Animation was front and center at October’s installment of Web Series IRL, held at Melbourne’s Loop Bar. As usual, our hosts for the evening were Hayley and Alyce Adams, creators of I Can’t Even. The crowd was screened three very different animated series; Damo and Darren created by Michael Cusack, The Tale Teller created by Draw With Jazza’s Josiah Brookes, and some episodes from Allana Carnie Creative.
Although these series all are very different in tone, they all come from the hands of some talented animators.
“I’ve been drawing my entire life. They started just as dumb comics some I’d sell to my friends… it was a total scam because they were shit,” joked Michael Cusak.
While his early drawings may have been a scam, Michael’s work has found its place now. Based on two alcoholic ‘derros’, Damo and Darren has millions of YouTube hits, with some reaching beyond five million. He had some advice on creating viewable content.
“If you look at a lot of viral animations online they’re only like 10 seconds, the really viral ones are short,” said Michael.
“A lot of people when they start animation try to make this big project and that’s great, but just make something really quick because no one wants to watch a five minute video when they’re scrolling Facebook.”
Allana Carnie has a similar approach with Allana Carnie Creative, which started out as a Lego stop motion channel but has since expanded to various animation techniques.
“Kids have a short attention span so I started doing “filler” videos that were like 10 seconds and they just got things out and got noticed,” said Allana.
“Obviously superman’s gonna be more popular, but they’re the ones that get people to the channel and it’s my own series that keeps them there, that’s what they’re asking for in the comments.”
Josiah Brookes had some advice for gaining audiences, after his animated short The Tale Teller received funding through the Google/ScreenAus initiative Skip Ahead.
Josiah’s audience was gained through his instructional web series Draw With Jazza, even though that was not his intention.
“The formula is to do what you love doing till the day you die, and if no one watches you’re happy,” Josiah said.
“In today’s age you find a large audience by starting off with the niche audience who like you for what you’re doing.”
Michael agreed that creating with the specific goal of gaining a large audience could be detrimental.
“Worrying about an audience too much can hold you back just do what you want and you’ll find your audience,” he said.
It was similar for Allana who began creating something she was interested in, then later found there was an audience she could tailor her work to.
“When I first started out, I didn’t realise how many people were interested in Lego. There’s this whole Lego animation community,” she said.
“There’s specific sites for Lego animation that I can get stuff out there.”
When it comes to the future, the panel addressed questions all animators think about, including how to make the transition to TV and how to make money.
“I want to use the characters I’ve established and the cartoons I’ve already done and move into a new structure of a TV show, so Damo and Darren in a bigger universe.” said Michael.
Talking about how to maximise profit from his work, Josiah says he had to hone his business skills looking at patterns between his ad revenue and shop sales.
“That enabled me to be less reliant and dependent on a system that was out of my control,” he said.
“Now I can focus on when to create content that people will watch and then when the ad revenue goes down I can say I’m having a special or there’s this new product,” he continued.
“I also wash dishes on the side so if you can balance that, there’s the key,” joked Michael.
The next Web Series IRL event will be held on Monday 17 October and will feature Tales From Tinder, Little Acorns and For Actors.