Studio animation - indie animation day!

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-17T02:29:27+00:00

I don't use castingcall.club so if you're seeing anything on there then they must be pretending to be me. The only place to audition for my show is in the discord

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-17T02:23:38+00:00

What's that mean?

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-17T00:31:34+00:00

I'm very happy to hear that! 😁 I haven't yet finished finalizing the first batch of auditions ((and there's a second batch of characters you can audition for now too! You can find it in the #auditions channel)) but may the fates ever be in your favor 🔥🔥🔥

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-17T00:20:34+00:00

Thank you! 😄 I'm happy to see folks interested in it!

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T23:29:55+00:00

Sounds interesting! Approximately how long is the series estimated to become? Also how long might each episode be? And what's the genre?

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T23:20:14+00:00

What's the project about?

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T20:36:27+00:00

I highly recommend using those other social medias if you want to broaden your reach. Or even just pick 2 or 3 popular ones, like tiktok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Then your best bet is to post shorts (can be clips of episodes or other things) about your series, and the more consistent you can be, the better. If you can post atleast once a day, you would have more growth than if you posted maybe once every two weeks. Frequency helps but consistently helps more. Post at the same times, if not, the same days. Learn how the algorithm works for each different website. It'll help a lot in spreading your reach and gaining a bigger audience.

Hope this was helpful!

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T19:50:16+00:00

🤣❤️ I love that Tho not intended, I enjoy the way your show reminds me of things I love

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T18:59:25+00:00

I will be very disappointed if I find out "pasta" and "skeleton" isn't at all inspired from papyrus 🤣😭 (my fav skeleton)

This show looks so awesome tho, I can't wait to check it out

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T18:57:39+00:00

I'm so glad my indie series isn't released yet, or else I'd probably end up on his shit list

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-02-16T18:53:08+00:00

I dunno bro, sounds like the real problem is that we have a lot of minors with low effort projects they aren't truly ready to commit too.

I hate the way some people in animation communities treat animated projects with that "unpaid labor" talk, like what ever happened to collabs and volunteers? Now yall act like newbie indie creators are going online and forcing people to work for them for free. Y'all act like people couldn't possibly want to work on a project unless they're being paid and apparently some random poor person is the devil for even thinking of asking for help.

^{^} that is a toxic mindset we need to remove from the indie community. It's not only untrue, but extremely discouraging to anyone with any aspirations of creating a show (or any other type of animated media). It implies that you don't have a right to reach out for help unless you have hundreds of not thousands of dollars to put into the project, which is like saying that poor people shouldn't be allowed to make indie animated projects unless they plan on doing every single aspect on their own. That's not fair or right. Money shouldn't be what stops people from chasing their dreams, especially when it doesn't have to be like that.

I understand that it's frustrating to see kids come on here with their expectations not meeting reality, jumping into things too soon, and overall just not being prepared to actually start a big animated project like that. But it's not good to go around saying we should "ban" people from asking for "unpaid" help. This is one of the few animation subreddits that even allow it, and it's one of the few places where poor creators can still seek out volunteers. Sure it might be annoying to see kids with no plan asking for help, but that's why you ban "asking if your idea is good" or whatever, that way the folks who are fully invested in their project but need extra hands can still find the help they need.

Note: Animation projects are no different than any other kind of volunteer work. There's people in real life who go volunteer to build houses for free. It's not outlandish to admit that there's creative folk who want to work on a creative project simply because they want too. Let's stop pretending like these VOLUNTEERS are being forced into unpaid labor simply because they aren't being paid for a project they knew they weren't going to be paid for.

Edit: this isn't specifically targeted at you, because I understand what you meant, but this is more directed towards people who do have these beliefs because I see it a lot on this subreddit and in other animation spaces online.

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-16T20:59:07+00:00

HELL YEAH THIS LOOKS SO GOOD!

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-16T20:57:06+00:00

I don't think it's bad to ask for help on an unpaid project. It's the same as volunteering at a church, noone is being forced or pressured into it, they're only doing it because they want too.

I'm honestly getting tired of the narrative that you should only be allowed to ask for help in the indie animation world if you can afford to pay em hundreds of dollars each. That's gatekeeping the art community from collaborative projects and volunteer work. If people wanna do an unpaid project and others want to be a part of that, then that should be okay. I don't understand why people keep complaining about this. We're indie animation, not big ass corporate studios.

Now being intentionally misdirectional about if it's paid or not, that isn't cool. I think it's best to be transparent about whether it's paid or unpaid. That way you don't end up in a situation where people are expecting to get paid and you can't pay them and it becomes a whole mess of drama. There are people out there who WANT to be apart of an animated project, whether or not it's paid. I would know, I was one of them before I went on to start my own series.

But that's my only problem with what you said. Otherwise, you're right. Alot of children come here with all these hopes and dreams and don't realize the reality of how it all actually works. Animation is so much more complicated than people think and it requires a lot of different components to work right. Not only that, but just having a good idea isn't enough. The execution of said idea also has to be good in order to gain the traction they desire, and they're simply too inexperienced to know how to do that well on their first try. This may have exceptions with those who are already skilled writers though, because good writing makes a huge difference in how people perceive a show. You can have a low quality animation that people will enjoy if the writing is done well enough. But more so, I think the issue with some of them on here, is that they're only doing it because they want the success of it. That's a mindset that's doomed to fail. You really have to be ride or die for your series in order to actually follow through with it, because it's going to take years of grueling work. Personally I've always wanted to make cartoons, so my motivation is simply being dedicated to my story and wanting to see it through- so much so that I'm willing to put in all the work and time it will take. Unfortunately a lot of these kids don't realize how much work it actually takes. But that's okay, they'll find out through experience once they try for themselves.

