Motion graphics for agencies pays when you sell a fixed pipeline, not open-ended animation: take a structured brief, get the client to pick a look, write a timed script, get written approval on a storyboard before anything renders, build once, allow a capped number of revision rounds, deliver 16:9 and 9:16, and archive the inputs so the next job for that client starts from them. With template-driven and AI-assisted tools, rendering a 15 to 60 second piece is now the cheap part. The cost that decides your margin is the client conversation around it, so the quote and the revision policy matter more than the software.
This is for small and mid-sized agencies doing social, performance and brand work who want to sell launch videos, feature announcements and social promos without hiring a motion designer. Oakgen is our product, and Oakgen Motion is one way to build the pieces; the pipeline, brief, pricing and policy below work with any tool.
Build your first client storyboard
Describe the piece, read the client's brand from their site, and review a playable storyboard on the free daily allowance before any price is approved.
The pipeline at a glance
| Stage | What happens | Client sign-off? | Where the hours go |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Brief intake | Structured questions, assets collected (logo, colours, screens, claims) | Yes, brief confirmed by email | 30 to 60 min, more if assets are missing |
| 2. Creative direction | Pick one look for this client and keep it | Yes, look approved | A short call or a sample sent over |
| 3. Script and storyboard | Timed script, scene by scene, with the client's screens | Feeds stage 4 | The real writing time |
| 4. Client approval point | Client approves words, spoken lines, order and length in writing | Yes, the big one | Waiting, chasing, one round of edits |
| 5. Build | Render the draft | No | Mostly waiting |
| 6. Revisions | Agreed rounds only | Yes, per round | Where margin disappears |
| 7. Delivery sizes | 16:9 and 9:16 masters, cutdowns if sold | Yes, final sign-off | QA on a phone and a laptop |
| 8. Archive | Brief, script, client sheet, final files, approvals | No | 15 minutes that save an hour next time |
How this was put together: written on October 22, 2026, from the Motion product and our own reading of how agency motion jobs run. All money and hour figures below are invented, labelled as worked arithmetic, and are not benchmarks or customer data.
The brief template
Most revision rounds are caused by a brief that left something open. A client who never said who the video is for will tell you in round three. These questions close the gaps before the storyboard exists.
| Question to ask | Why it matters | A bad answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Where will this run, and in what order of importance? | Decides sizes, length and whether it must work muted | "Everywhere" |
| Who is the one viewer this is for? | Sets vocabulary and what to leave out | "Everyone in our market" |
| What should they do after watching? | The last scene is built around it | Three different calls to action |
| What is the one sentence the video has to land? | Everything else supports it | A paragraph from the website |
| Which claims can we make, and where is the proof? | Numbers on screen need a source the client signs off | "Say we're the fastest" |
| Which screens or product shots can we use? | Real screens beat illustrations; they also take longest to collect | "We'll send them later" |
| Logo, colours, fonts: who signs off brand use? | One approver avoids brand feedback in the last round | Two people with different opinions |
| Voice or no voice? Captions? | Changes timing, script length and how variants are made | "Whatever you think" (fine, but write down that you chose) |
| Music: new track, their own file, or none? | Their own file needs a licence they hold | A popular song they like |
| Target length: 15, 30, 45 or 60 seconds? | Length is a scope decision, not a style choice | "As long as it needs" |
| Who approves, and by when? | Approval delays are the hidden cost | "The team will look at it" |
| Anything that must never appear? | Competitor names, old pricing, legal lines | Discovered in the final round |
Send the answers back as a one-page summary and ask for a reply that says "confirmed". It feels formal for a 30-second video. That reply is what you point to when the brief changes later.
Creative direction: one look per client
Pick the look before anyone writes words, and pick one look per client. The look decides pacing, how many words fit on screen and how the screens are framed, so changing it after the script is approved means rewriting the script.
