Making Your Own Web Anime Full Guide

I finished the second part of this guide, but it's long. Too long really for a simple blog post. I put it together in a PDF format. The full "ebook" includes both this first part and the second part. You can view it here 

Making Your Own Web Anime Full Guide



Part 1 

Introduction



So you want to make your own animated series, cartoon or “anime”. You’ve got some ideas you want to share with the world, that’s great! But how do you do that? While there’s no easy or universal answer, this guide will serve as a basic overview of what worked for me. It’ll go over the basics of organization, production flow, when to cast Voice Actors and how to work with them. Software and hardware will be touched upon briefly, the main purpose of this guide is to give some insight on just how much work goes into an ambitious project like this. Common pitfalls will be revealed so you may avoid them in the future, but to emphasize this is not the only way of pulling off something like this. This is mainly for the small creators, passion projects and lower budget indie works. The workflow will always vary dependent on the scope and budget of the project.





What do I know? A brief introduction makes sense. My name is Adam Tilford and I’m a small indie creator. I’m a writer who dove into animation and taught himself how to make this sort of thing work. “Self-taught”, but the truth is I’ve had a lot of teachers along the way. Friends that work in the animation industry have helped shape my understanding of animation as a whole. I produce an animated web series called Shattered Heaven.



A mech sci-fi drama based off my novel of the same name. The project dates back to late 2007/early 2008 and has had a few forms over the last decade. Most notably in the form of 2 different series, the first one in 2007 that went to around 2010 and had 4 episodes. The second and current iteration, debuted in 2013, its first season ended in 2016 consisting of 6 episodes and 4 side episodes. The second season recently debuted in May of 2019. I’ve been doing this for over a decade now, and through this time I’ve seen many people start animated series, some succeeded, some failed, while others boasted about their plans but never got started. I’ll never proclaim to be an industry level animator, it’s never been my goal. I just enjoy the medium for storytelling. But at the very least, I have the experience to tell you what does and doesn’t work, the mentality you have to develop and the pitfalls to avoid.



If interested in knowing more about me or my project, you can follow me below:



Twitter |Youtube

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Before you can truly dive into an animated project, or any project for that matter, you have to establish your idea. The story you want to tell, the characters that will live it and ultimately where it’ll end. These sort of projects aren’t going to be a “make it up as you go” scenario. I mean, you could do that, but you’ll most likely bomb and quit before you get too far.



A lot of people think their idea will be the next “big thing”, but most can’t tell the difference between being in love with an idea or being in love with the idea of telling a story. Are you infatuated with the “idea” of an animated series, of becoming popular and a pseudo e-celeb? Or, do you just have an internal urge to entertain others? You really need to figure this out early on because it does make a huge difference. People who are simply in love with the idea of this don’t necessarily plan things out proper. They rush in way too soon, before they have any of the necessary floor plans in place. They want to get out there as soon as possible to spread the word about their “next big thing”. I’ll be blunt, no one takes you seriously. Red flags exist in the online indie world and seeing people rush and talk big about their project with zero material to show for it is a huge one. This goes especially for voice actors. When impatient and ambitious creators start throwing up casting calls for their “anime” without having material to show, animators, concept art etc, most voice actors will ignore the call because honestly, the project is never getting off the ground. It reeks of both desperation and ignorance. Ignorance towards not only how a respectable workflow is established, but ignorance towards your own limits.



Limits are extremely important to be aware of. It’s not a negative thing either, knowing your limits helps you to create a consistent workflow that won’t leave you burned out. So if you have an idea for an animated series but you’re not an artist/animator, you should first acknowledge that you need to find one before you even dream about making your project public. To the artists out there, even if you do not know how to animate, you can LEARN. This is a challenge to any artistically gifted individual who dreams of making an animated series. If you can’t find any animators out there that are interested in working on your project (for free because it’s a safe assumption the people reading this do not have a budget), then challenge yourself to do it. Learn it, make your dream a reality. If you’re truly passionate about this story of yours, you’ll make it happen.



