If Plan 9 met South Park - It's Project Tinfoil: From Outer Space!

So I came up with this 2.75d animation style that is more or less watcheable (if you can watch Aqua Teen you can watch this) while being fast enough to tackle full length episodes with. It’s not the most amazing Blending you’ve ever seen, but I’ve been able to crank out nearly twelve minutes of animation (as much as an Aqua Teen episode, eight minutes shy of South Park). If you don’t mind watching without sound, here’s the first episode as it currently stands -

(keep in mind I’m promising you South Park level humor, so, as the saying goes “it shouldn’t be watched by anyone”)

I’m looking at promotion with an eye towards doing some kind of crowdfunding later, but I haven’t found a great site for it yet. Deviant Art is good for still images, Newgrounds focuses on flash animation. YouTube might work, or the animation might sit there for ten thousand years with a couple dozen views.

Suggestions are welcome . . .

I was more focused on the animation more than the content through out the video. I have to tell you that it was great! Having sound you enhance it, but this was a great video! Combining 2d and 3d elements to pull this off has got to be a labor of love. Sometimes a little hate, but there is no denying that this was showing quality work. Market this video like you were trying to get everyone to listen to a demo tape.

It took time to do, the better part of a year, but it’s nowhere near as difficult as doing it all in 3D or (shudder) cel animation would have been. Some shots can be pulled off in a day. It’s rare for a shot to take as much as a week. If you can draw, the animation style is viable for one man productions.

Promotion is looking like it’s going to be more difficult than the animation itself. You’d think any YouTube video with Miley Cyrus in the tags would get at least a couple dozen clicks over night, but I think you’re the only one who’s watched it so far. All the other views are mine.

Oh. When you uploaded the video, what search tags did you place them under?

Episode 01a is under - B Movie (film genre), anime, cartoon, comedy, ufo, alien, grey alien, einstein, vonneumann, monster, creature, zombie, vampire, dracula, new world order, shadow government, horror, nerdcore, blender 3d, miley cyrus.

The trailer is under - Trailer (website category), science fiction movies, cartoon (tv genre), animation, anime (tv genre), manga (comic book genre), B movie (film genre), unidentified flying objects, flying saucer (film subject), alien, conspiracy, monster movie, comedy, einstein, von nemann, tyson, kaku, science, hip hop, blender 3d

I threw everything at it I could think of. I’m new to the production side of YouTube and have no idea whether that’s bad etiquette or not.

Oddly enough channel stats says I’ve only had 2 views and 3 minutes watched, while the videos together show they’ve at least been clicked on 30 times (again, that’s mostly me). Is channel stats showing only showing unique visitors who aren’t me? How many minutes did you watch? Just trying to get an idea what the stats really mean.

The entire episode was 11 minutes and 50 seconds give or take. I took a look at the entire thing from beginning to end. I even saw the trailer. Normally, the visitors will be counted each time someone looks at it, even if it’s the creator. If you are looking to possibly gain more viewers, try adding in South Park to the tags as well. It might help. If you want to find out how many people have actually viewed it, this could help.

http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-statistics-competition/

Just follow the directions to your video and you will find your answer.

Hmm YouTube analytics is not showing any data at all for the episode. I mean, there’s the view count which is slowly climbing but in analytics I get the error message “Data is not available for the selected report, content, and date range. If possible, try selecting a broader date range, different content, or come back in 1–2 days after the most recent data has been processed.”

For the trailer it shows twenty something views, but then says only two people have viewed it. But they averaged a minute and a half each, which is an awesome retention rate considering the trailer is only a minute and six seconds long :confused:

Thanks for the link, that’s a good site to know about.

I added “South Park” and “Plan 9 from Outer Space” tags to the trailer. We’ll see if it makes a difference. This thread has nearly 200 views so far - people may not like what they see when they click in, but I’d say they’re clicking in at a good rate. If those 200 clicks had translated into 200 full watches of the trailer, I’d be an ecstatic guy right now. I’m guessing the thumbnail is not good for this forum though, no doubt people are expecting to see 3D. But 3D characters are more than I can do as a one man show and have twelve good minutes of animation.

It looks like there are not a lot of people getting animations done so probably more people will check this out as it stays near the top of the page. I will be getting more animations done.

Hi Jeremy Ray,
I like your 2.75d animation style very much.
Give YouTube analytics some time to update, it can`t update every hour or so.
It needs at least one or two days to show the correct data.

Here’s a rough of the next three shots -

O.K. I am getting some views, and I’ve even got my first subscriber, so maybe this will actually take off! So far everyone seems to like the visuals. I’m not sure the story is going over as well. I think it’s pretty good for what it is, but it isn’t what I would have made if I had a half a billion dollars to play with. I’m pretty sure it isn’t what people are looking for, but maybe in time the story will be appreciated too.

Stuff like this take time. Looks like it’s all coming together.

Well, maybe. Would it help if I animated a pumped up booty monster fight between Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian :eyebrowlift2: How many shots would it really have to be? There’s a lot to be said for waking up and finding you broke the internet.

That’s completely up to you as the creator.

But you see, there are times when I may need to be told I’m insane. :eek:

I may not deploy Kim Kardashian this time, but I reserve the right to do so in the future.

Here’s the thing. You, as the creator of the content of the series, can either have things planned or just simply wing it. And as some shows get noticed, the content has been either on the edge of insanity to “I’m going to go to that point just for the sake of going to that point”. There are a handful of people that creates a audience that thrives and relish on the insane. You must always ask yourself this question as you go along, “How far do I want to push the envelope?”

