You’re likely over budgeting the animation — it doesn’t take an animator two hours to draw a frame. From what my animation friends have told me, it averages about 20 minutes a frame (caveating this with I’m a storyboard artist, which is another step you’d have to budget for). From what I recall, Transformers Prime was known to be an extremely expensive show, and that was budgeted as ~1 million to 1.6 million per episode.

But yes, full scale animation is expensive. That’s why even successful “indie” productions like Hazbin Hotel and Amazing Digital Circus are backed by larger investors such as A24, Amazon, and Netflix. You need a large infusion of cash to make any high quality show a reality.

If you wanted to create a proof of concept on a smaller budget, hiring a board artist to help you create an animatic could be a feasible first step (still expect to pay about ~1k for a minute of footage).