The key to that goes back to knowing your limits. Temper your expectations and don’t think you need to come out the gate with anime studio quality. It’s simply not realistic and if you focus on that, you’ll never get off the ground. Take some smaller ideas to practice animation with, don’t immediately dive into your 25 episode, 3 OVAs and multiple seasons anime project. Make a 2 minute short to test the waters of animation. This not only helps you practice, it may also help you find other like minded animators and maybe even some voice actors.



The main takeaway here is to have realistic ambitions when you start out. You need to learn how to walk before you can run. When you run without the basics, you’re going to fall hard and injure yourself. A lot of people get defensive when they’re told that their multiple season anime that’ll air on TV Tokyo and Toonami is unrealistic. Most just then fade into obscurity never to show back up again. It’s a harsh truth, but you need to understand this from the start. If you have zero experience as a content creator, animator, etc, then how can you possibly expect to run a project of that magnitude? You can’t.



Developing your idea for your project starts with understanding the scope of your limits, what you currently have available to you in terms of staff, software, and education. Having your story properly planned out, and your characters established. This is something that will take a while to get down, but before you even dream of going forward with the project as an animation, you need to have this solidified. Your story doesn’t need to be fully written out or scripted, but you do need a basic outline of the journey that is going to unfold.

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I’m an artist but I can’t animate



If you’re truly passionate about this, you’ll learn. I had no experience as an animator and my art skills were trash. But I still threw myself into Flash (Animate) to learn. It was rough, the quality was trash, but it was the first step in a journey. You learn so much by just taking that first step. No one is good at the start, you learn by doing. You study other animators, their work, study shows, study life and how people move. This means you’ll have to put the full scope of your animation on hold while you learn, but this is the way to do it. You’ll have full control of your project, you won’t have to worry about budgets, paying animators, or waiting for them to meet deadlines. You control the flow of your project, the project becomes your identity and as such, you transform into a stronger artist and person from it. But the main thing is you have to get rid of any instant gratification mentalities. You need to know that this is a marathon, not a sprint. If you can focus on that and not on e-fame, then you’ll have a chance at making this work.



I’m not an artist, I’m just a writer



This bit is trickier. You can’t really take on the burden of visual creation yourself. There’s no set answer as to where you can find animators to work on your project, especially if there’s no budget to begin with. You can visit sites like Newgrounds and try engaging on their forums, but the harsh reality is, it’s extremely difficult to find an animator to work on your dream. If there’s no pay involved, most animators won’t consider it, and even if there is pay involved, is it enough? I’ve been approached with $50 to animate a pilot of an “anime”. I turn them down immediately. Animation is excruciatingly painful and time consuming. You can read about “crunch” online and how damaging it is to animators, how little they get paid for the amount of work they do. Because of this, finding an animator to work on your project is difficult. I won’t say it’s impossible, because there are some newer animators out there that are looking for a symbiotic relationship. They want to grow their abilities but don’t have anything specific that’ll challenge them. These unicorns exist, but I don’t have any true good advice on how to find them. The only suggestion I have is to find art communities and network within them.



But how do I network?



The simple answer is be humble, respectful and kind. Networking isn’t about spamming or bombarding people until they answer you. You are never entitled to anyone’s time, you need to understand that first before you can even consider networking. Once you do, it’s a matter of natural interactions. It’s not instant, it’s never instant. Be patient. You find like minded individuals and you start talking in the same Discord server, channels, forums, etc. People will react accordingly when they find someone that shares their interests. Sub discussions may occur, you might go “hey, that person in that multi-person exchange seems cool, I’m going to go follow them”, if they feel the same, they may follow you and from there a natural connection is created. Never, and I mean never, spam your project or ideas. Don’t project idea vomit at someone that isn’t interested. Let people ask you for more information on your project after you mention you have one. A quick, guaranteed turn-off to any creative person is when someone else solicits their project without being asked. We get it, your project is super, special, and awesome to you, but that might not be the case for everyone else. The blunt reality is no one cares. At least, not at first. You can mention that you’re trying to do something and if anyone is interested, they’ll ask for more. When they do, then you’ve gotten the “okay” to talk. It’s like you’re a vampire, you can’t enter someone’s home until you’re invited in. The same concept applies here, wait to be invited to discuss your project.



