Soo, It Happened, A Couple Of Days Ago I Mentioned That If I Got To 2,000 Followers On Instagram I Would

God ur art is so freaking beautiful, Im crying it's so freaking good uuuugggghhhh. ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Skfgdj THANK YOU 😭😭😭😭

people always talk about evil clones like oooh a dark mirror oohh what if you saw what are cruel person you were/are capable of becoming. and well yes but what if you were the evil clone. what if you looked in the mirror and what you saw was so bright it blinded you. what if you had to know exactly how good you could have been.

I'd love to see you redraw it with Theyna!!

omg, Theyna!!! they would be perfect 🥺🥺🥺

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.

Doodles of my camp half-blood ocs i did a while ago that I thought I should post here 💀

Meet the Studio 105 Head Honchos! 🚙

Hi my name is Vanessa Garcia-Millan :3 ! I am one of the co-founders for Studio 105! I work for outreach and as a Line Producer at Studio 105! I have so much to learn and I am so excited to be a part of a team with so many ambitious artists!!!!! I love all things small and cute (shout out to itemlabel and hyraxes). Anyway, I am so hype for what our team has to offer! Stay Tooned! 😎 @ ivory.petals

Hello! I am Nina, one of the co-founders of Studio 105. I work as the social media manager for the studio. I graduated May this year with a BFA in animation. In my free time you’ll probably catch me playing games, drawing or reading a book. I’m excited to see where Studio 105 goes! @ tanjyareen

Hello my name is Pedro Maradiaga. I am part of the Executive Board on Studio 105!

I'm so glad I was approached by Nina and Vanessa to join the studio. They entrusted me, and the now Executive Board, to help setup leadership and administration.

I believe in all the creatives involved, and want to serve them with my business expertise. @ pedrofriedrice

Hello! My Name is Alejandra and I’m one of the Head Honchos and a Production Manager for Studio 105! I’m so excited to be working with so many wonderful creative minds and we can’t wait to show you guys our creations! Get ready! We’re gonna be cruising along! 😎✨🤩 @ floramarkart

Hi everyone! My name is Kimmothy, and I’m one of the Head Honchos of Studio 105. I deal with Business Administration and Production for the studio, and I’m so excited to be a part of this awesome team! When I’m not staring at my screen, I’m usually wandering the woods or hanging out with my cats. Watch out for our work, we’re on a roll 🦅😤💯 @ kim_of_thee

Hi, I’m Marisa and I’m one of the Head Honchos of Studio 105! I’m primarily in charge of managing the studio’s art direction. I love clowns and cool bugs and fun biology facts. We have lots in store for y’all and I’m excited to share it with you! 🌈🦎✨ @sabertoothwalrus

Good question 👀

I hope you know I love the way you draw Octavain

I did not anon but thank you for telling me, also thank you for reminding me that Octavian exists bc I forgot for a second 😭

My dudes actively praying on camp half bloods down fall

You would like it uptown, it's quiet uptown ~ 🍂 🌺

Sometimes I think about all my followers who never got to see the world I promised for them :,)

Off to present my short film today, I’m sobbing and throwing up 😭😭😭

I saw this around and thought it fit them pretty well

Maitland design by mocamadrigal on insta

Original text post by @srsfunny