From our first tournament!

@spoonylu

In the seventh circle of hell where it belongs (I purposely set it up to lose in the first round)

Tumblr's Most Seen Movies

I know there's a couple of these going around but I wanted to make one using the results of @haveyouseenthismovie-poll to determine what tumblr's favorite movies were.

flow winning animated feature is the kind of story that's going to be taught like the boogeyman to every big animation studio's intake class for decades

i keep thinking of this team and getting really emotional. maybe it's because of the being made in blender and kinda looking like a cutscene thing but they really remind me of when tiny indie game studios win massive and Just Can't Believe It. they came to the oscars with cufflinks of their little cat on it. they had the cat embroidered into the lining of their jackets. they posted photos of them all celebrating with their oscars at in-n-out afterwards. imagine being in an indie studio in a country that's literally never been recognized by nomination at the oscars, picking up TWO nominations for an ANIMATED film, getting flown out, decking yourselves out in easter eggs of your little guy, going "hey we may not win but holy shit latvia's at the goddamn oscars let's gooooo" and then running away with the biggest mainstream animation award there is. i'd lose my fucking mind. peace and love and joy and jubilation on planet earth

this rules actually

idk if anyone cares but i can confirm that the entire country is also collectively losing their minds over this

and everyone is offering to do this WILLINGLY (or cashing in on the success depending on how you look at it, but really we’re just excited as fuck)

this is NOT part of a major marketing scheme by the studio - none of this was around before/around the movies actual release

Video essay by Jellybox about what's good and bad about indie animation!

Wanted to share this in case it's helpful to anyone wanting to pursue making animation independently. It's also for fans of indie animation who may want some insight into how an indie studio works, why indie cartoons are always selling merch, why release schedules are often erratic, etc.

I also wanted to clarify the video's context, because it seems to have been somewhat misconstrued in some circles. Not long ago, WGA and SAG strikes, followed by TAG negotiations were very much in the news, shining light on the struggles the artists, writers, and actors in the Hollywood studio system are facing. In response, the words 'just go indie' have been tossed around quite a bit lately.

Gene and Sean at Jellybox approached us a few months back explaining that they were planning to make a video about the realities of running an indie studio/producing indie animation, largely in response to that 'just go indie' attitude. They were curious if we'd be willing to share our experience, including information about actual costs and the various difficulties and complications we've encountered. We said yes! We'd like for people to know what it's like. As much as it might look appealing next to the currently very broken studio system, indie has its own set of problems, and we think it's a good idea to be transparent about that because talking about problems is how you begin to address them.

Of course, while you get creative freedom and you have no shareholders to appease with indie production, the primary struggle you're always going to face is funding…and funding avenues are limited. Banks aren't eager to hand out business loans to freelance artists making cartoons, for instance. Social media algorithms reward frequent updates you can't swing with hand-drawn animated content, so you can't rely much on things like AdSense. You can't really insert sponsored ads into your animated videos without being too obtrusive. You can take on client work, but that interferes with your ability to focus on own animated project. Crowdfunds can be great for seed money, but they're also a ton of work to fulfill, and fulfillment itself will tend to eat up a considerable amount of the funds you've raised. Once your animation is produced, there is no well established way to sell the animated episode itself like there is for, say indie games sold on Steam. So, while we consider ways to try to make the terrain a bit more hospitable to indie creations, if nothing else, let this explain why productions rely a lot on merch drops!

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And hey, if you're an animation fan, consider supporting the independent productions you enjoy, whether you're tossing a few dollars their way, buying their merch, or just mentioning them to friends:

Do You Know This Anime?

Do You Know This Anime?

Do You Know This Anime?