From the first video, this looks like it might actually have some potential to be entertaining. (I laughed a bit if that means anything.) Seems like this would be one of those shows that parodies a lot of other stuff, and would have to work at playing off various tropes well enough to not seem too stupid or excessively cliche about it. (Perhaps some qualities of MegasXLR more than South Park. And keep in mind some jokes do seem to play out better if walking the “PG rated” tightrope a bit, the “adult” Ren n’ Stimpy just wasn’t as fun as the original runs that were more toungue-in-cheek than in-your-face.)

Probably need to hunt down and get some voice actors, since animating to some dialog would likely help with pacing and overall timing. (The other video with no sound doing some storyboard stuff seems to make that obvious.) Certainly you could get some volunteers to read from a script, before you get to the level needed to pay for this. May want to even try voice chats for this kind of thing (it’ll be crude of course) unless you can find local talent.

YouTube or Vimeo is probably a good a venue as any, at least until some company comes knocking. (Which may or may not happen.) From some webisode type shows, it also seems you might have to wait a year or two before you find an audience. (Or vice versa.) Some of the well known ones like Weebl or Happy Tree Friends weren’t exactly a big phenomenon right off the bat. (Might seem that way, but remember they were at New Grounds before being their own things.) Then you have to weigh whether you want a site dedicated to this stuff or just use a blog. (Seems most artists have their behind the scenes as bloggy stuff, and main content - if big enough- gets it’s own dedicated venue. No need to rush that though, more important to put money where it’s needed than overhype something short on quality.)

To see if there’s any interest, etc., you might also try your luck with Reddit in addition to the other sites you mentioned, also whatever miscellaneous forums you hang out - if they have general (off topic?) discussion boards or things like art/entertainment go and post there too.

XeroShadow -

Dealing with all the conspiracy theory and UFO stuff, it should be insane to the point of not-quite-comfortable anymore. Not all the time, but enough to capture that feeling. Things are a little too crazy these days in the bad way, but we’ve got to live with it somehow. That said, I’ve cut a couple jokes and could have cut a couple more.

When I did my webcomic I had an idea of where I was going, but I didn’t write out every detail in advance. I believe the story turned out better since I was able to dwell on it over a few years instead of a few months. I’m doing the same thing here. I’ve got a good idea of how it could end, but I’m going to let it evolve along the way.

pauljs75_ - It’s not easy to get an honest laugh these days, I’ll take it :cool: I’ve been watching Funimation’s channel on YouTube lately, and of the shows I ended up liking, I had to force myself through the first episode if not multiple episodes. So if Tinfoil looks like it has potential, I’ll take that as a good sign.

I don’t think Tinfoil can be entirely PG. Zomfira is the backbone of the show, and, as a caricature of Elvira, she needs to have big ol’boobies hanging out all over the place. Having hip hop mashed in, there needs to be booty and an element of crudeness. It shouldn’t go so far as to be a parody of itself though, that’s a point well taken.

I’ve tried working with free voice actors already. It took months to get anything, and then only one of the actresses really nailed the character. I may still end up going that route, but I hope by the time I get the last scene on the UFO finished there will be enough interest to crowdfund professionals. But I don’t want to go longer than that without sound.

While I’m not against working with a company, by the time (or if) I become successful enough to draw the attention of one I may not need one. I’m drawing most of these characters on good bristol board with the idea of selling the original art. If the show gets a following that may be a good business in and of itself.

I’m not expecting overnight success, but still - Miley Cyrus as Rocky Horror - her butt gets pumped up with silicon and explodes while twerking - seems like it’d have to go viral? If I can get it in front of Charlemagne tha God he might like it enough to mention it on his radio show (the radio show he’s on). That might be all it would take to get the ball rolling.

I’m still looking for the right web venue to promote on - so far BA and YouTube have been the best. What I haven’t found so far is an active forum about film promotion, about hooking up with producers and the like. I’m guessing most creative people get caught up in creating the highest quality possible and don’t progress to the stage where they have a film to promote. I’ve done that myself. The solution may end up being to find the right tag on YouTube and update daily, so my channel comes up first for that tag. Something to look into . . .

That’s cool. At least you have a solid plan on how things are going to turn out.

Holy cow, this is very close to the style I’ve been trying to create in blender - only adding a little more movement to my drawings because I’m not as accomplished as you in that area. The animations are great - solid movement, very lifelike. Had you done any trials with breaking your characters into animatable parts? (arms, legs, eyes, etc).

Excellent work! Are you doing the voices? Do you need help with those? I’d love to apprentice on this, just to see your steps on a project like this.

– also -

what did you use to create the illustrations? is the final texture vector or pixels?

Okay, one more post on this.

  1. Vimeo instead of Youtube. They’re partnered with Behance.net, which is DeviantArt for grownups, I suppose. It’s professional creatives. While it won’t get you the viral breakout of a youtube runaway, it’ll put your work in front of the right decision makers who might be in a position to help you further the thing. (so, I suppose, it couldn’t hurt to use BOTH.)
    This site: http://www.motionserved.com/ is the combination of Behance and Vimeo. I’d expect to see your work on there, it’s that good.

  2. Since you’re looking for an audience that’s on line with South Park, you’d need to go where they are - Facebook, Twitter, and Vine. (I don’t know enough about Vine, whether it’s still useful to get your work out there). So create a Facebook Page just for your show. Post your clips to Youtube, push for subscribers and include links to your FB page. It’s all about creating a roundabout presence.

(I spent 12 years doing advertising for the Weather Channel, where they’ve honed their skills on driving traffic for digital videos.)