Can you kickstart your webcomic in a live series? Or something like a anime?

[realSean_Murphy]

I don't know how possible this is, but I have heard of successful projects being funded via Kickstarter. So how likely could one turn their webcomic into something like a anime or a tv show, not exactly like on cable but on something more like Netflix.
But, anyway what do you think? Do you think it's possible if the webcomic was popular enough?

[shinepaw]

Well for that you need to have a really good story and connections. I don't think I've seen anything like that before on Kickstarter, and to pull off something like that you'd need a lot of money, and a whole production team I assume. You can't do something like that alone and without money and Kickstarter won't help you in that case. People won't pay for something when they are not sure it can be made into reality.

You need to be Batman popular for something like that, and I think even the Gamercat comic wouldn't be able to pull off a Kickstarter for a cartoon. But you can try and make a Kickstarter for a printed book version

[realSean_Murphy]

I don't know, A print comic in the digital age of comics? I mean that's what you can get here on Tapastic, unless people like physical copies.

[realSean_Murphy]

How would you get a production team interested though?

[maycision]

if u want to publish an printed comic-" Image comic's " is also an good option.
As far as animation are concern u can use adobe flash pro to add lil animation to ur work.(also Refer youtube tutorials )
And if u want an anime its pretty difficult to make as Shinepaw mention.

Even pro animator's avoid making high lvl animation until they r certain there is some benefit.

I guess for making an anime/cartoon it would b easy for u to contact any animation institute in ur city. They have there own Youtube channel running for promotion purpose.
If u can persuade them and they like ur plot they can create an short animation for any competition or such .
Though u have to deal urself with ur negotiation and terms and condition's. (plot here means u need to have all drawn manga/comic to shown em since they don't have time draw from te scratch )

This method may work or may not depend on individual institute.

[realSean_Murphy]

So it would best to contact the closest institution near me? What if one isn't nearby but close enough in a different city. For example a city over. Also, how would you persuade them, and what should you do if they like your idea? Also, would it only work for competitions with the institute? Or is there like any place like a institution that may be interested?
Also would it be more like a college institution, or something else?
Again though how would I contact them, who would be the best person to talk to?

[realSean_Murphy]

What would be the best way to get connections? By advertising your webcomic to others locally and over the web, such as reddit? Or through forums? If so, know any good forums to try?

[maycision]

U can contact with te faculty or take an appointment to arrange an meeting with te institutional head(online/offline). You can send em mail regarding ur proposal .

Easiest way would be if u had well established fan following on web regrading ur work., it would b enough to per suave them .

They r not a production house so yea basically make animation for competition's. [ one short animations like pixar does]

U need to attained various animation seminar's/webinar's to find about various animation institute's. Established institute 's shows less interest whereas newly open institute's r keen for new ideas.

i did with te animation with private coaching institute affiliated with te college no clue bout te college's.

U can find there contact on there official website's they do live chat often or just give em call or if too hesitate send em an email.

Finally u need a one short story which has a very unique plot and distinguish character design .
or
If u have an awesome concept from which they can run a show on youtube channel.
or
If u r able to make some contact with te group of animation students u can collab with em .
or
if u r paying $$ then there is no issue's wat so ever.

Ultimately it all depends on ur interactive skills.

[keii4ii]

Like @shinepaw said,

You need to be Batman popular for something like that, and I think even the Gamercat comic wouldn't be able to pull off a Kickstarter for a cartoon.

Make a comic that becomes EXTREMELY popular. Think millions of readers.

Either that, and/or...

Make industry connections. Go to conventions, get your work noticed, talk to people and get your name out there. Show the world that you're worth their time and money. Get a job in the animation industry if you can; that's a great way to step into that side of the world. Even then there's no guarantee, but it's a start.

No, you do not need to live in the same area as production teams or companies. Even if you lived nearby, it's not like you can just show up at their door and ask them to animate your comic.

[serenitysquirrel]

Get popular enough and maybe work toward funding youtube video episodes?

[puppetbomb]

On @maycision's suggestion: I do not agree that students are a good source of free animators. I personally see people using students as cheap/free labor to be exploitative and would make sure to tell any students I know to avoid such people.

My suggestions is this: If you want to make an animation, make an animatic. If you get a large enough following and enough people donating, contract people to animate what you have or pitch it to a studio.

Also, Connections are good for increasing the likelihood of your pitch looked at, but that's where the perks end. Your work needs to speak for itself, connection or no.

[Mharz]

I have to agree that you really have to make connections around the industry and pitch in your ideas. If you're idea is good, there might be a producer who will be willing to lay down their money for the project. It won't be that easy though so you have to do the fundings yourself if you don't have a strong fanbase.

It might be better if you start a youtube series of 2-5 minute animation shorts as a first step. I believe you can make profit there by putting ads on your video. Of course, that will depend if the video can get tons of views.
20minute animation like in japanese anime requires a lot of drawings, time, manpower and budget.

If you can create the animation yourself that's fine and all but it really will take a long time. A single minute of animation can take up to 3-7 days or longer depending on the kind of animation and the level of detail. Plus you have to make money for living expenses as well. It's probably better if you hire freelancers who are willing to create the animations for you for a certain price.