There is no single answer to “networking”. Taking classes on any creative skill, interacting in communities, etc are all forms of natural networking. The only universal trick to it is to avoid being overbearing, respect people’s personal spaces and accept that no one owes you their time.



I did all those things but I still can’t find an animator!



This is a harsh pill to swallow, but if you can’t find anyone to animate your project, then it’s time to shift your project to something YOU can do on your own. I know it can be disheartening to hear, but maybe your project isn’t meant to be animated at this moment in time. But that doesn’t mean it’s the end! There are other methods of getting your story out there! If your passion is truly just telling your story, then you’ll be able to endure the medium shift.



Write a book: The easiest answer is this. It’s your story, you know what it’s supposed to be, so write it as a book! You won’t have to worry about finding artists to do anything, no one else to answer to but yourself! You can then even try to find a literary agent and get published, or after proper editing, maybe self publish. If your main goal is to get that story that’s been festering in your head, then this is an excellent way to do it! Plus,you can always return to the idea of animating it later on. If anything, you’ll have a much stronger grasp on your story and you may have created an audience and a network through the book version of your story!



Make an Audio Drama: Audio dramas/podcasts are coming back in full force! This is sort of a middle ground answer. You get to work with actors who will bring your characters to life, but you won’t have to deal with the strain of working with animators. With this medium you get to work strictly with audio to bring your story to life. Much like with a book, you can always return to the idea of animating later. Even better, you’ll have the audio already mixed! People animate to mix-down tracks of scenes.




That’s a lot to take in and think about. When it comes to developing your ideas there’s so many ways it can go. But the main takeaway from this is to truly understand your idea, the scope of its potential, your limits, the resources available to you at this time, and most importantly, why are you doing this. What is your reason for wanting to go down this path. It’s not always the most fun question to ask yourself, but it’s easily the most important. There’s a lot of mental battles ahead when it comes to creating an animated series, so if you’re not sincerely grounded in a realistic drive then you’re going to have a difficult time.



Are you doing this because there’s an urge within you, a fire and passion about storytelling that you need to itch?



Or



Are you doing this because you want to become popular, e-famous, and successful as a social media influencer?



Make sure you answer these questions before you even consider to move forward.

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The very first thing you need to establish is your “scope”. How big your project is going to be, how long episodes will be, the type of quality you want to achieve. Is it going to be a motion comic sort of deal, will it be 2D traditional style animation, or will it be 3D? This goes back to knowing your realistic limitations. Are you choosing to animate the project on your own? Were you successful in finding animators, and if you were, are they being paid a small budget or are they doing it for free? These are all things you seriously have to consider before stepping foot into the production stage.



You are not competing with professional anime studios



Some people will suggest that you are. That you need to establish why people should watch your show instead of watching one professionally made. The fact is, that’s a trash mentality. It’s not like people are being threatened to choose one over the other. There’s plenty of room for the existence of professional studio projects and small indie ones. But you do need to provide incentive for why people will want to watch your show. That lies more on you than it does the professional studios. There’s no universal answer here, it can be good art, it can be a great story and characters, or people might just like you and want to see how you grow. There’s a lot of reasons why people will watch your show.



My animation isn’t as good as “insert anime”



No reasonable person expects it to be. Animation projects like this are meant to be done with a team that has funded a budget. Doing it as a small indie, whether as a solo act or just a few people means you’re not expected to match the bigger, professional studios. So don’t beat yourself up over that. This said, there will be people that will suggest your quality isn’t good or it’s not a real “anime”, the best advice is to simply ignore those trolls and keep doing what you love. Keep striving to improve.

