Lucas: Weeeeee!
Lucas: No! Stop!
This is Lucas.
Lucas: *gasp* Uh . . . hi!
He's a spider.
He, and the videos he features in are made by Joshua Slice, a 3D animator whose worked
on films like Big Hero 6 & Zootopia.
Slice got the idea for Lucas after seeing a picture of a jumping spider wrapped up in
a leaf, and wondered:
Slice modeled and animated Lucas in Maya and in November 2017, uploaded the first Lucas
the Spider video to Youtube.
Lucas: Hi, m-my name's Lucas.
Lucas: I have too many eyeballs!
It quickly became a viral sensation, and since then, not only has Slice continued making
Lucas the Spider shorts, but in March 2018, the film rights were bought by Fresh TV, who
hope to create a full length TV series based on the character, and around mid-june the
same year, a highly successful merch line was launched, featuring t-shirts, sweaters,
mugs, phone cases, and even a plushie that managed to sell 40,000 units in just under
10 days, with the proceeds going toward charity and a college fund for Slice's nephew, who
Lucas both gets his name from and is voiced by.
But amidst all this success, Slice still works as a 3D Animator, seeing Lucas the Spider
as just a fun side project, and has gone on to work on the likes of Wreck-It-Ralph 2:
Ralph Breaks The Internet, which, is quite fitting, really.
It's pretty easy to see how Lucas got so popular in the first place.
The quick runtime of the shorts makes it easy to watch and rewatch and share each video.
The shorts themselves play around with the simplicity of the concept in clever ways.
Lucas: See? I can totally make a spider-web!
Lucas: And look, I even put a bell at the bottom, so when it rings, I know I caught something,
Lucas: and then I can have a new friend!
Lucas' optimism and childlike glee is both endearing and infectious.
And of course, Lucas himself is just adorable, which itself practically guarantees success
on the internet.
Lucas: *deep breath* Eeeeeeh!
It's almost impossible to watch one of these videos and not end up with a smile on your face.
Unless you have arachnophobia, but even then, it might still be a challenge.
They're short, sweet, and, well, just fun to watch.
And, part of what I find so interesting about them is that, this kind of animation isn't,
something you see all that often on Youtube anymore.
Sure, short films and student projects are still alive and well, but nowadays, the idea
of someone with an animation program and a fun idea managing to thrive seems like an
unattainable goal.
And the craziest thing is, this change has really only come in the last five years or so.
But first, some context.
Back in 1995, a college student named Tom Fulp founded Newgrounds, a site where he could
host his more often than not "controversial" animations and games.
However, in April of the year 2000, Newgrounds launched The Portal, an automated system that
allowed users to upload their own animations and movies to the site, becoming one of the
first websites to ever do so, and it slowly expanded to allow users to post artwork, games
and even music.
It became a place for young creators to hone their craft and flex their skills, and it's
from this well of experimentation that many of the classic videos and memes associated
with the early internet sprung from, and where some of the most well known creators of the
internet age had their start.
From Newgrounds sprung a vibrant community of creators and artists that, to this day,
is as strong as ever.
Even after Youtube was founded in 2005, it wouldn't be until late 2007, when it launched
its partner program, that these creators would begin to transition over.
It was one of the first times that people had been able to earn a living by making videos,
and though many were still hesitant to upload to Youtube due to its lackluster video quality,
their audiences grew exponentially and soon they were able to make a healthy living doing
what they loved.
Youtube improved it's site and systems and quickly became THE platform for online creators
to host their content, and for a while, it seemed like nothing could go wrong.
That is, until in 2012 when Youtube made a major change to its algorithm.
Clickbait had been running rampant on the site for years, from reply girls to rickrolls,
as at the time, the site's algorithm was built to get people to click on as many videos
as possible.
To combat this, Youtube shifted its algorithm from a view based model to a watch time based
model - meaning that videos would be promoted based on how long people spent watching them
rather than just how many people clicked on them.
However, this model was not based on the watch time of individual videos, but rather on the
overall watchtime of the channel itself.
A channel that makes a ten minute video each week that people only watch half of would
get far more promotion than a channel that makes a one minute video each week that people
watch all the way through, because the former would get more overall watch-time.
Youtube's systems were now built to keep people on the site for as long as possible,
and it promoted videos and channels that did just that.
This meant that channels that could produce high quantities of content on a regular basis,
such as vloggers and let's players, suddenly exploded, while channels that could only make
short videos once every few months or so, like animation channels, began to struggle.
These problems only got worse as Youtube's CPM rate slowly declined.
CPM stands for Cost Per Mille, or cost per thousand, and represents the average amount that an
advertiser pays a site, in this case Youtube, for every thousand impressions/views their ads get on said site.
