I'm Getting So Close To Finishing This. Just Been Really Busy Lately. Can't Wait To Show To You All!

Advice to aspiring 2D animators/storyboard artists/concept artists etc.:

Don't go to expensive art school

Don't work for low pay indie productions in hope of boosting your resume

Don't do cheap commissions

Don't post traced or AI art ever

Don't make animation your career

Stop telling yourself artistic skill = money

If you are in high school right now, do not go to college for animation. I'm so so serious. The animation industry is crumbling right now, and the last thing you should be doing is racking up college debt for a degree that will fail you.

Here are some things that you can do:

Use your creative skills for jobs outside of the entertainment industry

Work on personal projects

Do not feel like you have to spend your time marketing yourself on social media if you don't enjoy it

Collaborate with other artists on projects you actually want to work on

Widen your creative influences

Try new mediums

Keep private sketchbooks/journals

Allow yourself to flow through periods of creative highs and art block

Even if you 'make it' in the animation industry. It is highly likely you will get laid off, be overworked, or underpaid. Most likely all three.

I've been laid off by two studios, underpaid by all of my animation jobs with exception of two, and I'll name them so no one thinks I am accusing them. One was a small short film called Emaho where I got to set my own rates and pick my workload. And the other is Wild Card, which was commission based and priced by me. I have had three animation studio jobs, and all of them have either not paid me or paid me very little.

The last studio job made me finally quit the industry. It was the largest most prestigious studio I had ever worked for. And, with exception of the studio that paid me nothing as I was an intern, this studio paid me the worst wages of any job I've had. I had calculated my pay, and it was less than minimum wage in my state. The studio had hired me promising part time hours, but would often leave me without work for days. The managers were hard to reach. I had little to no contact with the other animators working at the studio. But it was my first and only credit in an animated show, so that's something.

This expierience has been echoed by my animator friends and coworkers. It is not a sustainable industry. It profits off of worker exploitation. Don't feed it with your time, money, and creativity.

It's done! After so many days of procrastinating this piece, I finally finished it!!

This is my redesign of the Institute of Perfection. I found the movie version to be very bland and boring, so I took some inspirations from some of the concept arts, and made my own design. I have it to where Perfection is actual in the toy factory, protected by this glass dome. A very glamorous city where Pretties can eat, train, and shop for accessories. There's also some advertisements of "Perfection" and "You can be better" to encourage the Pretties to be better than ever. Underneath Perfection is a workshop where Imperfect dolls are forced to work on crafting accessories. I'll make a drawing of what it looks like once I'm done with my re-design of Lou, the Pretties, and the Imperfect dolls.

Update

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post my new artwork since my iPad decided to break while I was trying to finish it. Pretty disappointed about it, but hopefully I’ll get a new one soon.

Things I’ve noticed are essential in plotting and would probably have saved me a lot of time if I had considered it earlier

The START of your story - how fucked up flawed is your premise/character at the start? what do they have to change? why are they HERE?

The END of your story - How do you want your main character/theme/universe to change after your story? Does it get better or worse? THIS SETS UP THE TONE DRASTICALLY.

What you want to happen IN BETWEEN - the MEAT of it. What made you start writing this WIP in the first place. Don't be ashamed to indulge, it's where the BRAIN JUICE comes from. You want a deep dive into worldbuilding and complex systems? Then your start and end should be rooted in some fundamental, unique rule of your universe (what made you obsess over it?). Want to write unabashed ship content? Make sure your start and end are so compelling you'll never run out of smut scenarios to shove in between scenes (what relationship dynamics made you ship it in the first place?).

The ANTE - the GRAVITY of your story. How high are the stakes? Writing a blurb or interaction? start with a small day-in-the-life so you can focus on shorter timelines and hourly minutiae that can easily get overlooked in more complicated epics. Or you can go ham on it and plot out your whole universe's timeline from conception to demise. Remember: the larger the scale, the less attached your story may get. How quickly time flies in your story typically correlates with the ante (not a hard rule, ofc, but most epics span years of time within a few pages, while a romance novel usually charts out the events of a few months over a whole manuscript.)

