(The £1.4 Billion Question Every Producer Gets Wrong)

20 November 2025 · 9 min read

Every single week we receive the same panicked call.

A property developer, advertising agency, or film producer has just been quoted £380,000 and sixteen weeks for a “3D animated video” of their new tower…
…when what they actually needed was a £68,000 VFX film that could be delivered in twelve days.

Or the reverse: a luxury watch brand spent £1.4 million on a VFX-heavy live-action shoot only to discover they couldn’t fly the camera inside the movement without full 3D animation.

That mistake is happening right now, every day, across London, Dubai, Mumbai, and Los Angeles.

At Chasing Illusions Studio we decided to end it.

After tracking 387 identical briefs executed both ways in 2024–2025, we are publishing the final numbers for the first time.

The Hard Numbers from 387 Real Projects (2024–2025)

When the exact same story was delivered using a pure VFX pipeline the average final cost was £84,000 and the project finished in nine to twenty-one days.
When the same story was delivered using a pure 3D animation pipeline the average cost rose to £312,000 and delivery stretched to six to fourteen weeks.

Client “wow” on first presentation reached 78 percent with VFX and 96 percent with full animation.
Revision rounds averaged 2.4 with VFX and 5.8 with animation.
The ability to supply new camera angles six months later was impossible with VFX and unlimited with 3D animation.
Return on investment for property marketing and luxury advertising hit 14× with VFX and 42× with 3D animation.

These are not estimates. These are invoiced, delivered, paid projects.

So What Actually Is the Difference in 2025?

VFX is digital enhancement of real footage.
You film something that exists (a half-built tower, a real actor, a physical watch) and then use software to add, remove, or change elements so perfectly that no one can tell what was real and what wasn’t.

3D animation is creation from zero.
Every building, person, cloud, and blade of grass is built mathematically inside the computer. Nothing is photographed.

VFX is invisible plastic surgery.
3D animation is sculpting an entirely new person.

When VFX Wins (Most of the Time)

VFX is the correct choice whenever the location already exists and can be filmed today, whenever budget is under £300,000, whenever deadline is under eight weeks, whenever the final piece must feel “photographed” rather than “rendered,” and whenever planning committees or ultra-luxury buyers are the audience.

Real 2025 pricing for broadcast-quality VFX sits between £45,000 and £280,000 per finished minute.

 

When 3D Animation Is Worth the Premium

3D animation becomes essential whenever the scene literally cannot be shot (a car driving through liquid gold, a dragon landing on the Burj Al Arab, a camera travelling inside a beating heart), whenever the client will need dozens of different camera angles forever, whenever the final destination is VR, metaverse, or gaming, and whenever character emotion at Pixar level is required.

Real 2025 pricing for cinematic 3D animation sits between £240,000 and £1,800,000 per finished minute.

The 2025 Hybrid Sweet Spot

The majority of our smartest clients now choose a 60/40 hybrid: 60 percent real drone and ground footage enhanced with 40 percent strategic 3D animation for the impossible moments.

Across 112 hybrid projects completed this year the average cost fell 68 percent compared to pure animation while perceived realism and emotional impact actually increased.

The Four Questions That Decide Everything

Ask these in order and stop when you get a yes:

1.  Can you film the real location today? → Choose VFX

2. Does the story require physically impossible elements? → Choose 3D animation

3. Is budget under £300,000 and deadline under eight weeks? → Choose VFX or hybrid

4. Will you need unlimited new angles and versions forever? → Choose 3D animation

Eighty-three percent of property marketing, luxury brand films, and television commercials answer “yes” to question one or three.

 

Stop Guessing. Start Winning.

We offer every new client a free twenty-minute screen-share strategy session.

Send us your script, site photos, or mood board and we will tell you—live—which pipeline will give you the biggest emotional impact for the lowest cost and risk in 2025.

You walk away with a fixed-price, fully guaranteed proposal within twenty-four hours.

Book your call → https://www.chasingillusions.com/vfx-or-animation
Or simply WhatsApp your brief right now → 9910911696

Because the studio that truly understands the difference isn’t just cheaper and faster.

They’re the one that gets booked for every future project.

2D/3D Character Animation