While Youtube was slowly getting more advertisers looking for ad space, more and more people
were making videos, and so those ads began appearing on more and more of those videos, which also
meant more ad views.
To save money, these advertisers began to pay less and less per ad.
While this wasn't much of a problem for Youtube, who would still be getting the same
overall earnings, individual creators were starting to earn less.
That lesser pay wouldn't be as big of an issue for a channel that's able to produce
vast amounts of content, but for people who can only upload once every few months, it
became harder and harder to justify the cost of making those videos.
This reached its peak in 2014 when various animators began expressing their concerns
with this problem and the struggles that the animation community was facing as a result.
RubberNinja: You see, for an animator to meet this same success on Youtube now,
RubberNinja: the standards they'd have to meet are so unreasonable that it's honestly quite upsetting.
JazzaDraws: The problem is like I mentioned before, it's the pay-to-work ratio.
JazzaDraws: To create an animation that takes 3 minutes, let alone 20 minutes, can take months of work.
JazzaDraws: And just to give you an example for context, the introduction to this video,
JazzaDraws: that animated sequence of that avatar jumping across in the intro happening,
JazzaDraws: took me a week's full time work.
Ricepirate: The system isn't broken, it's just not made for animators. That's, basically what I was trying to say,
Ricepirate: um, from the beginning of my comment.
RubberNinja: Also, I should probably say, these changes are not recent, nor do they just hurt animators.
RubberNinja: There are plenty of channels producing high quality content with an equally long production cycle.
RubberNinja: I personally feel that Youtube has unintentionally created an environment
RubberNinja: where quantity outweighs quality.
By this point, the only animators who could sustain a living were those able to get millions
of views on every video, and those channels were few and far between.
The only example I could really find was Alan Becker, the creator of the Animator V Animation
series, who, to this day, still gets an absurd amount of traffic, and even he's admitted
to struggling with adsense.
Luckily, some channels were successful enough to reliably establish alternate revenue sources,
such as merchandising or patreon, and others still, being backed by studios and companies,
were able to keep themselves funded, but most simply weren't able to keep it going.
They either went on to find industry jobs or turned their focus toward content that
was more sustainable in the current youtube algorithm.
It's around this time that ___ Animateds, a style of video popularized by the GameGrumps,
a let's play channel co-founded by Arin Hanson, aka Egoraptor, a content creator who
became famous for his parody animations, started to gain traction.
These videos act as animated re-imaginings of certain moments from various Youtubers'
videos, usually let's plays or podcasts, that exaggerate those moments to absurd extremes,
and depending on the animator, it gets pretty ridiculous.
My personal favourites are the Cox 'n' Crendor Animated videos by Daniel Tan, which
are filled to the brim with visual wordplay and metaphor, like turning Jesse and Crendor's
laughing fits into all sorts of hilarious and horrifying scenarios.
Crendor: The victim said . . .
*Jesse's steaming laughter*
*Jesse's laugh comin' to get ya*
*Jesse's laugh achieving it's final form*
Jesse: Hold on! Hold on!
Most of these videos are usually fan animations, and often help many of those animators grow
an audience through the community, kind of like how parody animations help an animator
grow by bringing in fans from the piece of media being parodied.
And for the Youtuber in question, it helps to strengthen their communities by immortalizing
fan favourite moments for their audience.
Obama: I'm gonna pre, dood.
*Dan's uncontrollable laughter*
Obama: I'm gonna fuckin' pre. *laughter continues*
In fact, many ____ Animateds are commissioned by the Youtubers they're based on, giving
the Youtuber more exciting and diverse content to put on their channel and giving the animator
not just the pay they need to cover the costs of making the animation, but also a much bigger
audience for their work to be viewed by.
The ___ Animated trend gave animators a better chance to be paid for their work and find
success in Youtube's algorithm, and it's mutually beneficial nature for both the animator
and the Youtuber meant that most people were, and still are, more than happy to make and
support it.
And for a long time, that was the state Youtube Animation was in.
Unless someone was paying you to make it, or you were already popular enough to rely
on alternate revenue streams, pursuing animation on youtube seemed pointless.
However, over the last few years, there's been a noticeable resurgence in the amount
of animated content on Youtube.
It's hard to tell what exactly caused this, whether it's simply luck or if there's
been another algorithm shift or something else entirely, but my best guess is that it
comes down to these new videos having adapted their content to better suit the current algorithm.
Many of these videos, while still infrequent, are posted on a more regular basis, and are
often much longer, reaching about 7-10 minutes on average.
They're more personality driven, making it easier for a dedicated fan base to form
around the channel, and many of them re-contextualize tried and tested formats built for personality
driven content.
Stuff like the Storytime Animations.
Now, I must say, I disagree with some people's claims that Storytime Animation is the sole
reason that animation's made a comeback, as I'd argue it's simply one part of a
much bigger phenomenon.
