does not depend on screens that will change in the next sprint. When the final UI ships, the stylised screens can be swapped for real ones in a later edit. An animation studio San Francisco software companies hire should plan for the interface changing, because it nearly always does.
We write it to go through that review from the first draft. The script is set up for your medical, legal and regulatory reviewers, and the science sign-off sits at storyboard stage, before animation begins. We do not act as your reviewers and make no claim to regulatory expertise. We make their job faster by handing them a script and a storyboard built to be checked.
We write expecting compliance to read it. The common failure is a strong claim that the compliance team then strips out, which collapses the whole script. We flag anything that reads as a guarantee, a projection or an implied return while it is still words on a page, when changing it costs nothing, and the script is set up for your compliance reviewers before a frame is drawn. The judgement on what is allowed stays with them.
Yes. 2D character work is one of our core formats: brand characters built from scratch, heritage stories and seasonal social cutdowns in every aspect ratio. A character is built once and reused across every format, so the twentieth cutdown still looks like the first. For a city whose retail brands go back to the 1850s, an animation studio San Francisco brand teams hire should be as comfortable with a heritage story as with a product launch.
No. Whether you are in SoMa, Mission Bay, Palo Alto, Oakland or Sausalito, the work costs the same. Location does not change what it takes for an animation studio San Francisco teams hire to produce the work, so it does not change what we charge.
An explainer video takes 3 to 4 weeks from approved brief to final file. That covers discovery, scripting, storyboard and style frames, animation with voiceover and sound design, then revisions and delivery. Character animation, 3D and anime are scheduled per project, because the timeline depends on length and complexity, and you get that schedule with your quote.
Yes, in full, on delivery. No licensing fees, no annual renewal, no restriction on running it as a paid ad or in any territory. Editable source files are included on the Pro explainer plan.
Free quote, no obligation
Book an animation studio San Francisco teams can brief this week
If you are comparing a local studio with a remote team, tell us what you are making and we come back within 24 hours with a scope, a schedule and a fixed price. Explainer pricing is already published, so you can check the number first. If this animation studio San Francisco companies are weighing up is not the right fit for your project, we will tell you that instead.