#I’m an indie animator!!!

[sabertoothwalrus]

so I’ve been gaining a lot of insight into the animation industry recently, especially in regards to pitching & the creation of new shows. There’s a few ways to go about it.

First, there’s pitching to a studio. When you pitch, it has to be SHORT and CONCISE. You may write a lovingly detailed pitch bible that perfectly breaks down episodes and characterizations, and it might barely even get read. First impressions, first impressions, first impressions!

Most peoples’ first projects don’t get picked up. I’ve heard a few stories from directors that said they tried pitching a story they’d had for years, which got rejected, to then spend a week or even several hours in their car coming up with a new idea, only for that to get greenlit.

But that’s not the end of it. Just because a show gets greenlit, doesn’t mean it will ever get finished. There’s lots of things that can happen. Sometimes, unexpected major world events (like… a global pandemic) can cause projects to get chopped. Sometimes, a CEO change or studio merge means a single person can decide a project “no longer fits with the company’s brand.” Sometimes, the one producer that was rooting for your project gets laid off, and no one else cares enough, so it gets shelved. Sometimes, a streaming service decides to create an animation department, and then they decide they don’t want it anymore. Sometimes, the studio will be simultaneously be developing another project that was too similar to yours and they just didn’t think to tell you until they decide yours is the one with less potential.

On top of that, almost everyone in the industry is saying that “studios just don’t pick up original content anymore.” Studios want something they can franchise, something that will bring in money. New content is risky. Established fanbases are safer.

However! Studios can still be a very good thing. They can be unionized. They can provide better benefits and resources. They can have connections and infrastructure and a larger volume of workers. At a studio, you can divide the labor and produce more in less time. Longer episodes, longer seasons, more consistency in quality.

But this comes with all of the disadvantages of having more in the kitchen.

The alternative is indie animation.

With indie animation, you have total freedom. Full artistic control. It doesn’t even matter if your idea sucks ass, because there’s no one to tell you you can’t make it. You could make it anyway, and you can make it whatever you wanted.

The thing is, making animation is hard. In my production class last semester, the average maximum animation one person could make in that timeframe was 30-60 seconds, and that’s not even counting background design, sound design, or cleanup/color. To make a 5 minute animated short, you should probably have at least 5 people.

And it is CRUCIAL you have a production manager. Ideally someone who’s not already doing art for the project. Most projects without a production manager will fall apart pretty quickly. Once the adrenaline and impulse-fueled motivation wears off, you need someone to hold you accountable and enforce deadlines and proper time management.

Speaking of time, that’s also hard to get. The more people you have, the more likely schedules won’t line up. Most people will have school, or other jobs.

And it costs MONEY!!!!!! You either have everyone work for free and volunteer their time & energy, or you establish a business as a proper indie studio, with people who may or may not have experience on how to handle paying someone else’s salary. And the money has to come from somewhere, so you have to rely on crowdfunding like patreon or kickstarter. (This, by the way, is why I could never fault an indie animation for releasing merch with their pilot.)

And like, maybe you wanna do a series, and all your friends agree to volunteer their labor and time to make the first episode, but it was unanimously not sustainable. Deciding not to produce a second episode until you can raise enough money is not being suddenly greedy, it’s attempting to compensate people rather than expecting them to be continuously taken advantage of.

You have to consider your output as well. There are some outliers like Worthikids, who afaik does all his animation himself, and afaik can work on it full-time thanks to his patreon subscribers. And he still has only produced a total of 30 minutes of animation (for Big Top Burger specifically) in the past 4 years. This is an IMPRESSIVE feat and this is with using a lot of 3D as part of his pipeline!!

Indie animation also has the complication of being more accessible for fandoms. When you’re posting your Official Canon Content on youtube, it doesn’t look a lot different than the fandom-created video essay in the sidebar next to it. What’s canon vs what’s fanon becomes less distinguishable. The boundaries are blurrier. When the creator is just some guy you follow on twitter, it’s easier to prod them for info regarding ships and theories and word-of-god confirmation. They don’t have a PR team or entire international tv networks to appeal to. And this is when creators get frustrated that their fans snowball and turn their creation into something they don’t recognize (and no longer enjoy) anymore.

So it’s tricky.

