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.

...I... I do not know what on earth compelled me to make this nor why, but I will not be taking criticism at this time

Apparently The Terror producer David Kajganich stated in an Q&A what jobs he thinks the characters would have if they lived in the modern day, and I just…

These are all so fucking funny. Love that one of the show’s producers seemingly has peak Terror brainrot

mcd but when laurance escaped the nether with ungrth he didn’t just get vague “eyes are blue now and don’t work” as a consequence, but instead ended up with some pretty bad void burns. not as bad what killed ungrth, but enough to mess him up and lose his vision as a result of them.

so when aph does the ungrths soul irene statue ritual extravaganza to fix the damage zane did, instead of just sending out Random Healing Wave it heals laurances burns because it isn't differentiating between getting rid of the voids effects on the plaza and getting rid of the voids effects on laur.

and also it would just be cooler. tbh.

The lil corner of the Good Omens fandom that I generally see is getting more and more into publicly declaring that That Theory I Dislike Is Bad And People Who Ascribe To It Should Feel Bad, and I don't know if it's really new, or if I was just lucky enough to generally be missed with that shit the last four years.

Different people's brains work differently, which means they will notice things, form interpretations, maybe come to extremely firm conclusions, all different from each others'. Different from mine, different from yours.

I get that some people think that they have the brain which produces the Objectively Superior theories (and/or which can easily determine which other people's theories are the Objectively Inferior ones). I just really missed the memo where Your Interpretation Is Not My Interpretation (And That's Okay) was dragged out back and fucking shot.

Anyway this blog is an "I may not agree with your theory but you may trust that I won't publicly heap scorn upon the very idea of having it" zone if anyone was wondering.

Otherkin posts save me save me otherkin posts,, (<- He is having. A night.)

no full offense, but why the fuck is r/fakedisordercringe still a thing?

In my constant brain rotations of “why are people in the west so hard on mecha aside from the fandom can be a bit unfriendly” I think one thing I realized as much as I hate to say is how mecha is sometimes treated remind me of the constant hatred superhero stuff gets.

It’s such a weird comparison because with mecha I do not know what the root of it was-and I’d love to know why but I feel there’s either no clear answer or there is one and it’s stupid-where as for superheroes in the west while there’s still a dedicated community the mainstream audiences have become tired of them due to over-saturation, which I understand, but it’s caused such a massive dismal to the entire genre of it much like mecha.

People think superhero stories can’t have any substance because it’s all about fighting and not about the characters- yet forget the SIGNIFICANT impact they had to so much pop culture. How superhero stories were rooted within comic popularity, how superheroes inspired countless of stories, even so far as reaching japan since so much early anime was taken off of western media which birthed its own genre of superheroes. It’s no different to how mecha help started up the anime industry making it one of the most important genres to japans history, yet most people don’t know it and belittle it.

Yet in superhero story cases it’s even WORSE when people are against it yet then go to see one superhero movie because it’s animated and put it on a pedestal and don’t bother to try other superhero content even though they consumed is no different from the norm. It’s the exact same shit when people watch eva and then think all other mechas don’t compare to it, when the genre always had darker, mature and emotional elements, just only a select few decide to canter to a audience who doesn’t even accept what genre it’s from which makes it all the more frustrating to deal with.

I’m someone who’s hardly into superhero stuff even if some of it catches my eye but it sucks to see that the situation is pretty identical to how mecha is seen, that I can’t help to feel sympathetic whenever I see some comic book fans upset at the mainstream audience even if they too can be a little hostile.

did anyone know that theres a new flavor of coke that was "made" with ai

People rightfully clown on how oda draws women but not enough people discuss the absolute disgusting horrors of how this man draws necks. Post time skip zoro is growing a hump.

Once again wishing all the Tales of bloggers still following me after all these years, despite my persistent Goro Akechi brain rot, a very lovely evening. 

okay so i’ve been talking about this fic ever since i made my tumblr account... you might also know it as my favourite kuroo fic ever or maybe just favourite fic ever because it’s That good... written by one of my favourite fic writers ever... and i would have rec’d it sooner if not for the fact that the author took the fic down to rewrite it and the day i clicked on my bookmark of the fic and found out that the fic was privated was the absolute Worst day of my life BUT we are all good now and today is the best day of my life in fact because!!! she reuploaded it!!! and this fic is good luck, have fun by ao3 user wanderwithme <333 i love her and her fics so much i even have a hashtag for it (see below LOL)

i adore this fic for soooo many reasons but to keep it short (and to avoid spoilers), here are three main things i love about this fic under the cut!!!! 

