Animations Gone Indie! by Jeffrey Bellido

"But it's not... not if you have people who care about you. Good memories can do a lot. Hold onto them... and cherish the people around you. You never know when they'll be gone. In this world, the worst thing you can do is... make someone think they're not wanted or loved." 

-Kinger from The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 3  

Uzi and N from Murder Drones

Indie animations are on the rise in popular demand, with many shows getting mentioned and millions watching them on the YouTube platform. The number of new shows that are coming out is changing the animation industry as a whole and its popularity with fans and animators. 

Many indie projects are always one person and a few friends. One sticks out the rest because this indie project is a full-team production company. Glitch Productions (or Glitch) has produced many projects ranging from colorful to dark.

Their first was Meta Runner, which many people remember since the creator of the show felt it needed fewer episodes due to lack of time. Other shows they created after wrapping up quickly were Murder Drones and The Amazing Digital Circus, which was way more successful than the first show on YouTube. It’s a sign that creators need to do the same and build more stories with more time to animate their work. 

New faces on the internet are popping up more and more lately. Shows like Lackadaisy, Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl, Welcome To Hell, and others are gaining traction. The rise of animation is becoming more mainstream for everyone to watch.

New names in voice acting are getting publicity, like Michael Kovach, who has voiced many characters ever since indie animations were getting recognized on the internet. He voices N from Murder Drones and Angel Dust from the pilot for Hazbin Hotel.

Without any indie creators, he wouldn’t have a career in voice acting. It’s amazing how

animations help people build their careers with amazing creations that fans can enjoy. The fans enjoy everything with these shows, buying merch to support the show entirely.

Gummigo from The Amazing Digital Circus

It’s beautiful to see a community come together and love these small projects. Knowing they need something better to watch with material no one has done before-- The hope for all viewers to be happy.  

In most shows, some streaming services would pick up this show to put them on their platform for customers to watch. The possibility of that is 1 out of 100 because many indie animators/creators have tried to pitch a show to them. Some creators are sidelined many times but one made it out of there.

Shows like Hazbin Hotel and Smiling Friends are the two shows that were greenlit and went through terrible development. Starting off with their history, the creator of Hazbin Hotel Vivienne Medrano (VivziePop) started her popularity on her channel through an animated Katy Perry music video.

Using her characters, she tried to make a series with them. On October 28, 2019, Vivienne made her first pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel on YouTube; a stepping point for Indie creators and animators to join their creation for themselves. A chance for them to create stories people will watch and characters they love.

Everyone on YouTube and other platforms hopes to create something big Just like how Vivienne did. In the past, one show had them work hard to pitch their show. Their names were Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, the creators of Smiling Friends.

It was Hadel (Psychopebbles) and his friend Chris O’Neil (Oneyng) who pitched a show called Hellbenders to Adult Swim. Adult Swim had asked for a meeting with the two creators about why would it be suitable for them to work for the program. There were many attempts to pitch-- even dressing up as the characters from the show they made.

Zooble and Gangle from The Amazing Digital Circus

The problem was during this pitch Adult Swim had many related themes about hell in their shows. Ranging from shows like Metalocalypse, Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell, and Mr. Pickles had all hell themes. If they add one more to their program, it would be redundant.

Adult Swim had to shut down Zach and Chris’s pitch since it was terrible timing, proving the hardships indie companies are against when it comes to publication.

What’s next for new animation? More project ideas, new inspirations for animators to do their own series, as well as a chance for many of them to make a living with their amazing work. Soon, new faces will be appearing everywhere. With animation coming back into movies and shows, it is still going strong. However, everyone needs to know that animation takes time and effort.

Recommended series to watch  

• Helluva Boss (season 1 and 2 on YouTube and season 3 coming soon to Amazon Prime video) 

• Murder Drones (8 episodes) 

• Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to be a Magical Girl (pilot)  

• The amazing digital circus (4 episodes and more coming soon) 

• Metal family (14 episodes and more coming soon) 

• Lackadaisy (pilot) 

• Long Gone Gulch (Full Pilot) 

• Ongezelling (1 episode) 

• The Gaslight District (pilot) 

• ENA (15 episode)