Month: November 2024

With the popularization of technology in modern society, most people have the opportunity to publish the content they create in their leisure time on the Internet for people to share. From the previous hard work of making animations in front of the drawing table to now being able to make them with just a mobile phone or tablet, the advancement of the times has omitted most of the processes, and the advancement of technology has greatly reduced the time people need to create.

For the above reasons, we can find many animators or illustrators with personal power on various video websites. They often share their daily creations, and most of the content they create is to promote their favorite movies, animations, or game plots for others.

For a large company, whether their products are games, animations, or movies, they hope that someone will promote their content and let more people know about their products. Therefore, they will spend a lot of money on publicity, and advertisements everywhere are just part of their publicity methods. Imagine, are you impressed by the advertisements you see on the street every day, or by the videos made by some independent media or independent video bloggers that you follow? Because of the convenience of the Internet, most company managers have found that instead of spending a lot of money on inefficient advertising without purpose, it is better to go to some video websites, recruit some independent video producers with a large fan base, and then let them promote their products. This approach is more efficient.

CircleToonsHD, Cas van de Pol, CarbotAnimations, and many other video hosts have similar experiences. They used to be individual animators, but when their videos became popular, a large number of commercial companies began to place orders with them, hoping that they could make animations and promote their products.

Animators may not know why their works can be so popular and popular quickly, but the audience and the people in the community like their works, which also attracts the attention of the company. This is a very positive two-way feedback. Painters can rely on orders to work for their favorite careers while getting a lot of remuneration, and companies and communities have also received extensive promotion and attention.

In my opinion, no matter what kind of movie or game, or even a series of products such as novels, in reality, they will have their own area, in which people will actively discuss or promote their favorite content and try to let more people know what they like. I call them community culture.

The community plays a vital role in the success and influence expansion of an IP. People in the community are not only the main consumers of the IP, but also its disseminators, supporters and creators. They can continue to produce derivative works of the IP, whether they are illustrations or animations made by themselves, or even the birth of games. These are immeasurable for the growth of an IP. No company manager can predict when the next community work that can attract a lot of social attention will appear, but once it appears, the benefits it can bring to the IP are immeasurable.

For example, Cas van de Pol (https://www.youtube.com/@cas), who makes personal videos on YouTube, most of his videos are some resets of movies and TV shows. He has attracted many fans through his personal style and a lot of changes to the plot.

Not long ago, he made an animated adaptation of (How to Train Your Dragon) and added a funny dance to it. It was this dance that caused the video to spread like a virus. In just one day, it received a very high number of views on video websites around the world, and the original movie once again received a lot of attention.

（https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCiixIkzUk&t=34s）

（Funny dance produced by CAS）

The community is like a catalyst for the development of an IP. Even if an IP no longer has as much influence as before due to the passage of time, as long as there are authors like Cas, the IP may regain its influence at any time. This is a very positive development.

An animation or an excellent game is created to serve people. There are many characters in the animation and the game, and each character has his own story. The stories of these characters will attract the audience or players to browse again after watching the work. This content will attract people to continue to pay attention to the update of the work. And this will make people spontaneously form discussion groups to discuss the story content or characters they are interested in, so there is IP.
A good work, its IP must be full of attraction, people will spontaneously form a community to discuss it, share it, and spread it, which is also a means for the company to expand its influence. Most excellent companies will have their own IP products. How to develop and how to communicate with fans in the community is the secret of their survival to the present.
If players like this IP, they will spontaneously create some content for it, such as derivative novels, illustrations, or animations. I used to follow an independent animation studio called “CarbotAnimations”. They are loyal fans of “StarCraft 2”. They love this game and have made many animated shorts for the game and posted them on YouTube. Soon after, they were hired by the official and became a professional animation team, producing many other game animations for Blizzard Entertainment.
I think this is my future goal. I will focus on an IP, which may be a game or an animation. I will try to make some content for them, some content that will be loved by the community, and spread the IP content I like, which will make me very proud.

Video Reference：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-wT6SyGphA&t=30s