In Oakgen Motion there are three looks. Each gallery sample is tagged "Example" and plays with demo words; once you pick a look, it plays with the client's brand:
- Bold kinetic type: big words that move on the beat, the client's screens, and a voice that explains. The default for launches, feature announcements and most SaaS work. The techniques behind it are covered in kinetic typography without After Effects.
- Orbit: a camera drifts over a live dashboard in pixel type, then lands on the logo. Good for data, infrastructure and developer products.
- Cartridge: an early-2000s console launch with chrome titles, a player select and a high score. Good for playful consumer brands and gaming-adjacent clients; wrong for a bank.
Show the client the sample and say plainly that their version keeps the look and swaps in their brand and words. Once the client's brand is in, picking a look plays it with their name, tagline (if it fits), colours, logo and call to action, with neutral filler in the other lines, silent and without their screens, before any project exists. You can screen-record it for look approval, but it isn't the client's script.
If the reference matches none of the three looks, say so on the first call and quote a designer or another tool.
Script, storyboard and the approval point
The storyboard is where the client should say yes, because it is the last point where everything can change: words, spoken lines, scenes, scene designs and the look. Motion's storyboard is a playable preview you edit freely on a daily allowance of free tries, as the one-evening launch video guide walks through step by step. The allowance is per account per UTC day, so a heavy production day can run out; it resets at midnight UTC.
There is no client review link in Motion. Oakgen Carousels has one (a no-login page where a reviewer comments and approves); Motion does not, so don't tell a client they'll get one. The carousel workflow for agencies covers that link for carousel work. For Motion, approval goes like this:
- Screen-record the storyboard playing, with sound if there's a voice. Name the file with the client, piece and version, for example
acme-launch-30s-sb-v2. - Send it with the script as plain text underneath, numbered by scene, spoken lines and on-screen words separately. Clients find typos faster in text than in moving type.
- Ask for approval of the on-screen words, spoken lines, order and length in writing, against that version name.
- After the draft renders, send an MP4 for picture approval.
Motion downloads files from its final step, not from the draft. So check the draft yourself, press Finish to make the final MP4 (Finish costs no credits), and send that file as the client's review cut, named by version. A screen recording of the draft player works too, if you'd rather not send a file that looks finished.
Spell out in the approval email what is locked from here: "Once you approve v2, the spoken script, the length, the look and the number of scenes are final. Changes to on-screen wording that keep each scene's length, and changes to scene order, stay inside the agreed rounds. Anything else is a new piece."
How to scope and price a 15 to 60 second piece
The common mistake is pricing by what the tool costs. A render costs what the tool charges; the job costs the hours of people around it. Generation is fast now, and clients know it, so the price has to rest on the parts they can't see: the brief, the writing, the approval chasing and the revisions.
Scope by length and by the number of client screens, not by "complexity". A 15-second promo needs one or two screens and one round on each of storyboard and draft. A 30 or 45-second launch or feature piece needs two to five screens and two storyboard rounds. A 60-second explainer can justify a second draft round. Collecting clean screens (fake data, no notification badges, cropped browser chrome) often means a round-trip with the client's product team, so price that in.
Worked arithmetic (invented numbers)
These figures are made up to show the method. Swap in your own rates.
Say an agency's blended internal cost is $70 an hour, and a 30-second launch video with two sizes takes:
| Task | Hours |
|---|---|
| Brief call and summary | 0.75 |
| Look choice and sample sent | 0.25 |
| Script and storyboard | 1.5 |
| Two storyboard rounds with the client | 1.0 |
| Build, draft check, one draft round | 1.0 |
| QA on phone and laptop, both sizes | 0.5 |
| Delivery, archive, client sheet | 0.5 |
| Total | 5.5 |
That's $385 of internal time. In this invented example, adding the render cost (Motion shows the exact credit price before you approve; plan costs are on the pricing page) and a buffer for chasing time puts a fixed price at somewhere around $650 to $900. Now run the same job with five rounds instead of three, each costing an hour of writing, re-recording and emailing. That's two extra hours, $140. At a $650 price, the margin before render cost was $265; the extra rounds take more than half of it. On a cheap retainer piece, they can wipe it out.