The reality of original web series production


The first thing you need to understand is that it’s hard. It’s hard not only to produce, but to get the attention of an audience. Youtube and social media as a whole constantly adjust their algorithms, which makes it extremely difficult to be found. People tend to hesitate giving something that isn’t mainstream and new, attention or even a chance. Most may see something and just ignore it because they don’t know what it is off the bat. Added to this is the fact that we live in a time where everyone wants instant gratification and enjoys a quick pace to their lives. As such, seeing an unfamiliar project with a time stamp of say, 23 minutes is daunting. They’re likely to not even watch it when they can watch something that’s only 2 minutes. There’s less of a risk to their time.



Now, I personally think this is stupid, but that’s just how things are now. Even if they might be interested, seeing a 23 minute long video of an animation will most likely end up with them putting it aside to watch later, if they even remember.



This sucks, I’ll be clear. If you’re a storyteller and you want to create this epic project, you don’t even want to consider shortening your episodes. But if you want to have a chance out there, then you’re going to have to. It doesn’t say anything about you as a creator, it’s just the current social media landscape. 15 minutes might be okay but for a new project with nothing established, even that might be too long. 10 minutes might be a better sweet spot when starting out.



Keep in mind, the longer the episode, the less likely it’ll get spread around the internet.



People will be mean



If you don’t know about Misty Chronexia (he’s an anituber), then I’ll make this brief. He is an anituber that wrote a novel called “Chronexia and the Eight Seals”. Eventually he too had the idea to make an anime. He reached out to an indie animation studio and contracted them to make his anime. When the first episode came out, it was met with mixed reviews. The one thing that was almost consistently guaranteed was -



“This isn’t anime, it’s nowhere near as good as Naruto’s animation”.



Were these comments fair? No, not in the slightest. The fact is the studio animating it were new and small, this was a learning experience for them. Misty had no experience producing a project of this magnitude. While a lot of people understood this, many anime fans didn’t or even if they did, just didn’t care. The reception wasn’t what he ultimately wanted and after the 2nd episode teaser was released, he cancelled the project. I don’t know him personally so I can only assume why he cancelled it. Maybe his life was getting too busy, or maybe he had a weird perception of how his anime was going to be received. It’s entirely possible that he wanted/expected his show to blow up and become a hit and when it didn’t, he lost the desire to bother with it.

This goes back to what I said earlier about knowing why you’re doing this. If you’re really passionate about telling your story, then you’ll keep at it. Your ambition and humble creativity will resonate with the right people. But if you’re solely doing this for e-fame, chances are you won’t be able to survive either the lack of attention or the mean comments from people on the internet.



Which Animation medium is better?



This entirely depends on who is animating your project. 2D digital/traditional is by default, a lot more involved and exhausting. I don’t have 3D experience so I can’t speak to it, but 3D animation and puppeteering might be an easier route to take. Ideally you’re going to figure out what makes sense based on your scenario and the realistic scope of your project. If you look at Chris Niosi/Kirbopher and TOME for a second, you’ll understand the balance of efficiency based on your availability.



TOME was a flash based animated web series that focused on tweens, pre-rendered symbols that could be inserted and reused when needed. There were moments of 2D traditional frame by frame action for specific emotional or action scenes, but the majority of the show utilized assets that could be reused when needed. This method is PERFECT for a web animated series with a small team or even a solo animator. One of the biggest things with content for the web is consistency and keeping your audience engaged. The key to this is making your production life easier. You can always craft an engaging story and characters without using the highest quality of art and animation. With great sound design and quality VO performances, your audience can still engage actively with your project.



I don’t consider RWBY or anything produced by Rooster Teeth as an applicable example of small indie production. At the end of it, RT have a full staff and animation team that also suffered through major “crunch”. A lot of times I see comments comparing animated web projects to RWBY or other RT productions simply because they think RT started small or is primarily a small studio that it’s comparable, but it’s not. RT is ultimately owned by Warner and they do have a full production staff. Rooster Teeth is not comparable to small, indie web teams. They just aren’t.



In terms of which animation medium is “better”, it’s entirely subjective and dependent on your individual scenario. Ultimately you need to be realistic when it comes to choosing what route you’re going to take.



