[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hey, guys.
My name is Tim Schmoyer, and this
is Matt Gielen from Channel Frederator Network.
Thanks for hanging out, man.
Thanks for having me.
So he's going to talk with us a little bit about animation
channels, which is what you guys specialize in.
But tell us real quick, what is the Frederator Network,
and what do you guys do?
So Channel Frederator Network is the network
for animators and artists on YouTube.
We distribute Cartoon Hangover, and of course,
Channel Frederator.
Historically, we've made some awesome cartoons,
such as "The Fairly Oddparents," and "Adventure Time."
Cool.
So they know a couple things about animation channels,
right?
So he's going to show you guys-- what are some tips that you
have, general advice for animation channels,
specifically, that are trying to grow their YouTube
audience and their careers on YouTube doing animation?
Animation is really hard to produce,
and it takes a long time.
So it's really important, as an animator,
to have what we call a B content strategy, which is essentially
content that doesn't take you nearly as long or as
much effort to produce as a animation.
So certainly vlogs-- you can do "how to draws."
You can do livestreams of while you're animating.
And then behind the scenes, you can do stuff
with voice actors, when you have them voice acting.
Any sort of content that is going
to be interesting to what we refer
to as fanatics, the core audience.
It's really great for promoting, when you're getting there,
as well, right?
When you establish an audience for some of your B content,
it allows you to message them there, as well.
And then, of course, you know, trailers and "next time ons,"
and those sort of things, that you're
able to kind of repurpose some of the content you've already
created.
For a lot of you guys who are normal creators,
like just kind of-- does it sometimes
work to hitch your content onto something else that's
popular or trending?
How does that work with animations?
Because it takes so long to do, it's
hard to predict what's going to be trending next week.
How does that-- how could that work for you guys?
Sure.
It's definitely tough when you're
dealing with characters, right?
So we have "CatDog" and "Bee and Puppycat."
We don't necessarily know when those
are going to be completed.
So it's a little bit tough for us
to time up some of our content with a tent-pole event
or something that's trending.
However, if you're making shorter pieces of animation--
or maybe you make a shorter piece of animation just
to latch onto a tent-pole event, or a topic that's trending,
or a viral video that's going.
You know, a 10-hour walk through "Adventure Time" lands
would probably get a tremendous amount of views.
Probably going to take a long time to create,
but you could do a minute, minute and a half,
with some really fun stuff going on.
One thing that I've heard, Matt, you
talk about a little bit is also character development
in cartoons and animation.
New audiences don't know your characters,
and they haven't been exposed to them, right?
So they don't necessarily have an affinity for them,
and they might just drop in to the middle of a story
and not know what's going on.
And so making your characters accessible,
having your characters in a storyline that
pertains to a wider audience.
Maybe a gaming audience, right?
You do an animation for, you know, "Skyrim," or something.
Or "Minecraft," of course, is huge, as well,
in the animation community.
As a way for new audiences to not just discover your content
but become fans of your characters.
As creators, we are so involved in the content.
Like we love these characters that we developed.
Even if you're just like a vlogger, like, same thing.
Like you develop this character that people know over time.
And for you guys, it's like, it makes perfect sense.
But we have to remember that some people, when they're first
introduced to our channel, they have no idea
the back story of who these characters are, of
why they should care about them, you know, what's going on.
And so I like it, I appreciate it,
the channels I see that actually bring me up
to speed real quick at the beginning
of every single video.
Like some examples that maybe you might be familiar
with are like on "The Beverly Hillbillies," that old TV show,
you know?
Their intro.
Or "The Brady Bunch."
Like their intro song was introducing you
to the characters and the story of what's
happening in the story, when they get into it.
So that when the episode launches,
you kind of know the back story of, you know, Judd struck oil.
Now they're rich, and now they're
living in Beverly Hills.
Now let's watch the episode, you know?
So I don't know-- do any of your channels do anything like that?
Yeah, absolutely.
We definitely do "previously on" and "next time ons."
And if you really look at radio and TV,
they've mastered the art of communicating with the audience
as to what's going on.
And so we try to take a lot of learnings from TV and radio.
We do station identifications.
We use the three-second branding bumps.
And really are very active in our community,
in terms of utilizing social media,
and even just uploaded videos to our channels--
you know, character descriptions and character
breakdowns, and profiles, as a way for people
to really dive in and discover who these people are.
Sweet.
And you could utilize the channel trailer part for that
also, quickly introduce people to your content.
Awesome.
So really good ideas.
I hope this helps some of you guys.
Where would people find out more about Frederator
and what you guys are doing?
The best place to start is at Channel Frederator Network
and definitely frederator.com or Cartoon Hangover,
or Channel Frederator on YouTube.
Cool.
So go check them out.
Put links in the description below.
You guys can go check them out there.
And if this is your first time here,
we'd love to have you subscribe.
Every week we make content for you
guys who are video creators, just to help you
guys know how to build your audiences
and grow your YouTube channels.
Because I really believe that a lot of you guys have messages
that can really influence people's lives
and change them in some way.
And I want do everything I can to help you guys do that.
And I know Matt is here helping you guys do that, too.
So thanks for hanging out.
Subscribe, and I will see you guys again tomorrow.
Bye.