[Kamikaze]

So, its interesting you ask this question, as its literally what my team and I are doing with our comic Kamikaze. We're animation folks withi ndustry ties, we've been working in the community for a while and we've pitched to multiple networks, producers and executives. Every single person we talked to loved it, but, right now, the industry outside of places like Netflix, have to cater to advertisers in order to make money. This means they have to be incredibly careful in what they put their money behind, and I'm telling you now, unless you're an OVERNIGHT success like AxeCop AND have the industry connections its going to be a hard road.

Networks operate in a culture of "No," which basically means that they will do almost anything to turn down a project or find any excuse to say no, because if they make a single misstep in what they choose it can ruin entire careers. Places like Netflix are great because they're taking risks and its paying off, BUT its incredibly hard to get the attention of someone like Ted Sarandos when he's got highly successful, highly sought after and we'll seasoned talent knocking on his office door. Netflix is a great option, but you're going to be going up against the stars of the business.

Having an established fan base for your property is incredibly important, and ultimately, that's what hurt Kamikaze the most as we pitched to studios. "This is great, but you aren't Batman." Its rough but thems the breaks.

So you ask about kickstarter. Why not fund a show through them? Okay sure. Let's break that down.
Production costs for the standard animated 30 minute show of say Avatar the Last Airbender quality would run about $1,000,000 per episode. Now how long are your seasons? Say 10 episodes? Well that's an easy $10,000,000. Well what if you cut the quality? Say something more Spongebob level, and shorter. You're still looking at $300,000 to $400,000 per episode. Can you realistically crowd fund that much money? Is it a sustainable method to tell your entire story?

While online distributions like Frederator/Cartoon Hangover had a lot of success with the Bee and Puppycat campaign, these episodes still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to create their small five minute episodes. It's not chump change.

My team and I created our story of Kamikaze because we wanted it to be an animated series, but we shifted away from that in favor for telling the story outright through comics. The comic gives us traction, a proving ground for our concept, and gives us direct control over what our story says, looks and feels like. For us, telling the story is more important than seeing it animated (even though animation is still a goal).

Based on your questions @xeithe it really sounds to me like you have a lot of research and soul searching to do on your idea. Take your time developing your work,put serious thought and effort into it, even if it seems like a silly pursuit. If you want your comic to turn animated series know that it took 8 years for The Walking Dead to become a show, and took 7 years of pitching before Spongebob was even considered for pick up. It's going to take time.

And a friendly word of warning: If you're in it to get rich, you're in it for the wrong reasons.

Good luck, my dear.

[eschaefges]

also, I'm sure Ethan Nicolle would question that Axe Cop was an overnight success, since he launched in 2009 and the TV show premiered in 2013 - and all he got was 6 fifteen minute episodes. Even the best of the best of the best have a tough time in animation.

[ToonDoctor]

You could try to get a pilot for your comic, but do know that since you are not yourself in the industry that it will likely take a year before your project is produced.

You seem to be very young, this means that other people will likely make all the decisions for you. I would not use the Kickstarter model in your case since you'll make your supporters wait a long time before there is any pay off or something tangible.

For years I ran my own boutique animation studio and even for someone with extensive animation experience, it took over a year to get my first pilot done. And I had full directorial and production control over the project and knew exactly what I was asking of the overseas studios.

Also for the people saying to get a starving animator or a poor student to work on a project, it's abuse when people think lowly of comics creators. Why would it be any different for animators? In fact, animators have to invest significantly more time and effort in a project. Remember that there are a minimum of 12 frames per second. Now do the math as to how many drawings that mean.

I used to be asked to work on projects for free all the time. Any animator that you encounter probably has a pet project he or she would like to work on already. Why would they work on yours for free and no expectations to recoup their effort?

I say, focus on your comic. Sure, I 'd like to do a pilot for my own comic one day, but even though I can technically produce one on my own, the work involved is so great that it would take me months to work on this project, and I would have to stop the comic while I do the animation.

[realSean_Murphy]

So, basically you would have to get the attention of Ted? He would have to be interested in the idea in order for it to become possible?
You would need to get noticed, but simply being noticed isn't just it, you REALLY need a strong fanbase for anyone to be interested in putting down money for such a project. But how did Kamikaze fail? And how could it succeed where it failed? Maybe I could help, I do review where shows weak spots are and how they could be improved as well as listening in to what critics and fans have to say.
So kickstarter isn't the place? I see.
And, no, but seeing your characters come to life on screen is INSANE. And, I'll note down that it would take time and thanks for telling me that.
Edit: Also speaking of connections, I take it you also have connections, so could it be possible to connect with you?

[realSean_Murphy]

So you have full directorial control over animation? But it could take a year to get a pilot done, generally what about a 20 or 30 minute pilot?
A TON of drawing.
Unless they knew they would be rewarded for such a project? Not just your average reward though..
And doing animating while doing a comic time restraints would make it nearly impossible to work on the two, you would also have to continue the comic but if your doing it yourself while animating it simply wouldn't be possible due to the time involved..

[realSean_Murphy]

But he did succeed, didn't he? That's good to hear even if it was just 6 episodes, he got it even if he wished for more.

[realSean_Murphy]

Speaking of which it looks like @Kamikaze and @ToonDoctor both have not just the connections but also full control over animation.
Back to the idea of a 2-3 minute video on Youtube, maybe something like a trailer?

[ToonDoctor]

A pilot should be no more than a minute long. A minute is long enough to sell your project. No producer or network executive will sit through 30 minutes. Also standard episode length are 13 minutes or 22 minutes. Not 30 minutes

Here is my pilot for Brief. Never completed because I lost everything in a flood.