Love to animate? Here’s 12 tips for sharing your art on YouTube
Nov 18, 2024 – [[read-time]] minute read
Dreaming of sharing your animations with the world? You’re not alone! Animation is booming on YouTube with more stories and perspectives being brought to the platform every day.
We spoke with Illy of Illymation, Tang of Tang’s Tails, and Maaz of TheAMaazing — three animators who turned their passions into successful careers on YouTube. While each has their own art and work styles, they all have a couple things in common — grit, passion and creativity. Here’s their 12 insider tips on finding your niche, building community and everything in between.
1. Find support
“Definitely find an artsy community you connect with first -- whether that be in a fanart community for a show or movie you love, or just a group of friends who also love making art of all kinds -- and take your first leap of faith there. The first time I found the courage to share an "animated storytime" video with others was during a summer college class on creative writing. The video (which was all black and white doodles with minimal backgrounds and audio I recorded using my laptop's crappy microphone) was a lighthearted, joke-filled story recounting my stress completing our multi-page final paper and the silly pitfalls I encountered getting it printed.
I slapped the video together in a couple days using the free college student version of some video editing software, and I shared it with my friends in class for some much needed levity during finals week. When other students asked what was making us giggle around a laptop, one of my friends suggested we rewind it for the whole class to watch. I'll never forget the feeling of my nerves igniting with assumed incoming embarrassment, then subsiding with comfort as my peers laughed at my jokes and related to the story. It really helped my confidence not just with writing and animating, but also with sharing art with others. It's all meant to be a fun experience for everyone-- the people you're hoping to connect with when sharing your art are out there, looking for you too.” - Illy
2. Experiment with genres and formats
“At first, I tried out long-form storytime animations and was inspired by creators like illymation, TheOdd1sOut, and eLL cartoons. Then, I realized that creating fictional, fantasy stories involving witches, magic, and sci-fi came more naturally to me! My partner joined me in writing and animating, but after a couple of years, we felt discouraged that our longform animations were getting low views. Since shorts had just come out, we experimented with that for a bit.
One night, I noticed a long-nosed dog was trending, so I animated a 15-second video. I wasn’t expecting much, but within hours, the video EXPLODED, and we gained 30 million views on that short in just a few months! We kept making viral shorts and also used our savings to create a long-form fantasy-comedy series. Each format we’ve tried out has challenges us and served our channel in different ways.”- Tang
“ It's all meant to be a fun experience for everyone-- the people you're hoping to connect with when sharing your art are out there, looking for you too.”
3. Center your personality
“When making a video, the utmost priority for me is to structure a story that not only is entertaining to listen to, but does it in a way that enhances my own AND my guests' personality. This extends into the actual animation and artwork, where I will choose specific expressions, poses and shot composition to best complement that for the individual who is speaking!“ - Maaz
4. Grow with others
“Since committing to YouTube full time in 2019, I worried about my art stagnating. Up until then, I had been taking art classes from kindergarten all the way through to college where I majored in animation. So although I don't have enough time to attend classes these days, fellow artists (not all of them YouTubers) who create art of all different mediums have organized group chats and Discord servers online where we can share our progress on upcoming YouTube videos and even personal art for feedback! It really goes to show that, even if you don't have access to traditional art-related education, there are still lots of communities out there where you can learn from others and challenge your skillset (and even make some friends along the way!).” - Illy
5. Embrace new ideas
“The idea is most important. Ideas can come from anywhere - an emotion, a funny conversation, a relatable moment, a song lyric, or whatever is trending if I’m going for that. Then, I’ll take that initial idea, and make it funnier, bolder, or more interesting. My partner, Joe, helps with this! Since animation allows us to create anything we can imagine, it’s fun to play with that freedom and make our ideas extra wacky.” - Tang
6. Consider your analytics
“I use analytics on a near daily basis to help improve my own content and dictate how to proceed with my channel. Before uploading a video, I use audience tab analytics to figure out when is best to upload, which videos my audience are enjoying, who my audience is watching, etc. This helps with coming up with ideas that I personally enjoy making/talking about, but also that my fans enjoy watching too!
Once a video is uploaded, I then use the engagement analytics to assess how effective my storytelling is, where the strengths lay, moments where I could improve upon, and how to keep my viewers interested.
I think being well informed and on the pulse of what your audience is looking for is something that I've always been an advocate for, and will continue to do in the future.” - Maaz
7. Build your community
“I do my best to interact with as many people in the comment section as I can by giving their kind comments a heart or posting a quick reply-- whatever I can do to show my appreciation. Other social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr allow me to search for fanart to like and share, or receive and respond to messages directly with fans of my channel. However, that still leaves many, many people I owe thanks and recognition to -- so I make sure to end each of my videos with ‘thank you for watching!’" - Illy
8. Balance your and the audiences’ interests
“There’s two sides of the content-creation coin: make something your soul demands, and make something that you expect will succeed. These two motivations are like stray cats fighting for the same scrap of tuna fish. The logical cat asks: what works, what has worked, what is working? While the creative cat asks: what do you want to draw, share, explore, discover about yourself or others? I’ve learned that if you let the cats battle, things can get ugly. It’s best to let them take turns, and share the tuna evenly.” - Tang
9. Have a passion project
“Animation can be absolutely time consuming. The most helpful thing that I always try to do, is that you have to work on a long-term project that you're passionate about! I find that when I'm only slightly enthused about it, it has much more of a noticeable cognitive burden and mental toll. On the flip side, watching my passion project come to life is what makes this all so fun, and helps continually motivate me to make more content! “ - Maaz
10. Keep creating for you
“It's a difficult line to walk when your hobby becomes your job! When I feel the sparks of inspiration to write an original story or just draw some cats for the heck of it, I have to stop myself from thinking I'm selfish or I'm wasting my time creating something that would have no place / wouldn't perform well if shared on my channel. I have to remind myself how I ended up on YouTube in the first place: I like drawing, and it makes me happy. Therefore, I'm allowed to like drawing even if, or perhaps especially if, it's only for me and a couple people to see and enjoy, just as it was before I started a YouTube channel. “ - Illy
“ Remember that creating art, animation or any form of content online is a marathon, not a sprint! If you're not planning to quit after a month or a year, then take it easy.”
11. Don’t let the grind ruin your love
“You’ll need to use your brains and your heart every step of the way, so you stay aligned to your path. You’ll know when you stray too far off because the ground will feel like it’s about to crumble underneath you. Whatever you do, don’t let the grind ruin your love for art and animation. Always put that first and you’ll get the most out of your journey!” - Tang
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12. Pace yourself
“Remember that creating art, animation or any form of content online is a marathon, not a sprint! If you're not planning to quit after a month or a year, then take it easy. Pushing yourself to work harder and post more frequently and 'grind out' the videos will only result in inevitable burnout. It'll turn your hobbies and interests into a chore, when instead it can be a continual source of passion, creative fulfillment and fun. Take it easy, go at your own pace, and I'm sure you'll build an audience who are willing to go with your flow.” - Maaz