It's just the most popular example of it.
Storytime Animation is a style of video based on the video blog or "storytime" format,
in which people talk about their life and their experiences, either for the sake of
telling a fun story or to explain how it affected them and what they've learned from it, but animated
The trend originally began with Swoozie and Domics around 2011/2012 as they started using
animations and illustrations to talk about their experiences with and thoughts on various
aspects of their life, with Swoozie experimenting with the basic idea back in 2008.
But it wasn't until around 2016, soon after TheOdd1sOut and JaidenAnimations skyrocketed
to success that Storytime Animation became the popular trend it is today.
A combination of the aforementioned focus on these channel's personality and the simplified
art style both helped audiences to better connect with these channels, but also allows
the creators to make videos more frequently.
There's also some exaggeration that comes with Storytime Animation, similar to ___ Animated
videos, where the creator can draw these situations and stories in ridiculous a fashion as they
want, making even mundane stories far more entertaining to watch than they, really should be.
And as pointed out by JazzaDraws, the simplified art style used by many of these channels may
also be key in understanding why Storytime Animation began to take off, as that simplicity
made the animation more appealing and less intimidating for inexperienced or less confident
artists to try out for themselves.
But, ironically, that's also the biggest criticism of Storytime Animation, as those
simpler designs tend to blur into each other and appear, at least at a glance, quite similar,
and the stripped down animation runs the risk of making the videos look rough and unfinished,
what with most of them relying purely on keyframes.
Now it should be said, less frames doesn't equal bad animation, it's all about how
effectively you use those frames to communicate the movement, but even I have to admit, for
some of these channels, their videos look less like "Storytime Animation", and more like,
"Storyboard Animation".
Despite these issues, many Storytime Animators have found phenomenal success in playing around
with a simple yet surprisingly flexible format.
But as I said, Storytime Animation is just one example of a wider phenomenon.
Some animators have integrated animation into their discussions of youtube and internet
related current events to not only stand out from a crowd, but also to make a joke or
point land better with the help of that aforementioned exaggeration, like Andrei Terbea,
whose videos' laid back and light hearted tone are a perfect match for his animation style.
Andrea: My carrier is dying?
Andrea: Oh shit!
Andrea: I'm so sorry, man! Here, have some water!
Technically, you could call them animated commentary channels, though I hesitate to
use the word "commentary" since the term is so vague and broad that it has no real
meaning beyond saying that someone talks about internet stuff.
Wait, does, making this video technically make me a commentary channel?
Oh god what have I done . . .
Other examples include creators integrating animation into the ever popular media analysis/review
format, whose better frequency and focus on specific pieces of media both helps these videos perform better
algorithmically, but also helps build an audience by bringing in fans from the piece of media being
discussed, similar, again, to ___ Animateds or parody animations.
Scott Falco does so in "With A Side Of Salt", a game review series that originally began
with character breakdowns of Overwatch's many heroes.
Alongside some standard voice-over-footage editing, they include shorts pieces of original
animation to illustrate Falco's points or just to make a joke.
They not only improve the pacing by breaking up the monotony of the game footage, but also
give the videos a stronger sense of personality by creating a distinct character for viewers
to connect with.
Though it's a small addition, these animations are able to add a lot.
Similarly, Eddache recently started making film analysis videos hosted by a cartoon avatar
of himself, and though he's only made two so far, they're both pretty interesting
and surprisingly detailed explorations of the minor details of filmmaking you have may
have missed, from showing the extreme lengths Who Framed Roger Rabbit went to to perfect
even the inconsequential scenes of the film to showing that the Who Shot Mr Burns can
in fact be solved from the evidence presented in the first episode alone.
That extra touch of creativity helps these
channels stand out and give animation a stronger standing within youtube's algorithm.
And, hell, if you're willing to stretch your definitions a bit, there's even a few
channels getting creative with who ends up presenting their videos . . .
AI: Hai domo, virtual youtuber Kizuna Ai desu!
Yes, yes I know, it doesn't technically count as animation, but they are, basically,
animated characters, so just bear with me for a second
- Also, just a quick note before this next section starts, I keep using the term "rotoscoping" when what I meant
was "motion capture", and I'm too lazy to re-record this, so uh, yeah, bear that in mind -
Okay, so Virtual Youtubers
are a trend of channels involving 3D Anime Girls doing Youtuber stuff.
The videos are created through 3D rotoscoping, where an actor's movements are captured
through all sorts of complicated softwares and processes I can only barely understand
and applied to a 3D model.
This allows the channel to streamline and significantly speed up the video making process
to such a point that they can regularly produce the insane amount of content Youtube's algorithm
is looking for, with daily videos across multiple channels, but with an animated character.
