New Animated Web Series: Sea of Idiots

b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:03 pm

Hi all!

I wanted to let you know about a new animated web series that we recently launched. It's called Sea of Idiots, and it's about two slackers working in a video store in the early Nineties. We make it entirely in ASP, with the exception of titles, and some of the effects, for which we use Motion. We will be rolling out each half-hour(ish) episode in two to three minute segments on a weekly basis. The first two parts are online now, and you can check it out at http://www.seaofidiots.com or on Funny or Die, YouTube, or blip.tv. We have almost 100 members in our Facebook group after only a week, so it seems to be catching on.

Please check it out when you have a chance. I'd love to know what you all think!

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 12:28 am

Pretty good so far, I like the comedy. Keep up the good work!

b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:40 am

Thanks!

Jeffrey · Post by **Jeffrey** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:44 pm

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b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 6:17 pm

Thanks very much! We decided to put new episodes up on Mondays now, as no one was watching on the weekends, understandably.

Thanks again, everyone.

Jeffrey · Post by **Jeffrey** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:23 am

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Acochran_89 · Post by **Acochran_89** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:14 am

I really like your show, and the art style is unique.
Did you use other programs other than just AS?
What did you use to make dave's shirt? I think it's dave....which everone is wearing blue?

Again though..awesome work looking forward to more

b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:32 am

Thanks!

I create all of the assets in Photoshop and bring them into ASP as either PNG's or JPEG's, so all of the texturing and stuff is happening in Photoshop. All of the animation is done in ASP, and titles and some effects in Apple Motion.

Acochran_89 · Post by **Acochran_89** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:34 am

Awesome...thanks for sharing
I really like the unique texturing you use on the characters. Again great work, will definately watch the next installment

marv · Post by **marv** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:12 pm

That's pretty funny stuff!...

b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:17 pm

Thanks, guys! Stick with us, this wasn't originally intended to be split up into short segments, and we are just now starting to get to the story. It gets a lot better!

The next episode, which we're writing now, will be geared more towards the short weekly segments, so each installment will be more entertaining, in and of itself.

If you like what you see, please tell your friends. We need more viewers!

Jeffrey · Post by **Jeffrey** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:58 am

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b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:26 pm

There actually is a story taking place. As it goes on it will be more obvious. This first episode wasn't originally intended to be broken up into separate segments, it was written and produced as a half-hour TV pilot, and after we found out that networks and production companies take their sweet time in getting back to you, we decided to just go ahead and try building an audience online. So some of the segments at the beginning are just setting up the characters and their world, and we're just now starting to get to the story.

Future episodes are being written in a slightly different way. We still like telling a longer story, like a half-hour show, but we are approaching each 2-3 minute chunk as its own entity. We're focusing more on making each segment more entertaining and self-contained, while still being part of the larger story arc.

Does that make sense? I think even I'm confused. Bottom line: stay tuned! This episode gets a lot better, and the next one will be better still!

sinclair · Post by **sinclair** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:17 am

b15fliptop wrote:Future episodes are being written in a slightly different way. We still like telling a longer story, like a half-hour show, but we are approaching each 2-3 minute chunk as its own entity.

Sadly this seems the only way people will watch a video unless it's an established name. I'm writing in the exact fashion, making sure that each segment has a beginning middle and end and still fits into the big picture of a 22 minute episode-

Viewers are more likely to click through three or four separate short animations (following a storyline) rather than view a whole animation that's 20 minutes long-

Youtube has a chart for this, once your file has received enough hits it will show you at which point your file is hot (the point that viewers have continued watching or scanned back to watch) and the point were there attention dropped off (where they stopped watching, be it 20 seconds in or 2 minutes in), I find this tool very useful, one thing I've learned from it is that very few people have the patience to watch titles or intro's- (I've seen a drop off and a pick-up point in my "hot" Meter)-

Bite sized entertainment, what can you do?

None the less, idiots is great, look forward to seeing more-

K-

b15fliptop · Post by **b15fliptop** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:37 am

Thanks, man. I really appreciate everyone's feedback.

Yeah, I would love to have a half-hour TV show, but for now I'm trying to make the most of the online thing.

I had a look at your YouTube stuff, and it's really great! I love your animation style. Very original, and it looks like you put a lot of work into it. Now I must go watch the rest of it....

New Animated Web Series: Sea of Idiots

New Animated Web Series: Sea of Idiots

GREAT JOB GUYS!