The Mighty Animator
With all of this discussion about business models and marketing strategies, one member of the audience asked pointedly, "What about the animator? How will animated content on the Internet benefit us?"

The producers and directors answered with assurance: "The ultimate culmination will be the resurgence of the storyteller."

Along with other Internet animation companies, Level 13 is looking hard for original content that it can add to its line-up, which features shows like Tripping the Rift. © Film Roman/Level13.net.

The short end of it is -- the Internet is hungry for content. Eric Radomski, executive producer at Film Roman/Level 13, says: "Content is king. All the speed and technology doesn’t matter if you don’t have good stuff to show people." Radomski suggests that the Internet is a way of "backdooring network TV." Level 13, he says, is a means of having fresh eyes on the entertainment industry; of diverging from the modus operandi of the networks.

Eric Oldrin, of Shockwave, agrees about wanting to "bust out from the old bureaucracy. It’s a full-time job, and a headache, to find good content."

Bill Shpall, also of Film Roman/Level 13, knows that everyone has an idea -- the next greatest, genius idea. But he also knows, from experience, that maybe 1 out of every 300 ideas will be successful with respect to how an audience responds. How does one go about finding, and cultivating, the right idea?

Again, no one knows the answer. There is no formula for predicting the whims and fancies of the public’s appreciation. But this is the good news: even the studio executives agree…

The Internet levels the playing field. Independent and entrepreneurial animators have as much opportunity for exposure and distribution of their material as does anyone. With the Internet still so novel, everyone has the occasion to be heard: either in getting their own ideas out there, or in pitching them to existing companies.

If there is any one thing to be taken away from the seminar, this would be it: these fledgling on-line studios are definitely approachable. If you want to pitch stories, if you want to be an animator, then go. Get involved now. The Internet is craving your ideas and talent.

Many animators and students came to the Animation Expo looking to show their talents to animation companies. Courtesy of & © ASIFA-Hollywood.

In The Beginning, The Word Was … "You"
Flash. Flash. Flash. So you don’t know how to use Flash? You come from a traditional or design background? There are no worries. As an aside, and to conclude this article, I wanted to share with you the real heroes, the true harbingers, of Internet animation: companies like Toon Boom Technologies.

Toon Boom helps to integrate and converge the traditional animation pipeline with the particularities of the Internet. Toon Boom’s software was created with the concepts, process and management needs of traditional animation in mind. You can take your drawings, scan them in, clean them up, ink and paint them and vectorize them -- all with one program. Voila. Your work is ready for the Internet. Toon Boom designed their software for both the consumer market -- "a one person shop" -- as well as for the production houses.

So? Now what’s your excuse? What are you waiting for? Go animate some cool stuff for cripe’s sake!

Gregory Singer grew up in Maryland and studied biology there. After a tour of service in the Peace Corps in Kenya, he finally wandered his way to Los Angeles, where he is presently a graduate student of film producing at Chapman University. Mr. Singer is also the assistant editor of the Animation Journal, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted to animation history and theory.