Sometimes the most realistic route based on the ability of either yourself as the animator or your small team is a compromise and not what you may have originally intended. The goal of your production should always be getting the story out there and scratching that itch. Just because you may have to compromise your production now doesn’t mean it won’t end up how you originally envisioned.



It’s important to remember that you can always grow and improve your work as you go. Starting simple is the best way to start. You have to put aside your stubbornness and not think of it as a failure.You’re not failing if you envisioned a full 2D anime but start out doing simple motion tween movements in the beginning.



Success is when you put plan to practice and you actually create something tangible. Success is not e-fame, it is not millions of views, success is simply completing what you set out to do.



But I want it to be a perfectly artistic and cinematic!



Good for you! Dream big! Now that you’re awake from that dream, reign that shit in. You are most likely a solo act or a really small team with a tiny budget or maybe no budget at all. Do you know how long that’ll take? A year maybe and that might be for a minute of animation. Unless you have a fully budgeted animation team behind you, temper those expectations and come back to reality. The success of your web series is not based on how artistically cinematic you are, it’s based on how good your story is and how consistent you are at putting out content.



If you wanted to do a short one off then sure, go nuts. But that’s not what this article is about or who it’s targeted to. If you’re reading this then you want to do the full “anime”, you want to have an episodic epic story told, and in that case, you need to make some sacrifices. The people that go all in for this sort of artistically cinematic style are the people that have short content released with years in between them. Do you know what happens in a year on the internet? Changes. So many changes. Social media platforms adjust their algorithms, their monetization, they may go under. Your audience might even forget you exist and if you randomly show up again after maybe 2 years to make that cinematic 2 minute piece of work, they might not even get a notification that you still exist.



Consistent engagement with your audience is key for an animated web series. This isn’t to say you won’t get more artistic or cinematic as you go. You will, you will naturally improve with each release. Each time during production you’ll take some new risks, experiment with new ideas, but this way your core audience remains engaged. Then when you look back at your first episode you’ll be amazed at your growth, and so will your audience.



Don’t try to be perfect out the gate. Don’t ever try to be perfect, it won’t happen. Just focus on completing the project.

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Staffing/Team



With these basic mentalities out of the way, let’s go over what a basic team composition might entail.



Creator/Project Lead: You’re the person that started it all! You control the direction of the story and how the production will flow. Depending on the situation, you may end up wearing multiple hats. You may end up being the animator, editor, mixer etc. It ultimately depends on if you have a budget to pay people or if you found people interested enough in your idea that they wanted to jump on board to get some experience and make something great!.



Artist/Animator: Not all animators are artists, but for the smaller projects, it’s likely that this will be a combined role. The artist will be the one controlling the visual flow of the project. From character designs to overall atmosphere. As an animator, they’re the ones that will control the visual pacing and they’ll let you know what their limitations are. You’re always going to want to work within their comfort zone. To avoid crunch, keep it simplistic and attainable. Keep in mind these roles usually have multiple members, so if it’s solo or maybe 2 at the most, you can’t treat or expect them to function the same way a fully budgeted studio would.



Writer/Editor: Again, if you as the project lead aren’t doing this, you want someone to be able to reign in your insane ideas. As the project lead, chances are you’re too close to the story to see the flaws. Having someone else to edit your work will be huge in creating a flowing story.



Audio Engineer: This is the person that will deal with the audio from voice actors as well as sound design (sfx) for the show. Ideally you’ll want to have someone with experience, but that may not always be the case. So you may end up having to learn enough to be moderately competent in the beginning.



Composers: They make the music. Now this is going to be the rarest unicorn in all the land. There are some that do this for experience and for free, but they’re truly the last unicorn. You can always find royalty free music online if needed.



Voice Actors: They’re technically not part of your “Team”,more like contractors that are either giving you their time for free or for pay. Let’s segue into Voice Actors for a second, there’s a lot to unpack here.

