VFX Cost Estimator, Grounded in Your Script
VFX budgets are notoriously hard to estimate early — too many productions default to a flat percentage of the overall budget and get surprised later. The Story Maker's VFX Estimator works from your script breakdown's actual effects requirements — shot by shot — for a more grounded estimate before you're locked into a post-production budget.
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What's included
Shot-level estimates, not a flat percentage
Because the estimate is grounded in your script's actual VFX-requiring shots — not a generic industry-average percentage — you get a number that reflects what your specific production actually needs, feeding into your overall budget and contingency planning.
Why VFX budgets are wrong so often
VFX is the line most reliably underestimated at script stage, and the reason is that the script does not say what is expensive. A line like “the bridge collapses” is four words; a clean-up of a modern sign in a period exterior is invisible in the text but real in the budget.
Costing from the tagged breakdown rather than from a read-through means the shots that carry VFX are enumerated, not remembered — including the invisible ones that only surface when a supervisor reads the script properly.
Shot counts, complexity bands and the honest range
A VFX estimate is a range, not a number, and anyone quoting a single figure at script stage is guessing. What is knowable early is shot count and rough complexity band — clean-up, set extension, CG element, full CG — and those drive an order of magnitude.
Estimating in bands against real shot counts gives a producer something defensible to take to a financier, and a basis for the conversation about which sequences to simplify if the number comes back too high.
Having the conversation early enough to matter
The value of costing VFX at script stage is not precision — it is timing. A number produced before the schedule locks lets you simplify a sequence, rewrite around an expensive shot, or budget honestly for it. The same number produced after the shoot is just bad news.
That is the argument for enumerating VFX from the breakdown rather than waiting for a vendor quote: the estimate exists while the script can still change.
Complexity bands, and what moves a shot between them
The difference between a cheap VFX shot and an expensive one is rarely how it looks — it is whether the camera moves, whether there is an actor interacting with the effect, and how many elements have to hold up together.
A locked-off sign replacement is straightforward. The same replacement on a handheld shot with a person walking past it is tracking, roto and integration. Understanding which band a shot sits in, and what would move it down one, is where a producer actually saves money.
Budgeting for revisions, not just shots
First-time producers budget the shot and forget the iterations. VFX work goes through rounds — a first pass, notes, a second pass, final — and vendor quotes usually assume a fixed number of them.
Exceeding that is one of the most common ways a VFX budget overruns, and it is almost always a symptom of an unclear brief rather than a vendor problem. Costing with revisions in view makes the tradeoff explicit before the contract is signed.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from just budgeting a flat percentage for VFX?
The estimate works from your script breakdown's actual shot-level VFX requirements, rather than a generic industry-average percentage of total budget — more accurate for productions with uneven VFX needs across the script.
Does this replace getting a quote from a VFX house?
It's a planning and budgeting tool for early-stage estimates, not a replacement for a formal vendor quote once you're commissioning actual VFX work.
How accurate is an early VFX estimate?
Treat it as a range and a planning instrument, not a quote. Shot count and complexity band are knowable from the breakdown; actual cost depends on vendor, territory and how many revisions a sequence takes. Confirm with a supervisor before committing.
Does it catch invisible VFX?
It costs what has been tagged. Invisible work — sign clean-up, rig removal, period corrections — is exactly what gets missed on a read-through, which is the argument for costing from a breakdown rather than from memory.
Can I model cheaper alternatives?
Yes, and that is usually the point of running it early — seeing what a sequence costs in a lower complexity band is how the conversation about simplifying it becomes concrete rather than defensive.
When should I cost VFX?
At script or breakdown stage, before the schedule locks. The estimate is rougher then, but it arrives while you can still rewrite around an expensive sequence — which is the only point at which the number is actionable.
Do I need to know which vendor before estimating?
No. Early estimation works from shot count and complexity band, which is what you can know from the breakdown. Vendor quotes refine it later — but by then the script is usually locked, which is why the early number is the one that changes decisions.
What is the most commonly missed VFX cost?
Revisions, and invisible work. Quotes typically assume a fixed number of iteration rounds, and clean-up work — signage, rigs, period corrections — rarely appears in the script at all.
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