Thankfully, the threshold to learn animation is fairly low nowadays!! There are TONS of resources online to learn it on your own without forking over a couple hundred thousand to a private art college. There are conventions and discord servers and events where you can network, if you know where to look.

I know it can seem discouraging in the face of capitalism, but I think that’s all the more reason why it’s so important to BE DETERMINED about animation!! We’re already starting to see the beginning of an indie animation boom, and I think it’s a testament to humanity’s desire to tell stories and create art. Even if there’s no financial gain, we do whatever it takes to tell our stories anyway.

#animation #2d animation #indie animation #long post #not 100% sure why I made this post #all this to say: I’m still not sure what direction I want to go towards for my own show #ngl!! i think im confident i could get people to like my show. i think I could find an audience #i have some experience at this point getting people to like my ocs #its just a matter of MAKING the damn thing

[thyholymistress]

matthew lillard in animal room (1995)

#animal room #matthew lillard #doug van housen #tw injury #tw blood #cult movies #indie movie #90s movies #movie twink #blood #bloody nose #i did watch this movie only because matthew lillard was playing a dark haired unstable twink with a single earring and homoerotic tendencie #and honestly i’m pretty sure also the other people that have logged this movie on letterboxd watched it for the same reason #bloody men #wounded men #did u know that he wants ur blood in his mouth?

[showtoonzfan]

Heard Viv wants Hazbin to have 6 seasons and pictures it never ending. Lol good luck with that.

#I mean it makes sense all she ever wants to do is introduce more ideas and characters as if she didn’t stuff 3 seasons worth into one #but I’m not kidding I genuinely see people losing interest in Hazbin in the future especially by how boring and underwhelming season 1 was #not to mention there’s other indie animated stuff out currently that’s getting popular #also Viv started out by saying she knows where the story ends but now says it’s neverending? yeah she has no idea what she’s doing #vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical #hazbin hotel critical #anti vivziepop #I pray her victims come out in the future and she gets exposed

[duke-is-the-shit]

Guys. I’m begging you to go watch Ramshackle on YouTube and support the creator because I actually need this to be a show

#indie animation #indie animation lovers rise #Ramshackle #animated pilot #guys please I’m on my knees

[jarkonian]

Been having a ridiculously fun time putting together some set piece style interactable attacks

#the little missiles are like my dream come true #I’m so happy with them #indie dev #game development #indie game #gamedev #unity #game dev #screenshotsaturday #unity engine #animations #tornado

[etherealfeverdreams]

@zeddyzi PLEASE NOTICE ME IM GOING INSANE

another oc sketch because I love her so much um I have this tacked to my wall please be kind I’m a troubled teenager taking out all my trauma on my poor ocs ANYWAYS um THESE GOD DAMN POSERS ARE REALLY PISSING ME OFF saying that I’m not a real Zi fan YOU QUITE LITERALLY DON’T KNOW RIGEL AND CEN OR EVEN TRE OR DITCH LIKE GET. OUT. OF. MY. FACE. YOU POSERS. Um I got a little mad please excuse that.

#ramshackle #stone ramshackle #vinnie ramshackle #skipp ramshackle #ramshackle oc #indie animation #young artist #2010s #ramshackle ditch #tre ramshackle #comedy central #south park #depeche mode #bauhaus #emo #gothic #pierce the veil #scene #she wants revenge #idk how to tag this #i’m just a girl #desperate for attention #pls notice me #zeddyzi #please.

[tomato-jump]

These three in a room together who’s crying and apologising first

#I’m just assuming that the indie animation community crosses over with the anime community #bsd atsushi #tadc #the amazing digital circus #tadc gangle #murder drones n #murder drones #bsd #silly little guy

[toasty-self-shipping]

“Vizepop is the queen of indie animation” hey what if I bashed your head with a bat

#don’t you fucking DARE disrespect actual animated indie and newgrounds flash series like that #I’m so damn tired of hazbin hotel stans acting like her shows are good which they are not like for fuck sakes let there are more series out #to enjoy NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO WATCH THE SAME SHIT

[mrcarmenile]

the thing that all indie cartoons have in common is unexpected found family (i eat it up EVERY TIME)

#hazbin hotel #the amazing digital circus #tadc #murder drones #lackadaisy #well i actually haven’t watched lackadaisy yet but i assume so #correct me if i’m wrong #helluva boss #indie animation #indie cartoon

[doomsdayartificer]

I need to be sending in a job application but instead I just spent an hour scrolling murder drones art on the hellsite. I think it’s safe to say this show has taken a spot alongside AC6 and signalis in consuming my psyche.

