Phungus & Mowld Series (one-man project)

[arglborps]

Hi there,

Amidst the excitement that Moho is back (in the hands of the founders), I'd like to share a project I've been working on for the last 20 months. I've started creating a sci-fi animated series in my spare time between job and family (that's why it took so long) and the pilot episode is now available via Amazon Prime Video in the US, UK, Germany and Japan. You can also watch it via http://phungusandmowld.com.

I'm posting updates on the production of new episodes every month on my blog at https://kilianmuster.com/pm.
And I've just started a vlog talking about how I created the pilot and my pitfalls and caveats here http://youtube.com/c/KilianMuster

Last month the Pilot episode "Dead Angle" won Best Animated Short in the Phoenix Monthly Shortfilm Festival (https://phoenixshortfestival.com/winners-november-2020/).

All of the character animation is done in Moho, some of the spaceship animation and compositing is done in Apple Motion.

Trailer 1


Trailer 2


Vlog


I hope you'll have as much fun watching this as I'm having making it.

[neeters_guy]

Well done and very inspiring. Looking forward to future production notes.

[Greenlaw]

Looking good! Good luck with the pilot!

[DK]

Hi arglborps .
Nice work! I noticed you keep your animations behind a Vimeo paywall. How is this form of funding working out for you?
I'm sure there are a lot of other artists on this forum who would be keen to get an insight into this as a potential way
of sustaining an animated series.

Cheers
D.K

[arglborps]

Hi DK,

Well I have a day job that pays the bills nicely (strategic design consulting in a big company) – that's the "funding". Having basically no followers, no exposure I can't expect to make any money with just one episode from this. For now I'm putting it online to start getting the word out. I don't need to earn money through this, but I don't want to just give it away for free either, because that would then be the value I'd be giving my work: zero. I still have that dream to maybe make this something that could possibly sustain me in the future. Also, apart from Vimeo, people can watch it on Amazon Prime Video, which at least doesn't feel like paying for content.

My plan is to eventually get at least one season of about 12 episodes together, no matter how long it'll take me (years, I presume), at which point I'll also seriously start advertising and try to get a distribution deal. In the meantime I keep posting production blog entries and I just started a vlog on how I put my animation together, to keep people interested in the project and build up a subscriber base over the next few years. I'm in it for the long game. I don't have an advertising budget and word of mouth organic growth just takes time. Actually I don't expect much growth on either video platform until I have at least 5 or so episodes in the can, and people can binge watch half a season.

[DK]

Hi arglborps .
Thanks for being so generous with info on your venture! It's a hard route for sure. We have put videos up on YT and not even had more than 4 views in years organically. Getting work out there is a huge grey area for animators and something we tend to think of only once we have done the creative part. Currently I see the steps in making an animation kinda like the Underpants Gnomes Business plan from South Park. Step 1, Collect Underpants, Step 2...?, Step 3 profit!
We all really need help with step 2 and maybe following you along and this thread might be a great place for us all to share any info on this?

Cheers
D.K

[arglborps]

Whether I succeed or not, I'm planning to share my journey through my vlog.

But the first few episodes will be more about how I created my pilot episode as a one-man production with no prior exposure or knowledge of the animation business (without knowing "how it's done"), so I'll also be talking about the detours I took, and all the many mistakes on the way…

[hgdagr8one]

Being a one-person studio can be a real grind. Keep up the good work and can't wait to see your future work.

[arglborps]

Just a little rigging test update.

Production of episode 2 is on the way. I hope to complete it this month, but it looks more like it's going to be June…

[pihms]

I'm very impressed! Quality, voice, character design, all from a one man operation. Best wishes on this adventure.

[cgrotke]

Currently I see the steps in making an animation kinda like the Underpants Gnomes Business plan from South Park. Step 1, Collect Underpants, Step 2...?, Step 3 profit!
We all really need help with step 2

Maybe now that Moho has new owners, a future website addition could be a gallery to show off (good) Moho animators and (good) work. Heck, an annual awards ceremony might work to get some PR. And special recognition of sole-person studios would be great (says me and my team of... uh... no one.)

Long ago I did a series in Flash called Guinea Pig Theater, where guinea pigs would act our great works of drama. After nearly 20 years on YouTube, it is interesting to see what got the hits, and what hasn't. They were all equally not-promoted, but Waiting for Godot has 28k views, while Dracula has 3k. No idea why.

I see hits go up on some projects when they get mentioned in newspapers or other media, so I always try to send out some press releases when something is finished.

I feel like my job is to keep putting things out there, and if something sticks, great. If not, I'm enjoying doing what I like to do. Chuck Jones told me once that WBros work improved greatly when they stoped trying to create things for the audience and started to just try to impress themselves. That's when their golden age of Bugs, etc. really took off.

[pihms]

Just a thought, have you considered doing a community project on this? Blender does something of this sort, from what I understand, in which volunteers lend their expertise to a given project. They seem to produce some amazing animations and videos. Of course, this could become more complex with many hands in the pot and fixating on a plot, style, and who's willing to provide some extra time, as well as agreeing to all of the aforementioned.

[arglborps]

Just a thought, have you considered doing a community project on this? Blender does something of this sort, from what I understand, in which volunteers lend their expertise to a given project. They seem to produce some amazing animations and videos. Of course, this could become more complex with many hands in the pot and fixating on a plot, style, and who's willing to provide some extra time, as well as agreeing to all of the aforementioned.

The thing is, if possible I want to make this a commercial endeavor eventually. But if I have people contributing without them being paid, rights issues can kill the whole project. With Blender projects they just make everything open source afterwards, and if you contribute, you click your agree button that this'll be some GPL licensed project, and that's it. With my project I can hardly have people agree to a license that means give me your work for free, but if I make money it'll all be mine

So, if I'm going to assemble a team to produce it, I'll need to have proper funding, so I can pay the people working on it, give them proper credit and make sure the rights are cleared for everything that isn't made by me.

[Little Yamori]

Just watched your one man animation vlog!!!

Cheers to you brother, I'm in the exact same boat (animation/hobby/dream/goal mode) a bit older, but also lived in Japan albeit more than 30 years ago


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