KOL, AOL’s site for kids, has offered original animation since its launch. Princess Natasha is one of its half dozen core properties. © AOL.

A growing number of viable forums exist for independent animators to generate exposure on the Web, whether through animation-specific portals, on general entertainment sites, or virally. Even more important, there is ever-greater potential for animators to make money from their online productions.

In some cases, portals are similar to broadcast or cable networks in that they have relatively few slots available for original content. AOL is one example. Its KOL site for kids has offered original animation since its launch, but it focuses on just a half dozen or so core properties, including Princess Natasha and Kung Fu Academy, mostly sourced from Animation Collective. The service recently introduced a preschool series, Pilar’s Adventures (for KOL Jr.), and acquired a property called Joseph Two-Two from Nelvana. Its teen area, AOL RED, features a section called Chubby Butter, also from Animation Collective, that highlights humorous animated shorts; an original series for teens is in development as well.

We’re inundated by producers and animators wanting to work with us,” says Malcolm Bird, AOL’s svp of kids and teens programming. “We’ve got the platform and the audience and the eyeballs. But how many deals can you do before you dilute the platform? We see a lot of really cool stuff, but we can’t use it all.”

Icebox is another site that plans to be selective when it relaunches this year. Currently, the site features only material produced by Icebox, which lately has been focused on selling some of its 21 proprietary properties (encompassing 170 shorts) to other companies. Icebox’s Queer Duck is about to come out as a direct-to-video film, while Mr. Wong has appeared on DVD and in various online environments.

“Flash animation gives everyone access to the technology, but it doesn’t mean everything is good,” says Tal Vigderson, managing director at Icebox, who says the new Icebox portal will focus on a few properties that stand out and have franchise potential. The original incarnation of the site featured a section called Icebox Independents, with content solicited from independent animators, and something similar will probably be included in the new version. “It’s a neat way to find new talent,” Vigderson comments.

Malcolm Bird, AOL’s svp of kids and teens programming, reports that he’s inundated by producers and animators wanting to work with the company, but unfortunately, can’t use it all.

Other sites accept a greater amount of content, with the goal of having as much variety as possible. Atom Ent.’s AtomFilms.com, which launched in the late 1990s, offers a broad spectrum of animated and live-action shorts, including submissions from brand-name studios such as Aardman and JibJab as well as relatively unknown independents. All told, it has more than 1,000 films (one to 30 minutes in length) available for on-demand viewing.

Heavy, which also debuted in the late 1990s, features live-action and animated content that is a mix of 50% internally generated or acquired content and 50% user-generated content. Selected properties include Behind the Music That Sucks, which is produced by Camp Chaos, and Heavy News, a new series in development with producer City Lights. Several series picked up from independent studios will launch in the third and fourth quarters of 2006.

All of Heavy’s content fits its mission of providing entertainment, mainly comedic, for men, 18-34. “Our point of view makes us different from the throngs of other entertainment outlets online,” says David Carson, Heavy’s co-ceo/co-founder.

Carson notes that things have changed since Heavy launched in 1999. “There was a lot of interest in putting money behind [online animation] then, but no good distribution outlets for it,” he says, pointing out that one million downloads made for an enormous hit at that time. “Now there are some really good outlets that rival cable. I have an audience the size of Comedy Central’s.” Heavy boasts about six million viewers monthly.

User-Generated Content
A recent development is the burgeoning popularity of user-generated content, where web users of all types can upload their own live-action or animated clips, essentially unfiltered by any gatekeeper. (There may be some screening to ensure content fits within a site’s demographic target or because of bandwidth limits.) Sites such as YouTube — which delivers more than 40 million live-action videos a day, with 35,000 new clips uploaded daily — have brought this phenomenon into the mainstream. Many entertainment portals have added mechanisms where users can upload video or animation to share with other users, enhanced by MySpace-style social networking elements.

One subcategory of user-generated content is Machinima, where fans create original animation by editing clips recorded from videogames and adding new audio tracks. Machinima.com specializes in this type of content, distributing more than 2,000 user-generated Machinima videos as well as developing and producing original and for-hire Machinima. The site provides tools and resources for users who want to make their own content.