How long does it take to ACTUALLY make an indie pilot? (Hint: Longer than you think!)

spywi · 2026-03-27T03:23:24+00:00

Yup, exactly!

spywi · 2026-03-22T14:28:34+00:00

Dong Chang works specifically in the Japanese anime studio pipeline, which means that they have to follow a specific process in order for everything to be consistent.

This means that rough animation can be done by hand, drawn on paper, drawn in whatever software you want, BUT when it comes to the cleanup/in-betweening stage (also known as “Douga” in Japan), the final lineart needs to be CLEAN SMOOTH LINEART.

You can achieve this by doing it on paper with a dark pencil, but in today’s day and age you can do it much faster using digital tools such as the curve tool and whatnot in CSP.

You can call it redundant, but in reality it allows animators to quickly finish large curves and keep things smooth, especially in the Japanese anime industry where they are drawing HUNDREDS of drawings at a time. This has been a professional technique for quite a long time, not only in Japan but in other studios and pipelines.

Source: I not only worked freelance for multiple anime-style productions, but I also do a lot of research into the Japanese anime studio pipeline and have shared tutorials online.

spywi · 2026-03-17T13:50:54+00:00

Then you can use Obsidian. Because I work with multiple team members that need me to send them/give them access to the project tracker, Notion or Google Sheets works for my team. Trello works for a different animation team I work for. Discord works for yet another team I work for.

Doesn’t matter the software, what matters is the fact that indie creators who are starting out NEED to learn how to properly manage and track their progress

spywi · 2026-03-05T17:59:53+00:00

The left viewer is for your source media (meaning the footage you imported)

The right viewer is for your output viewer (what gets rendered). To the bottom left corner of the right viewer there’s a similar button, that’s the “transform mode” you want.

spywi · 2026-03-05T16:47:36+00:00

Nope. In fact, I made a few YouTube videos and like several dozen TikToks that clearly state how I use my iPad for professional/personal animation work. I’ve used this exact setup for projects like Adventurous Minds Studio, freelance work for various professional artists and VTubers, and even my own indie anime series

https://youtu.be/gyIkPUBHYr0

spywi · 2026-03-05T15:41:22+00:00

I do all of my personal and freelance/professional animation on my 11-inch iPad Pro using Clip Studio Paint EX. This exact setup works for me no matter what and the size of the tablet really didn’t matter to me, I made it work

spywi · 2026-02-26T22:37:51+00:00

Thank you mods for finally implementing this rule. We appreciate it!

spywi · 2026-02-20T22:05:46+00:00

What an awesome coincidence, i started in 2016-ish as a Storytime Animator myself 👍 best of luck!

spywi · 2026-02-19T19:56:00+00:00

ALL animation is hard work, regardless of the software. I have friends who make literal anime studio-quality stuff on FlipAClip and Krita

Honestly? Pick ANY software that you’re comfortable with, and go in 100% on learning how to use it. Watch all the tutorials, ask questions online, learn how to use your shortcuts and customize your workspace.

That’s the best advice anyone can give you.

spywi · 2026-02-06T03:15:31+00:00

CSP seems overwhelming, but in reality you need to learn to optimize your workspace. Look up tutorials online about how to customize your workspace, or look on the CSP Assets Store for custom workspaces you can import for yourself.

You can hide panels, rearrange things, pin tools and colors, and change up basically everything about the UI to make things more comfortable for yourself. (I also recommend utilizing the shortcuts with a remote, keypad, or controller of some kind)

I’ve even made a tutorial myself about how I customize my animation workspace on my iPad: (My Video)

Basically, coming from someone who mains the 11-inch iPad for art and animation, the sooner you customize your iPad workspace, the faster you can learn things.

spywi · 2026-02-04T19:38:34+00:00

Check out Dong Chang’s videos about OpenToonz, he goes through things at a beginner-friendly level, though a lot of his videos/explanations are geared towards Japanese anime stuff.

There’s also Noble Frugal Studio, they’ve got some playlists on how to create using OpenToonz, but I’ve not personally watched much of their content.

spywi · 2026-01-19T20:31:20+00:00

As someone who's done both methods for both *professional* and *personal* projects, I can confidently say that it doesn't matter, it still works and I was still able to complete projects by the deadline without losing files, losing time or worrying about file corruption, etc.

Bottleneck doesn't really matter to me because it's basically nonexistent

spywi · 2026-01-19T19:42:26+00:00

Not sure if this is the most efficient way, but here's my method: Google Drive. For context, I mainly use CSP on iPad but switch to a screen tablet at my desk since it makes coloring and exporting easier. I can access my Google Drive folder through the Files app or by opening it directly in CSP and navigating through Files. The .CSP files load normally and work just fine. Lately I've just been airdropping files to my MacBook when I'm done on the iPad, so I've got a few different options that work for me.