Everything else follows….?

I was listening to mlp "Unleash the magic..but better" and I was suddenly reminded of "Victoria". (Context is with doll pulturgory.)

So here's the idea-

Victoria is the one singing the lady's part. ("I've realized that you've always been an outcast.") The echoing of "Free the magic"/ oh wa waHAHA(bye) are sang by some also deleted characters of the pretty dolls. Here's some concept art.

So like, imagine them singing in the background while Victoria sings to Lou. Lou will be singing Twilight's part.

The scenery would be Lou right in the middle of the council, and it surrounds him. And right above the head's of the council are screens that show parts of uglyville, and the uyglies are very oblivious to the cameras around them. (Maybe some robots must have put it there, idk. And I don't know what time setting this is.)

Here's a helpful idea

The song starts with Victoria singing to Lou of how he should exterminate the uglydolls. Somehow, I don't know how, but there are like, bombs (idk) underground. They are all connected, and waiting to be triggered by a push of the button infront of Lou, and finmaly destroy the entire village.

Victoria and the council pressures Lou into pressing it, and what would happen if he wouldn't. The markets would decrease, the reputation/legacy of the factory would fall because of unappropriate dolls on the stocks, and its all because of him not making sure ONE reject would be recycled. Because of that, uglyville was made, BECAUSE OF LOU. So it's really all on him that the uglies were multiplying. The lyrics hit "It's up to you to not fail THIS TIME." It shows how they gave Lou one last chance to do his job right, and if he fails, the uglies would continue to ruin the hundred of years' reputation in toy making factories. Because of him. (Lyric: "If we lose, then you're to blame.") And that he would be punished severely.

(My English sounds so bad that I can't explain well I'm so sorry)

So when you start listening to the beginning of the song-

It starts with the typical gaslighting and Victoria trying to make Lou believe what he's doing is right.

The council sings the echos behind her and to Lou's face. Cue the music

The council would show Lou the possibilities if he pressed the button. Things would go back to normal, and Lou will have his role and purpose back.

In the song of Luna's part, it would be ox saying that some uglydoll race would begin, and it would switch from Lou's contemplations if he wants to do it or not. Maybe the council would tell Lou to make them feel the anguish and despair he has felt for decades.

Victoria would look so pretty

And maybe, again idk how but like some of my ocs would be there???? What

Along with Nolan who's being held down by a robot. Maybe they found out that Lou has been making friends with rejects again, and some perfect dolls that are not up to factory standards.

Nolan would be the one to say spike's part

("TWILIGHT NO!")

And then the last part of "Now!" Is like ox beginning the race and vitoria signalling Lou to press it.

And that's the end of my ramble. Thank you for listening.

ROOSTERTEETH if you POST these last few episodes on YOUTUBE your CHANCES of more people TALKING about your SHOW SKYROCKETS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

I'm still not over this mf😭

I made this for Brightgoat. He’s an amazing artist and he inspires me everyday.

I'M GONNA CRY DUDE!!!

HOOO BOY IM OVERWHELMED

In a good way! Thank you all for watching and for all the kind words and support. I was very much crying in my room this morning and feeling the love.

I especially wanna thank all of you here on tumblr! All your asks and questions and investment got ME more invested in my own characters. Like in a way I’ve never felt about my own characters.

But yeah there’s too many messages for me to get to so im probably gonna take a little break today but gaaaah I hope you enjoyed!! I’ll try to sporadically reply to stuff but my phone’s blowing up everywhere hahahaha

Also HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!! Our stories deserve to be heard and we should be able to exist in ANY genre. I hope this pilot shows that people wanna see Black magical girls and I hope to see more of it, even if im not the one to do it~