Channel VR?
Mar 5, 10:55 PM
A friend linked to an article today that really got me wondering if I could realistically make a living making and selling my own animations and related merch. That idea has been on the fringe of my brain for a really long time, but in the end I always go back to good ole freelancing for various clients to pay the bills.
But what if…
What if I create a site wholly devoted to my art and animation thats alive and vibrant with new content as fast as I can create it – and its my full-time gig? What if people are able to watch lo-res versions of the animations via youtube or something and buy a restriction-free better-quality download of it for like a $1?
At the outset, I would make it clear that this is my attempt at making a living drawing and animating stuff that people buy directly from me. I would be as transparent as possible without listing my monthly earnings or whatever. If I were to ask for funding for something, I would make the numbers publically available though. (I’d likely use something like fundable) I think people can respect a guy trying to make a living doing what he loves and I would try to make it as clear as possible that thats all Im trying to do. Hopefully, this more intimate setup would make it special for everybody, definitely not just me. It would be a way to connect as directly as possible with folks who like what I do. Man, thats exciting to think about!
Content-wise, I wouldnt lock it down to one series or genre or cast of characters; it would be open to whatever I feel like doing. Im sure I would revisit certain ideas and characters/worlds multiple times, but continuity would not be the goal – at least not at the beginning. Letting it evolve and surprise people (including myself) would be half the fun! Im thinking the toons would be pretty short. Bite size and sweet.
Types of things I would offer on the site:
- Embedded youtube cartoons I made, viewable in their entirity for free
- An easy way to buy that same cartoon at a higher quality and in a format you can drop onto your media player of choice
- A blog with sketches and videos/webcasts of me making stuff
- A forum for people to fling poo at me and each other. Maybe I could take cartoon ideas in there in-between poo dodgings
- T-shirts, printed sketchbooks, stills from cartoons, etc to buy
- DVDs with a collection of like 10 cartoons on them to buy
- E-mail newsletter – I know, cutting edge right? RSS is still too confusing for a lot of people I think… I’d have an RSS feed too though
- plus more stuff later
Im just thinking all this through and writing out my thoughts here. If Im going to do this, Im going to REALLY go for it 113% so it would be a big deal and very scary and exciting. Im ready for the next big thing in my life though, and before I buckle down and go work for the man somewhere Im extremely tempted to give this a shot for like a year or two.
Vance this is super exciting. I’d really enjoy your work, of course, and I’d love for you to be able to crank out the stuff full time. Would parts of the site be restricted to paying members, or would income come strictly from stuff you sell? Just curious, I imagine you’re a bit curious, too, as you figure all this stuff out.
— Brian 260 days ago #I thought about kind of a membership thing too… I would have to figure out how to build and manage some kind of a login system first of all, and Im wondering whether people would want to sign up for something like that. I get weary of having to login to every new site I like and want to use… I guess it would have to be something really special to make it worth peoples patience and $, and it would have to come later on down the road.
— Vance 260 days ago #This sounds really, really cool.
Not to be contrary to the 113%, but it seems like you might be able to make this have a better chance at working as a phased-transition thing. First getting all the structures in place to support it, getting some toon and merch ideas rolling, maybe selling some kind of advanced/charter membership thingy (I’d want one!), and then letting the new thing gradually increase until you can do it full-time.
The clean break idea sounds appealing, but then it’s got to succeed immediately, which is a lot of pressure.
I’m stoked to see where you go with this!
— Casey 259 days ago #Casey – yeah it makes sense to have everything in place before making the switch.
That does get me thinking though… when I quit the job to go freelance full time I had some stuff in place, but I also had the feeling at the time that if I were really to do it well and make it work, I had to do it – not just half-way and on the side, but full on 100% commitment. Kinda a feeling like I can’t afford to freelance full time until I start freelancing full time.
I did have some stuff set up in place already though and some savings to fall back on, so it wasn’t just jumping out of a plane and building my parachute on my way down.
Not sure entirely what I’m saying here, but Vance I know that when you focus 113% on something you get a ton of awesome work done. I’d definitely consider taking at least a little dedicated time to flesh out the ideas a bit more and see what might be worth pursuing a bit more heavily. Hit me up for any tech-related items if you like.
— Brian 259 days ago #I love it when your posts shine with this kind of fresh enthusiasm… the glow of a new idea, with all its infinite possibilities that might abound from it. It’s awesome to see, especially when a truly creative individual, like yourself, gets all stoked-up from it.
I think what you’re proposing is a great idea for someone like yourself. Not many people could pull it off successfully, but your imagination and work ethic make you a perfect candidate for this type of thing. I like the idea of you keeping it open-ended, so you’ll let your inspiration guide you through whatever you feel inspired to work on… much more personal, watching your creative voyage take off.
I hope you go for it!
— bray 258 days ago #Thanks for the encouragement guys!
I would probably start out in like a low key beta mode and work out the kinks for like a month, then make some kind of roadmap announcement saying how many videos I plan on doing a month or whatever, so people know what to expect. That would also keep me on track.
I really think Id need to commit to it full-time for like 2 months to get it started strong, then maybe mix in other freelance until it makes money. (Which could take years I realize) Im much more interested in making a living based on slow steady growth than hoping for some kind of miraculous blast of money from a client or thousands of “psuedo-fans” that might end up being really fickle. So I would cater my content and attitude to that kind of healthy maintainable growth by making it personal and being good to people who are into it.
I’d really like to set up some kind of referral system. So if theres some kind of free membership deal, if you get 5 friends to sign up for it, you get a free video download or something.
Those thoughts are kind of scattered, but anyway…
— Vance 257 days ago #I think of Homestar Runner as an example, they keep it pretty focused but just bang out the good stuff and sell merch as their income, from what I understand. Maybe you should interview them…
— JC 255 days ago #Thanks for all the feedback in here. I finally decided to just go for it! (see the latest post on the blog)
— Vance 238 days ago #