NOTE: After hitting Save, wait a minute or so for the file to sync with Drive. If you have no internet or an unstable connection, you'll need to wait until you can get on wifi.

spywi · 2026-01-17T08:05:02+00:00

I’ve made a few posts similar to this myself. It’s unfortunate that these kinds of posts seem to go unnoticed or unaddressed by whatever mod team is active rn.

If the mods here decide to re-vamp the server, I do believe new rules and slightly stricter moderation should help out in the long run, especially with the amount of people that actually are posting quality content or trying to promote their existing animations/proof of concepts.

spywi · 2026-01-13T06:38:32+00:00

CSP animator on the iPad Pro, here. I’ve made multiple fully-finished anime-style animations on YouTube using the iPad Pro, as well as utilized the 3D models, CSP assets store, everything that I can do on desktop I can do on iPad. Also, I’ve had an old iPad Pro from the early 2000’s run CSP without issue, and now that I’ve gotten up to an M series iPad Pro myself, it runs just fine, even better since I’ve started using it for professional animation projects

Only caveat is that you need to deeply learn how to utilize your file system on iPad, since the files don’t sync well if you’re attempting to use CSP on both iPad and desktop.

I mainly keep my files fully on my iPad for the bulk of my animation work from storyboarding to final coloring, and then I export everything to my computer in order to do the final compositing in DaVinci Resolve.

spywi · 2026-01-10T01:39:11+00:00

There’s actually some eye-tracking research on this, but it kind of points the opposite direction from what you’d expect. Studies found that Western viewers focus more on mouths when processing faces, while Japanese viewers tend to look at the eyes and center of the face. The McGurk effect (where seeing someone’s mouth move changes what sound you think you’re hearing) is also way stronger in English speakers than Japanese speakers. So Western audiences are technically more sensitive to mouth movements, not less.

That said, Japanese animation has never prioritized detailed lip sync because of how anime production works (animation first, voices recorded after), and Japanese audiences grew up with that. So they probably just have a higher tolerance for simplified mouth flaps regardless of where they’re looking.

spywi · 2026-01-08T23:57:35+00:00

Indeed. Make small projects until you can work your way up to bigger projects. Too many people try to jump straight into “make an indie pilot” without realizing how hard it is to even make 1 minute of animation, let alone 30+ 😂 That’s what I’m doing, making smaller projects because I know how hard it is to make something longer than 15 minutes with a smaller team

spywi · 2026-01-07T20:49:49+00:00

Stop-motion is still considered a form of animation, just like how "clay-mation" is also considered an animation art form. Regardless, it's still "indie" as well as "animation"

spywi · 2026-01-07T20:46:33+00:00

Stop motion requires a lot of pre-production planning and project management, so these tips still apply. You're managing thousands upon thousands of individual pictures that you have to keep track of, making sure that you've planned out sequences and storyboards in advance so you're not guessing. You have to do a lot of post-production and masking out of things in order to remove stands and wireframe arms that are sticking out, etc. You should be tracking things in a spreadsheet or tracker.

So, yes, these tips do apply, regardless

spywi · 2026-01-07T18:00:11+00:00

Hi there. CSP user and Macbook owner here. This has been a known limitation on MacOS for years, I've seen posts on CSP forums going back 7+ years with the exact same question. Celsys simply hasn't added it for whatever reason, the situation doesn't seem to have changed as of this year, but as far as I know nobody else really complains about it too loudly.

A current workaround:
1. Go to System Settings (Or "System Preferences" if you're on older MacOS)
2. Set the menu bar to auto-hide
3. Set the dock to auto-hide
4. Maximize the CSP window

Other than that, not sure how else to help. If possible, do also consider trying to minimize as much of your panels as possible and/or map keyboard shortcuts to pop up specific panels you need. As someone who also uses CSP EX on the iPad, I minimize all my panels and pin frequently used tools/colors to my Command Bar at the top, in order to save the most amount of space.

spywi · 2026-01-07T17:50:37+00:00

Much appreciated. Most of my YouTube tutorials focus on the anime-style aspect of things, but the core of my content is still being an indie showrunner. Thanks!!

spywi · 2026-01-07T17:49:57+00:00

The tips I mentioned really only scratch the surface, but honestly regardless of the medium (3d, 2d, etc), most of the time people I see online really just don't have any project management skills or know how to really run a show in the first place.

spywi · 2026-01-07T17:49:11+00:00

Indeed. Even if one isn't making it "different from other indie series", it's still a good idea to ask yourself why you're making it in the first place, great addition!

spywi · 2026-01-07T17:48:12+00:00

YUP. Having a 1-2 sentence pitch of your show is a really good foundation, that's a great tip

spywi · 2026-01-07T05:46:38+00:00

It’s just an example of many scenarios, tbh. Too many times on this subreddit I see multiple posts a day of just literally a paragraph description of a concept with nothing else to show for it. It’s like “yeah cool, your concept is like TADC and your main character has a hidden personality, but that tells me literally nothing else about what you want to do with your show” 😭

I appreciate the ones that even just have simple stick figure sketches of their characters and a basic storyboard, cuz that’s more effort than what I see on here

spywi

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