Well, rotoscoped character, but you know what I mean.
Though, like most of the personality based creators that have come to dominate the site,
the content consists mostly of challenges, games, QnAs, the occasional skit, and a surprising
amount of screaming.
- oh god, I think my ears are bleeding -
It also lets these channels
get creative by building themselves around fictional characters with unique designs and
personalities for the audience get attached to and get to know, including developing some
strong lore and backstories for the characters to play around with, even if it does tend
to revolve around how wacky it is being an Artificial Intelligence.
And while I'm sure there's probably a discussion to be had about the implications
of an audience developing parasocial bonds with a fictional character designed to be
relatable, that's for another video.
Though that said, I'm surprised there hasn't been a Storytime Animation channel to go with
that fictional character approach, seems like the perfect place to try it.
But, saying it out loud I now realize the immense potential that lies in the idea and
that I should probably do it myself and reap the benefits before anyone else figures it
out so - NO ONE DO IT, MY IDEA, ORIGINAL, uh, CuhN-TENT, DO NOT STEAL, PLEASE
(steal the shit out of it before he realizes anything's gone wrong)
To put it simply, animation has started making a resurgence on Youtube recently because creators
have found a variety of ways to adapt their animation to be more sustainable in Youtube's
current algorithm, transitioning from skits, sketches and stories to the personality based
formats that define the platform.
On the one hand, it's fascinating to look back and see how much youtube animation has
changed and evolved over the years, but on the other, it does feel a bit disheartening.
I don't mean to sound like an old man complaining about how "back in my days things were better",
which'd be especially weird considering I'm only like 20, but I still feel that,
there's some creative freedom that's been lost
Back then it felt like animation on youtube was bursting with potential, that anything
was possible, that anyone could draw or model their dream project and expect to do reasonably well.
And that's not to shit-talk any of the newer animators who've found success, not at all.
I think a lot of them are making great stuff and it's been amazing to see how their content
has grown and evolved and improved over the years as they've found their voice and perfected
their respective styles.
But, more and more, both in regards to Animation, and more generally with Youtube as a whole,
it feels like, unless you can make your work fit into the specific formats and formulas
the site's looking for, you might as well not bother at all.
In that sense, my problem isn't with "Youtube Animation", it's more so with Youtube, given how the major changes
in its animation community are directly tied to the way Youtube changes its algorithms,
in subtle and not so subtle ways
And maybe it's just me.
Maybe a weird combination of cynicism and nostalgia has jaded my perspective, I fully
realize and admit that, but with all the shit I've seen this site put people through,
and the amount of shit I've seen it let some people get away with, I find it hard to stay optimistic.
But that's the nature of online content.
Hell, that's the nature of art and entertainment in general.
It's constantly changing, because of politics and society, because of technological revolutions
and limitations, because of personal issues and private deals, it even changes because
of other pieces of art and entertainment, and on the internet it all happens at an
unprecedented rate.
If you wanna succeed, you gotta keep up, and sometimes that means making sacrifices.
Which is all a long winded way of explaining why I find Lucas the Spider to be so interesting, because amidst
all this algorithmic chaos, this simple little series, made as a side project by someone
who just had a fun idea, has managed to thrive.
And if we're lucky, maybe that's the point.
Maybe it represents the start of another change in the system.
Lucas: Hey, my harp!
And yeah, those are my thoughts.
So, uh, this video was originally just supposed to be a short little essay about why I liked
Lucas the Spider, and uh, yeah, it's, not that anymore.
As I said, I noticed a lot of people attributing the return of Youtube Animation purely to
Storytime Animation, and I just felt like it was ignoring the bigger phenomenon going on
Again, I've got nothing against Storytime Animators, I really like a lot of them, but still.
Also, I had a lot of fun with the avatar design and I really like the aesthetic,
even if the "animation" was tedious as fuck to get done.
So let me know what yous think of it and maybe I'll make it a regular thing, if I can, actually bother myself.
Also also, I apologise if there seems like there's an inconsistency in how I sound,
I'm having to record of these lines after, and uh, I'm kinda dealing with a chest cold right now, so.
Anyway, let me know what yous think, if yous agree, disagree, what yous think of animation's
resurgence on Youtube, who your favourite animation channel or animator is, etc, and
thanks for watching!
If yous enjoyed this and wanna see more, than check out my last video, where I break down
the tragic story arc of Doctor Otto Octavius from Marvel's Spider-Man and what can be
learned from it.
Or, check out my video on Stop Motion Animation, and the odd quality that makes it so creepy,
and yet, so amazing.
And don't forget to like, comment, share and of course, subscribe, to Come Fly With Me!
Yous can also follow me on Twitter for more updates about this channel and other stuff,
and hopefully, I'll see yous later!
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