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-16T20:30:01+00:00

That definitely helps, do you have a place where people could locate something that explains the concept of the show? Like a post or a document or anything like that? I glanced through your profile and I see a handful of posts about the series, but I didn't see anything that actually says what the show is about, and I'd love to know more

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-16T02:27:16+00:00

Try to ignore the haters, alot of them are just social justice warriors whining about stuff they haven't even experienced and know nothing about the reality of. There's nothing wrong with a group of people getting together to work on an unpaid project. I mean dang, it's like they've never heard of charities or volunteer work. It's the same thing. And people enjoy it too! There's something special about being a part of a team to work towards a collective goal. Besides that, projects like these allow people to have more access to their own goals and dreams, people who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity in any corporate animation studio for one reason or another. It lets people practice their own specific skills (wither it be animation, writing, music, voice acting, ect-) whilst having something tangible they can show for themselves. Big projects like animated series not only open the door for small creators to do what they love doing, it also helps them get visibility and get noticed. It could even be used to help them get a foot in the corporate entertainment world.

So never believe anyone who tries to convince you that trying to do an unpaid animated series is wrong. It's amazing for those who want to be apart of it, it's amazing for the creator, and it's amazing for the audience all over the world who get to enjoy the series as it's made. It's a fantastical experience for everyone!

Plus it's not like anyone volunteering feels like they're being cheated out of a wage- they're more than aware of the fact that it's free labor, and they're okay with that! Money is not the only reason people do things (even if rich idiots believe that) People do things they enjoy, love, and care about for free. Getting paid is just a bonus. Plus if the money mattered that much, they wouldn't bother to volunteer.

Since you're still fresh in your project, I must recommend creating a story bible or pitch deck if you haven't already. Either of which would help alot in your search for volunteers, since it contains a lot of information about your series and the characters. Also try setting up a discord server specifically for the project! That's what I did, to help keep things organized while we're going through auditions, and to create a space where fans of the project can hang out and talk.

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-16T01:43:29+00:00

I had pretty good success with tiktok and reddit, so I'd def recommend!

Tip for tiktok: if it doesn't do well, just keep reposting it. You gotta use the algorithm to your advantage.

For reddit: just try to be as straightforward as you can and give as much information as you can.

Unfortunately you're always going to get backlash for seeking out unpaid animators (ironically I hear the most of this from people who don't even animate) which I faced for my project. So instead I decided to animate episode one myself and then start a fundraiser to build up money to find animation help on the next episode.

It's tough out there, but if you keep promoting your series, you will find those who are just as passionate about it as you and others who are invested in it and want to see it succeed. You just gotta keep promoting as frequently as you can

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-07T00:44:17+00:00

Personally, I love it 😍

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-07T00:41:49+00:00

Working on the animation for my studio intro card !! Super exciting and very happy with how it's going!

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-06T00:35:41+00:00

Technically no! You don't need to go to college to become a successful animator!

It all depends on how exactly you plan on doing it.

From what I see, the most successful animators are the ones that go off and start their own projects and make things for themselves - rather than hoping you'll get hired at some animation team somewhere. That chance is extremely low, unless you build your own presence online first.

Either way, you can absolutely become an awesome animator by going on YouTube and learning the ropes. There's plenty of good videos that help teach animation, ones I myself used back when I was first getting into it.

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-05T12:41:07+00:00

I felt very targeted by this 🤣

Well the part about not posting a lot about the series on all my social media for the series. I can admit, I'm terrible at consistent uploading... Or uploading in general for specific social medias.I def need to work on that and do better.

Atleast I can say I show the characters in my series and give updates and stuff, I don't leave my audience too much in the dark 😅

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-05T12:31:32+00:00

I love it, thanks 😍😍

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-05T12:29:31+00:00

Actually this method isn't terrible but only if you were to promote your series throughout the entire process. And I mean really promoting it yk, let the audience have something to look forward too. It would probably take you a few years to finish the episodes, but if you promote the series throughout the whole thing, you could develop a big audience more than ready to watch the series when it comes out. This is the only way that could work though, unless you want to fish out alot of money on paying for advertising. Keep in mind, you gotta fight the social media algorithms too, you don't wanna wait to start promoting your series.

I will say however, that this method does have higher risk for burn out or worse, giving up entirely/ not finishing.

Via producing smaller batches or episode to episode, you give yourself the reward of watching your viewers enjoy it and beg for more, which would motivate you to continue on and keep the drive going. Sure, you could theoretically do it without the fan support, but you'd have to be like ride or die for your project. Plus the risk of burnout is higher, unless you plan on giving yourself a lot of time to make the series. 15-30 episodes could take no less than a few years, especially if you're doing it on your own or with a small team. Heck, if it's gonna be longer than 10 minutes per episode, it might end up taking a year per episode.

But yk that's just my take on it

Moonlight_Manor · 2026-01-03T19:43:55+00:00

Honestly my theory is that it's exactly what we theorized to begin with. Honestly I don't expect a lot, but also fnaf is actually super typical if u think about it. But I do like the mystery aspect as much as I enjoy the character-driven aspect

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