#murder drones #armored core 6 #signalis #ramblings #Aza rambles about her hyperfixations #an indie animation series and two video games have utterly devoured my mind and I’m happy about it #genuinely though it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to enjoy things this thoroughly #and now I’ve got three things to enjoy simultaneously #it feels nice

[unusonyxx]

ya’ll should definitely go watch the Ramshackle Pilot trust

#ramshackle pilot #ramshackle #i’m totally normal about this #indie animation

[jisreal64]

So I’ve tried to make peace with both the Hellverse community and the Kicktoon community multiple times to no avail. But I’m going to try one last time. Each time I’ve tried to describe what a Kicktoon is, people just get angry and confused, so I’ll describe it like this:

A Kicktoon is a genre of indie web animation that is crowd funded, thrived during the fake indie animation boom created by Hazbin Hotel, abd follows a “fight first, ask questions later” formula. With this being the said formula:

-Is often heavily inspired by or flat out plagiarizes other media

-Makes tons of week one merch based around a test pilot

-Features furry bait

-Features Tumblr Sexypeople

-And last but certainly not least, critics and cartoonists/animation nerds love them, while general audiences and people who are indifferent to the medium view them as bland or don’t care about them

“But what’s the difference between a normal indie animated web series and a Kicktoon?”, well the difference is that the non-kicktoon cartoons aren’t as successful/commercialized as them and the genre has quickly dominated the platform, but does this mean that every non-kicktoon is inherently better than every kicktoon ever made, no, there are ones that are definitely worse (ie Skibidi Toilet), I just miss the days when indie animation didn’t have to be so commercialized to be popular/successful.

Although to be fair, I haven’t seen any other Kicktoon outside of HB and the pilot of HH, but the problem is that I don’t feel comfortable watching these cartoons by myself because I’m afraid of what they’ll be like; and since I have been living on campus for the past 10 months (I recently got out on summer break btw), the only thing I have to go off of is the “gold standard” for this medium.

But I haven’t explained WHY I don’t like either HH and HB, and it’s a bit simple, I don’t like the pacing, humor, soundtrack, and writing. A lot of people mindlessly hate on it because they think it’s either racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic, transphobic, fat phobic, etc, but I highly doubt that a cartoon created by an openly queer Latina American woman would be so bigoted. If you want to see a more in depth review, watch this video made by this guy here, he more or less shares my opinion on both shows:

As for the soundtrack, it’s just so bland, and I expected better from the Living Tombstone, like this soundtrack is so bad that it feels like it was written by Jake Paul. And the same hypocritical idiots who accused the songs in Wish of being written by an AI fucking love it.

Don’t get me wrong, if you like these cartoons but have a valid reason for liking them (instead of being a shill like Saberspark or Cellspex), then that’s fine, this is just my opinion and I’m just trying to vent my frustration. If I offended anyone with these posts, then I’m sorry, I’ll try to make it up to any of you somehow.

Btw, I don’t think that the Kicktoon genre is a bad thing, I just think it has unexplored potential to be good/great. Also, I don’t hate HH and HB, I just think they’re mediocre (but they do have potential, much like the genre they started).

#Youtube #disney #hazbin hotel #helluva boss #animation #wish #indie animation #kicktoons #peace treaty #i’m sorry #tadc #lackadaisy #murder drones #wish positivity #mascot horror #mega musical

[loginwalltoldmetomakeacc]

guys im making an object show lol

I see a lot of you cookie run fans know about object shows based on my silly little poll

so yeah, im making an object show called O.A.S.I.S. (Object Allure: Seeking Island Secrets)

O.A.S.I.S. starts off as your typical object show with a colorful cast of characters and multiple challenges over the course of episodes, and look, even an isolated island setting! But you can’t help but wonder if there’s more to that island than they’re letting on… Join Blueberry Waffle (host), Eraser Cap (co-host) and their 12 contestants as their reality show turns into a mystery that unfolds the island’s biggest secrets.