The render barely moves this sum; the revision policy does.
Get to the approval point faster
Brief, brand from the client's site and a playable storyboard you can screen-record for sign-off, with the exact price shown before you approve the render.
A revision policy template
Put this in the statement of work, and repeat the short version in the approval email. The right-hand column is what each change costs you inside Oakgen Motion, which is worth knowing when you decide what to give away.
| Change | Stage | Counts as | Cost to you in Motion |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-screen words, spoken lines, scene designs, adding or deleting scenes, scene order | Storyboard | A storyboard round | Free, on the daily allowance |
| A different look or a re-plan from an edited brief | Storyboard | A round if the message is the same; new piece if it isn't | Free, on the daily allowance |
| Approving the script to render | Make | Not a revision | Credits, at the price shown before you press Make video |
| On-screen words that keep each scene's length, scene order | Draft or final | A draft round | No credits; the re-render uses free tries |
| Pressing Finish to make the final MP4 | Draft | Not a revision | No further charge |
| Spoken lines, adding or removing scenes, length | After approval | New piece | Locked after approval; a new project, new approval and new price |
| A different look | After approval | New piece | The look can only change before approval; a new project |
| Stopping the main render partway | Make | Not a revision | Finished shots stay charged, the rest goes back to the balance, and the video can't be resumed |
| Stopping the final render | Final | Not a revision | You go back to the draft; nothing more is charged |
And the policy wording, ready to adapt:
This fee includes two rounds of changes on the storyboard and one round on the draft video. A round is one consolidated set of feedback from the named approver. Before storyboard approval, rounds can change any wording, spoken lines, scenes and order. After approval, rounds cover on-screen wording that fits the approved timing and changes to scene order. Changes to length, look, spoken script, number of scenes, key message or audience after storyboard approval are quoted as a new piece. Extra rounds are billed at the agreed rate. Approval is given in writing against a named version.
Two clauses carry most of the weight. "One consolidated set of feedback" stops three people sending notes on three days. "Named approver" stops the CEO from appearing in round three with a new message.
The contract should mirror the product: generous before storyboard approval, strict after it. Once the voice is rendered, a changed spoken line is a new video, so that is where the client's attention has to be.
Per-client consistency
Clients notice when their fourth video doesn't look like their first. Motion has no saved brand kits or client workspaces, so keep each client's settings in a sheet. Each project reads the brand again, from the client's website or by hand, and the sheet makes sure you enter the same things every time. The style recreation guide covers what to do when a client's campaign look differs from their main brand.
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Website for brand read | The URL that gives the right logo, not a campaign microsite |
| Logo and colours | File name, two hex values, which one is primary |
| Look, voice, captions, music | For example: Bold kinetic type, Brian, captions on, new track |
| Kind of video and default length | For example: Announcement, 30 s |
| Approved claims | Each claim with its source and approval date |
| Banned words and topics | Competitor names, old plan names |
| Approver and turnaround | Name, two working days |
The variant plan
Agencies make money on variants, but only if they're planned before approval. Three kinds matter for motion work.
Sizes. Pick 16:9 Wide (1920x1080) and 9:16 Phone (1080x1920) before you approve. Each extra size adds to the render, so it belongs in the quote from day one. Both come out of the same project. Check the 9:16 version for text that crowds the edges and screens that become too small to read on a phone.
Hooks. On a video without voice, a different opening line at the same length is cheap: change the first scene's on-screen words, keeping roughly the same word count, press Finish again (no credits; it uses free tries), download it, repeat. Download each final before editing the next one and name the files by hook. On a voiced video it doesn't work that way. The new hook changes the type, but the voice and captions still say the old line, and spoken lines are locked after approval. A voiced hook variant is a separate project with its own approval and price, so quote it like one.
Lengths. A 15-second cut is not the 30-second video trimmed. Length is locked after approval, so a cutdown is its own project with its own approval and price. Plan it from the same brief and client sheet so it matches, and pick both sizes in that project too.