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This is one of the biggest areas that gets problematic with creators. Most on average do not understand the basic etiquette when it comes to working with VA/VOs. From unrealistic deadlines and turnarounds to expectations of a free marketing team, VAs get treated rather poorly when it comes to the inexperienced creator. It’s usually from a place of ignorance than a place of pure entitled malice, not to say that doesn’t happen, but we’re going to go with the benefit of the doubt here.



First and foremost, when do I look for voice actors?



When you have your idea developed, your project scope established and a team in place. A lot of times I see casting calls for “Ideas” not projects.

What’s the difference between and “Idea” and a “Project”?


An idea is simply that, an idea. There’s no established team, no proof of concept, no example of previous completed work. Basically, there’s no evidence to prove that your “project” will ever become a reality. When voice actors see things like this, they usually will ignore not just the casting call but your name as a creator in the future. When a casting call is based around an “idea” instead of a tangible project, the red flags sound off.


A project is the opposite of that. You have an established team, your casting call is laid out in a way that shows proof of concept, character designs, maybe an animatic that’s rough, something that tells the world you are a serious creator. Voice actors don’t want to waste their time putting in effort for something that isn’t going to become a reality. Whenever a casting call is posted and there’s nothing to suggest the project is organized, they ignore it and you start to build a bad reputation.



So I shouldn’t post a casting call until I have a team in place?



Correct. Posting before that will create a negative stigma about you and your project.



Where do I post a casting call?



I personally recommend the Voice Acting Club. It is run by Kira Buckland, an industry VO vet and the community there is extremely helpful.



voiceactingclub.com/ | Discore - discord.gg/



What exactly is a casting call anyway?



A casting call is exactly what it sounds like- you’re putting out a call for casting your characters.



Here’s what it is not



Ex:

Creator enters the server

Creator: Hi, I’m making an anime and need voice actors, DM me if you’re interested.

The server ignores the creator and goes on about their day talking about cats.





A casting call needs to be a well thought out post that properly introduces who you are, what your project is, the characters you’re looking to cast and scripted lines with directions for voice actors to read.








This is a generic example that serves its purpose. You’re clear and concise about who you are, what your project is and the characters you’re trying to cast. You also show that this is a real project and not some “idea”.



With the VAC specifically, there is a forum where you can post this casting call.



Deadlines and why they’re important



There is a nasty habit of people casting before the deadline has come. Don’t ever do this. I know it can be tempting to cast the first good actor you hear. Especially if you have no experience as a creator, it’s going to be something special to hear someone bring your character to life. Unfortunately because you’re inexperienced, you may just want to grab the first person you hear. They may not always be the best fit for the character.



The point of posting a deadline and sticking to it is not only to give actors the chance to discover your project and time to record an audition, but it also is a test to show people that you can be organized and stick to what you put down on paper. A casting call is more than simply looking for actors, it’s a looking glass into how organized you are as a lead on a project.



Do I have to pay voice actors?



While in an ideal world everyone gets paid, the point of the internet community is to establish networks and growth. The reality is not everyone is going to have a budget where payment is available. That’s okay! If your project is a non-profit passion project, you will not be judged as anything negative.



You do have to be completely transparent about if there is pay or not. As long as you are upfront that this is not a paying job then it falls onto the voice actor to choose whether they want to devote time to audition or not. While you might not grab some professional voice actors this way, there are always tons of actors who are looking to cultivate some experience. Plus if your project’s casting call is posted in a way that is organized as well as containing appealing content, you may catch the eye of a professional willing to audition for you.



I have some money but that’s for the animators, is that okay?



No. Here’s where things can get tricky and problematic for VOs. This is where the concept of VOs being abused or taken for granted comes from. Some projects do have a tendency to pay the animators, writers, audio engineers, etc but then skimp on paying the VOs. Some consider VOs replaceable commodities that aren’t in the same priority/worth boat as the actual team.



The simple, important answer- If you have money to pay for your team, then you better be paying your voice actors.



Okay but I have a really small budget, I can’t afford industry rates.