so yeah, ummm if you guys are interested enough I’ll definitely make a separate blog for my upcoming show : )

my silly little poster for my silly little guys

#licorice cookie #rocky #rocky bfdi #cookie run #crk #crob #cookie run kingdom #cookie run ovenbreak #object show #object show ocs #object show community #osc #object shows #object shows community #I’m making an object show #OASIS #O.A.S.I.S. #indie animation

[thearthermit]

Coconut Boy🥥

#meta runner #glitch productions #digital art #my art #artists on tumblr #i’m so tired #theo metarunner #indie animation #gaming

[showtoonzfan]

For some levity, the Lackadaisy pilot is finally out! If you’ve seen it already, what are your thoughts about it? I thought it was a treat!

Yup! I’ll post my review here then!

So, overall I definitely liked it. As everyone is saying, the animation and composition is absolutely GORGEOUS, I loved the 3d props and backgrounds, I have been following this project since it was announced for an animated short so I watched a lot of sneak peeks from behind the scenes, (even becoming a patron member for Tracy for a long while) and the long wait and hard work definitely paid off. While the sketch lines being visible is very distracting at times, I will give credit that the animation and look and feel of the short is nice, since they were trying to go for an old-timey Don Bluth/Disney vibe, basically those old cartoons from the 50’s-80’s.

I will admit that while this is around 25 minutes, it feels very short, I was hoping we got to know the characters more better, mainly characters like Wick or Pepper. Like….I will say I thought there’d be a little bit more than what we got, so that was a little underwhelming for me, BUT what we got wasn’t at all bad, especially since this is a pilot. This entire time I thought it would just be an animated short, since I could have sworn the creator said that’s all it’s ganna be for now, but now it’s labeled as a “pilot”, so I can give it a pass for that. Even if you haven’t read the comic like I have, you can kinda get down most of the characters and dynamics.

Rocky is this loose canon yet sweet and can get the job done in wacky ways, Freckle is the soft cutsey wutsey one who deep down has a temper and is crazy, (and Rocky can see the potential in him) Pepper comes off as someone who wants to be an independent woman and can pull her weight around the way how rough the world is, (with Rocky respecting her and her and Freckle having somewhat of a cute relationship) Nicodeme and Serafine (two that I really enjoyed watching) are also loose canons who enjoy the battle, being paired up with my favorite character that is Mordecai, a straightforward, professional and stern person who has an infamous past and isn’t aquatinted well with the people around him. The Mitzi stuff along with the other characters at the bar I’d thought we’d dive into more, but again, this is a pilot, and they do hint at future things, how they’re trying to get Wick to help them, Mitzi being a mysterious character, and the leader of their rivalry business learning about the mishap that happens in the end credits scene.

Since this is a pilot, there are PLENTY of things to be explored, it opens a door for the characters to get more depth, and for the story to expand, something that I really want, especially since the comic (for now) seems to be on halt. I think this pilot serves as a perfect “short and sweet” scenario, it did want it wanted to do, it introduces the characters and some of the story well, and I really hope this gets a BIG following enough for the cast and crew to keep working towards this goal, I would even say I hope a studio sees this and wants to pick it up. Lackadaisy certainly isn’t for everyone, I myself have said that I had a hard time following the comic at times due to the 1920’s language, and some of the humor didn’t catch me, some of the dialogue in this pilot as well could have been better in terms of showcasing the characteristics of each character or the world, but other than everything I mentioned, I don’t have any other criticisms or nitpicks, since it’s too early.

Now that the pilot is finally out, I definitely want to reread the comic and compare the two in the near future, Lackadaisy is something I have passion for and I’m so proud of the team for what they accomplished. Here’s to hoping there’s more! 🍻

#honestly I do think this is a great start #even if you have some issues with it #I’m really hoping there’s more to see what this can turn into especially since the comic itself changed over time #begging that this gets the same cult following Hazbin did #lackadaisy webcomic #lackadaisy #review #reply #ask #animated indie short #animated short #2d animation #lackadaisy animated short #unrelated

[tomato-jump]

You cant ‘I’m just a little silly guy’ your way out of murder-

Acc nvm 👍👍👍👍

#N is so cinnamon roll omds #I’m watching murder drones for the first time #murder drones #gooseworx #murder drones n #indie animated series #indie animation #silly little guy #hes so silly