For pure ad-testing volume, still images and short clips across many angles, the workflow in AI workflow for agencies: from client brief to 50 ad variations fits better than motion. For recurring feature announcements, the SaaS feature announcement video for your changelog has a script shape that suits retainer work.
QA checklist before delivery
Run this on every file, not just the master. Muted first, then with sound.
| Check | Pass when |
|---|---|
| Spelling of every on-screen word | Matches the approved script, letter for letter |
| Client name, product name, capitalisation | Matches the client's own site |
| Claims and numbers | Each one is on the approved claims list |
| Screens | No real customer data, no notification badges, readable at phone size |
| Captions | Match the voice; nothing hidden under platform buttons on 9:16 |
| Hook variants | On-screen words and voice say the same thing |
| Logo and colours | From the client sheet, not a stale file |
| Muted viewing | The message lands with the sound off |
| Sound | Voice audible over music; music ends cleanly |
| Last scene | One call to action, the one in the brief |
| Files | Right sizes, named with client, piece, length, size, version |
| Approval | Written approval exists for this version |
Watch each file once on a phone, at arm's length. Most delivery mistakes are visible there and invisible on a 27-inch monitor.
Delivery, handoff and rights
Deliver MP4s named consistently, the approved script as text, and a note of the look, voice and music source. Motion doesn't post anywhere, so publishing is either the client's job or a separate line in your quote.
Rights deserve one conversation before the job starts. None of this is legal advice:
- Client assets: get written confirmation that the client can let you use the screens, logos and product shots they supply.
- Music: a client's own file needs a licence that covers the platforms in the brief.
- Voice: if the client requires disclosure of synthetic voices, or bans them, decide before you pick voice-on.
- Tool terms: read the current terms of every tool in the chain and reflect them in your contract rather than promising "full exclusive rights" by default.
Archive the brief, client sheet, storyboard recording, approval emails and final files in one folder per piece. Next quarter's video for that client starts there.
Where Motion is the wrong tool
Motion makes 15 to 60 second pieces from type, screens, graphics, voice and music, so live action, long narrative, bespoke illustration or character animation, and broadcast deliverables (4K, 60 fps) need a designer, a crew or another tool. The full list of limits is in what AI motion graphics can and can't do in 2026.
For the wider staffing question, see how marketing agencies can scale creative output, and Oakgen's page for agencies covers the rest of the studio.
Frequently asked questions
How should an agency price a 30-second motion graphics video?
Price the people time (brief, storyboard, client rounds, QA, variants) plus the render cost, with a fixed number of revision rounds included. Rendering is usually the small line; client back-and-forth is what eats the margin.
How many revision rounds should a motion graphics quote include?
Two rounds on the storyboard and one on the draft is a workable default. Bill extra rounds, or any change to length, look or structure, as new work.
What counts as a revision and what counts as a new video?
Changes to wording and scene order inside the agreed length and look are revisions. A new length, a new look, a new spoken script, a new message or a new audience is a new piece.
Should we deliver 16:9 and 9:16 for every motion piece?
For social and launch work, usually yes: 16:9 for the website, YouTube and LinkedIn, 9:16 for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. Put both in the quote from the start instead of selling the second size as an add-on.
How do clients approve a motion graphics video without a review tool?
Send a screen recording of the storyboard to approve the script, then an MP4 to approve the picture. Ask for approval in writing against a version number, so later feedback can be priced against it.
When should an agency still hire a motion designer?
For live action, bespoke illustration or character animation, long narrative pieces and broadcast deliverables. Template-driven motion suits short pieces built from type, screens and brand assets.
Who owns the rights to a motion graphics video made for a client?
That depends on your contract, the tool's terms and the licences for any music, fonts, voice and footage in it. Settle it in writing before work starts and read the current terms rather than assuming.
Turn the next client brief into a storyboard
One look per client, brand read from their site, a free storyboard to screen-record for sign-off, and 16:9 plus 9:16 MP4s from the same project.