Again, this is fine. If you are upfront about your budget and you’re willing to pay your VOs, they will then be willing to work with you. The issue is never about the amount VOs receive, it’s about if they’re treated with common respect. If they know you’re small and struggling, most will help you come up with a fair price. Some may not want to and may not take the project, and that’s okay too! Be transparent and respectful and you’ll always come out on top.



The VAC has put together a basic Indie Rate Guide for VOs. I suggest you read up on it here- voiceactingclub.com/rates/



Now that doesn’t mean that’s what you’re expected to pay, it’s just to give VOs an idea of what may be fair in the indie market. The truth is that every project is different. So most pay rates will be determined on a project to project basis.

If you are not making money off your project, not paying anyone else and are upfront at the beginning then you will be fine.



I’ll pay you with exposure and/or future monetary gain!



I’m not going to make an exposure joke. Exposure as compensation is something that should never be offered. Offering future monetary payments in the form of ad revenue or royalties is also a no go. If you’re going to try to be a paid project, pay for the work now or stick to keeping it as an unpaid project. Never off future pay that isn’t guaranteed.



I have my cast, when do I expect to get my lines?



First, you need to understand that everyone has a life they need to schedule around. It is not fair to give your actors lines and then demand them back the next day. You need to respectfully talk with them and find out what is workable with them. Usually a few weeks is a good call.



I gave them a deadline and still no lines, now what?



Politely email them asking for an update. As long as you’re polite with them, you are fine. It is recommended to give a polite reminder about a deadline a few days before it arrives. Regardless of if the project is paid or not, they made a commitment to your project. It is not unfair for you to check in.



They’re not responding to my messages and I see them posting!



If they are not responding to you and are essentially ignoring you then you can send a polite and respectful email asking them for an update, otherwise you’re going to have to recast. If they do not respond to that email, then you are free to recast. It’s unfortunate, but these things do happen sometimes. In the end, you have to remain respectful and move on.



My actors don’t want to market my project!



Here’s a harsh truth, and this is why I refer to actors as “contractors” and not part of the “team”. A lot of times actors are just trying to book roles for experience and may not necessarily be involved in the creative process of your project. They are not your extended marketing team. It is okay to “ASK” them if they would be okay with sharing the project upon completion, but it’s ultimately up to them if they want to.



If they choose not to, you are not entitled to complain or yell at them. They are there to record for a character, anything beyond that is a courtesy.



I made a discord server for the project, JOIN IT!



Again, you are not entitled to anything beyond the submissions of lines for a character. Having a discord server for your project is a great thing to have. It’s great for team organization and workflow, but VOs are contractors and not part of your “team”. You can invite them and if they choose to join your server, then they will. It should never be a requirement. It is a turn off.




But we need to live direct!



Live directing, while beneficial is really asking a lot for unpaid work. Your project is not the only project these VOs are recording for. You don’t know their life, their schedule, etc, expecting them to reschedule their lives to match yours for live direction (Especially if they’re located across different time zones) is a red flag. Let them record on their own, if they are keen on live direction, they will let you know and you can work something out.

Many VAs are also able to self direct with some basic directions in the script as a reference. Most will be more amenable to live direction if the project is paid and it's at a rate of per hour. If you do require live direction and the project is paid, please make sure you or someone on your team knows how to proper live direct talent. See the VAC guide on live direction here - Guide for Live Direction




Voice actors are a great commodity! They bring your characters to life in ways you never could have imagined. But they need to be treated with respect. As long as you are transparent and humble with them, they will be willing to work with you. Never offer pay to your team while withholding pay from your actors. Pay one, pay them all.



Do NOT put up casting calls BEFORE you have an actual team or proof of concept.



Stick to your established deadlines in your casting call.



It is okay to be an unpaid project, just be open and transparent about it from the start. Voice actors are great people and they will always raise the value of your project tenfold.



Production Pt 2- The Internal Work Flow, Software, Hardware



This guide/article is already super long. A lot longer than I planned so I’ll be splitting this into parts. The next part will focus on the actual animation software and internal workflows that fall into the “best practices” for episodic web animation.