Hi there.
This look very interesting for me and i can provide excellent animation, render quality and models/textures for the characters. That is not a problem for me at all, please check my animation works at freelancer3d . net.
About the hourly project, i prefer working with a fixed budget with 3 or 4 milestones that are released once i finish a given stage. Is a long story, but to sum it up, fixed projects are better for both parts in my case, because of how i work. So for the rigging, modelling, animation and texturing of 7 characters in the style of the reference, plus illumination, rendering and final composition with HD bgs my budget would be usd 1100.
Note: this budget doesn't include the voice or any sounds neither original hd pictures for the BGs.
Please check my reviews, page and portfolio here, and let me know if you have any question.
Thanks a lot.
Juan.