1. it has kuroo in it. duh. okay but this kuroo is truly unlike any other kuroo i’ve read!!! he is... very normal. and i mean that in a good way; normal as in he isn’t a person who’s crazily outstanding or extraordinary. but he’s still great, he’s a good friend to kenma (very good friend in fact), a good boyfriend to reader, a good captain to the nekoma team. he simply does his best to quietly elevate everyone else around him. he’s sweet, respectful, kind, and so so smiley in this, he gives me the craziest butterflies. what i like about this kuroo is that he seems very attainable and almost boy-next-door. this kuroo makes me feel safe; and i can guarantee you that you’ve never read a kuroo like this (or at least i haven’t)

2. the writing style. this goes for all of her fics!!! it’s the total opposite of mine which is why i think i like it so much -- it’s punchy, succinct, straight to the point but still filled with so, so much detail. the worldbuilding is subtle but still so good, and overall her fics are easy to read but still pack a punch. i read her jjk stuff too (and i think she writes more for jjk now!!!) tho i still don’t know anything about the anime despite watching it twice <3 i haven’t even met the lawyer dude but i’m obsessed with her new series with him which i am linking here (when you look at me like that, my darling, what did you expect?) if you wanna check it out : ) there are manga spoilers though so please tread carefully

3. the love between kuroo and reader -- it’s very simple and realistic!!! despite the misunderstandings (and god do i LOVE some good misunderstandings <333) you can really tell the pair of them trust and care for each other deeply. it’s very much show-not-tell in this fic and that’s why i love it. their love is a little playful, really sweet, really comfortable, and i love how it isn’t always like that -- reader falls slowly, then all at once, and it’s just so realistic and relatable. this isn’t something i can describe well, you have to read it to find out!

anyways i’ve blabbed on enough but that’s really just how much i love this fic so!!!! go read it!!!! smash the kudos button!!!!! leave the wonderful author a comment as well!!!! T^T 

i simply Do Not Think exaggeration to the point of lying for the sake of Haha Funny is. well. funny

Artist: Rinkara Source & Archives: Original Post | Broken Link with Image

I'm halfway to my goal weight!!! 🥳🥳🥳

Tbh (I am not that anon, but I share similar opinions regarding this) I am kind of worried that most Bylers won't receive the storyline as better written or compelling in the next season if Byler doesn't happen in a certain way they're expecting or wanting it to happen (or if Mike's character doesn't end up as they imagined/wished him to be). Because I keep seeing all these takes that Mike being oblivious wouldn't fit for his character bc he's smart and he'd figure out the romance complexities as well, and he must have definitely lied and must be strictly gay 100% and his romance with El should be completely discredited, and he should get Vecna'd and exposed and he's a very secretive character and Byler should get together in an intense dramatic life threatening situation and I'm like... i get it, everyone has their own opinions and wants but aren't those opinions a little bit too specific? and that it's setting up a certain expectation here, and ultimately will lead to ppl saying it's bad/weak writing if none of those things happen in canon.

i feel like no matter what happens people (me included) will be disappointed because it's just like volume 2 we've just been thinking about it for too long lol. and i don't think mike should have all the romance complexities figured out just because he's smart but i do think him not knowing how HE feels makes no sense. in terms of the narrative and also just taking this into consideration

the vecna thing and them getting together in an intense dramatic life-threatening situation yeah that's a very specific thing to expect i don't think you should go into the season expecting anything that specific because that's very "will's painting is gonna be the swing set" and we all know how that turned out. but it's also all in good fun like everyone is obviously gonna get a lot of things wrong lol

about gay mike specifically, i totally get why you would worry about people being too sure about that and then not liking the way byler happens if he isn't but to me it kind of feels like when people tell us not to be so confident byler is gonna happen. like i just see it. i can't unsee it. and it's what makes the most narrative sense to me. but he could come out and say i'm 99.7% gay only and i'd still support him🙏