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Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 1:57 am
by Scabiebabie

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 3:42 pm
by Danimal
OK, I can see how this would work for very young kids because the stories are simple and the action is silly. At the same time, the notion of bugs living in a human body seems a bit more mature, so there's a bit of a contrast there. I can see kids liking it but their parents not wanting them to watch.

Also, if it's for little kids, there needs to be more of a spelling out of who these guys are. Come to think of it, that needs to happen no matter who the audience is. I don't know who the main character is, really who any of the others are, why they live together, nothing. Are they family? Friends? None of this is mentioned. And if it's for little kids, you'll need to work it into every episode.

The animation is choppy. Characters suddenly assume poses and then gradually go back to where the were often through this. It looks like the keyframes are off.

The first episode gets four minutes in before anything happens. The entire beginning is a song which is not interesting and badly sung. Having the girl suddenly break into song and the other three join in is a funny idea, but only for 10 seconds or so. See The Critic for how to spontaneously break into song correctly.

Finally, the title is off. If they're babies, then it should be "Scabie Babies" (no apostrophe). If the word is supposed to be possessive for some reason and have an apostrophe, then it should be "Scabie Baby's." Misspelling the title of your own show will sink a pitch before it starts.

That said, good luck in your pitch and please keep us posted.

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:04 am
by Scabiebabie
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Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:30 am
by ianmage1
Pitching a cartoon to Nickelodeon and CN is a bold move on your part and we're going to assume that you're delivering something exceptional if you believe that it's worthy to become a tv show. If a user doesn't think that your cartoon qualifies or that it needs improvements, they're certainly going to tell you. So don't be offended by criticism; just accept it and improve from it.

I certainly don't wish to be like one of the users that picked on you relentlessly, but I'll offer you my small bit of constructive criticism.

You need to improve your overall character rigs; the head turns and lip syncs need to be smoother and there needs to be more facial expressions; I'd suggest looking into using smart bones.
You asked Danimal to "please notice that the artwork is expertly done and the voices and the background music are exceptionally well." I hate to break it to you, but the artwork is not expertly done; your backgrounds are enlarged images--they're blurry and pixelated, and the textures and proportions of the artwork are flawed; in the future, you need to either give the image files a huge resolution or make the artwork entirely out of vectors to avoid pixelation and blur.
The voices can be raspy at times and difficult to understand; voice work is challenging for a lot of people, including myself. :oops:
For a kids show, the story works alright, but you really do need to improve the technical side of your cartoon.

That's all I have to add. I wish you the best and I hope to see you improve.

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:23 am
by heyvern
Brutal Honesty: (Skip this part if it hurts)

To be blunt and completely honest, I doubt seriously that anyone at Nickelodeon or Cartoon network would watch more than a few seconds of this if they watch it at all. Based on the subject of the post, my first impression was that this had to be some sort of "joke" or not intended as a serious pitch to major networks. To be blunt, it's awful. Painful to watch. I too couldn't watch the whole thing. I just couldn't do it. There are so much really really bad animation I just assumed it was done on purpose. The audio was pretty bad. Hard to even understand half of the dialog at all. No one at either of those networks will look at this as a serious potential product.

If the story were entertaining and interesting or fun to watch, maybe. If the story was strong enough to get past the poor quality of the characters, audio and animation, maybe, sadly the whole thing is bad and not like in a "so bad it's good" way.

You need to work on animation technique... uh... (you need to work on everything period). Granted, there are many popular cartoons that appear to be "badly animated" but it's a style chosen, and not because the animators are untalented.

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Constructive Criticism

My suggestion is to NOT try to pitch to major networks before you actually know how to animate. Start off really small. Focus ALL of the time and effort you put into that way too long animation into something a FRACTION of the length. Try 20 seconds of higher quality. Animation of any kind takes effort. When you try to do long animations like this you spread your efforts too thin, spend less on animation quality and more on filling the time. In animation, quantity is not always better than quality.

You could pitch a solid story "concept" that was only 15-30 seconds long of higher quality and have a better chance than 3 minutes of really poor quality. In reality pitching to those networks is not done with a COMPLETED animation, it is done with an outline of the characters, setting and stories, and some drawings of characters. You should do that anyway even before trying to animate a completed story.

Just an opinion. Keep animating. You can only improve. :)

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 5:26 pm
by Scabiebabie
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Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 5:59 pm
by 3deeguy
I've gotten my feelings hurt but my reaction was to work hard to improve. 'Honesty', which can be brutal at times, is the only feedback that has any value. Hopefully you'll realize that a 'pat on the back' is worthless if that person really thinks otherwise.
If you are unable to accept 'honest' feedback all anybody can do is step away and say "OK".
Good luck.

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:15 pm
by slowtiger
If NIckelodeon is not taken aback by the bad quality of the animation, it will be by his attitude.

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:23 pm
by Danimal
Scabiebabie wrote:Hayvern I here alto from you in here but I have never... (million word tirade)
Ummm, what just happened here? A seemingly normal request for feedback, which was honored, turned into absolute lunacy right before our eyes.
Scabiebabie wrote:By the way I am toxicink
This was said like it was supposed to mean something, so I looked up that username. I'll be, I even commented many years ago on one of your videos. Aside from that, it would seem that you were only attacked by forum members following what can only be described as "spamming the daylights out of the board." There may have been some teasing, but it seemed pretty warranted.

If indeed this is being pitched, I wish you luck. All things considered, it's not a bad idea. I can still see parents trying to keep their kids from watching it due to the gross factor of it being about parasites, but who knows.

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:17 pm
by ianmage1
With the attitude you have towards honest feedback, it's no wonder you were picked on relentlessly by other users...

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:22 pm
by 3deeguy
On YouTube the video description says: "...a silly cartoon about 4 little insect kids that lives on a bums elbow".
I 'really' don't know how to comment on that.

Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:41 pm
by Scabiebabie
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Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:53 pm
by Scabiebabie
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Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:56 pm
by Scabiebabie
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Re: Pitching to Nickelodeon and The cartoon network

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 8:38 pm
by slowtiger
did you not know that "the Simpsons" first episode was animated very badly?
The Simpsons started as short episodes for the Tracy Ullman show (watch at youtube, search for Simpsons Tracy Ullman), produced by Klasky Czupo, already an established studio. It was crudely drawn, but not "badly animated", and had at least a story for each clip.

Show me something you did as good as these, and we can talk seriously.