I've been deep in thought for a long while about how to optimize my creative efforts. I've always wanted to move toward video (animation) creation, but there are definitely some traps involved, some of which I've fallen right into. It's time to steer away from animation, but keep the goal of video creation.
Figure 1: Perfectionism sucks
Perfectionism is the enemy of consistency
In the past, I've made some off-chain animations that were a real hit — not just garnering very high views, but having quite good returns. These animations were, for a solitary creator, a real pain to create. I did everything from character design, writing, backgrounds, voices and animation, sometimes with notable success, but more often with tepid, disappointing results.
Figure 2: Without a good following, content creation is hit-or-miss
Success can be difficult to replicate
Despite the more successful animations I've made, I never built the fan‑base needed to go full-time. Also, I've never had a good formula in place. It's always been, “Work my ass off on an animation and hope that it goes big” — which is not sustainable with such a fickle audience.
Figure 3: Keep it creative, but learn to be efficient in order to keep going!
Consistent creation > epic but seldom creations
My fairly successful channel served to hurt more than it helped in this manner: My first animation did VERY well, gaining me about $400 a month on YouTube. That gave me the illusion that things would go smoothly. My second animation basically bombed, and despite gaining many views over the years, still disappoints in relation to hours spent vs. revenue made.
I've taken a good look around popular channels and have found this:
Figure 4: Better off to just wing it, but have your own creative spin
Creativity doesn't have to be packaged in a slick, complicated box
Take this one to the bank or the crypto wallet. Channels on YouTube like “Grade A Under A”, “Casually Explained” and “Berd” are visually ugly and have VERY poor production quality. It's painfully bad, but their audiences LOVE them because A) They bust out new content like a factory and B) They're so outrageous that the quality really doesn't matter!
Bringing it all together
- So, animation is definitely off the table. Except for some light and sparse motion here and there. There's really no reason to push myself so hard and keep getting basically nowheres.
- I want to cut production time by 80 - 90%. Even if my content didn't take off, at least I wouldn't be killing myself any more... However, cutting my production time would allow something I've never had, which is...
- CONSISTENCY... With less production time, I can comfortably make a new video 2 - 4x a month on a minimum.
- Uniqueness: I have an idea, that, while having been done before, can be done with a new angle and I can add my own spin on it. I think I can pull this off.
- Focus on voice-over: Animation is extremely draining for one person to do, but voice over's not so bad in comparison. I'd like to practice my voice-overs and be set free from the animation burden
Figure 5: I would never use a pink high-lighter marker!
I've got a plan now!
On an aside, I'm very thankful for my Steem following, because with the toxicity of YouTube, I might never succeed there. They've definitely effed their own platform. Even if I'm relying on Steem exclusively, that's better than getting banned all the time and the now high barrier for content monetization.
Anyways, I have a plan in place to make a test video with all the criteria I've laid out. If nothing else, it should be fairly easy, fun and a bit of an adventure without driving myself to deep fatigue or heart failure :D