Every little thing starts off small.
A passion for the arts, whether young or old, starts with a simple stroke of a pencil in hand. An animated movie in theatres; to the living room television, where a cartoon plays; and to the screens of the devices that are held in the palms and animatics and animations posted online. All are watching the labor of creation and love arise. Themes and messages of humanity that tell stories about friendship, community, loneliness, and passion.
Animations that were once black and white emerged in a bright new era that brought charm and vitality. To this day, animation is still a beloved medium that is honed and practiced by thousands who are passionate for their work. With the illustrations crafted with beautiful visuals, it is easy to believe that animation is just for children when in fact people of any age can connect to a story and delve into deeper topics no matter how brightly lit it is.
Big studios in the previous decade like Disney, DreamWorks, Cartoon Network, and Sony Pictures Animation had a massive take on the industry with animated shows and movies. Disney produced many movies and cartoons that are still seen as iconic from the media today, alongside its rival Dreamworks. Cartoon Network produced cartoons that are unique and absurd from the rest at that time. Lastly, Sony Pictures Animation has taken a slow rise in the start of the decade with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
However, it wasn’t just big studios that kept arising with animation but also on the internet.
Saturation
In the current day, many of the companies have had their ups and downs with their studios having massive changes in direction and mergers from different companies. Disney finds itself creating more sequels of the franchises that were successful – like Moana, Toy Story, Frozen, Incredibles – and in their live-action remakes. The company still creates original concepts with Hoppers as its recent project and the upcoming movie titled ‘Hexxed’.
Sources told Variety that Disney wishes to have stories focusing on Gen-Z young men that are in the ages of 13 to 28. In Pixar, a movie titled ‘Be Fri’ was in the works until its cancellation in 2023, because the narrative focused more on female leads that Disney saw as not appealing for little boys as they wouldn’t be able to see themselves in it. This wasn’t the first time a film has been rejected with the movie ‘Elio’ from 2025 having a more personal queer experience by the movie’s director, Adrian Molina.
If stories are held within limits, restrained by the studios rather than given to the masses, especially stories that people look for representation and diversity. Who else wishes to tell stories that differ from the others’ experiences, but rather it is those same individuals who continue to create yet unbound. YouTube, a social media platform, where videos are posted without being bound to a corporation, found a home of creatives that took advantage that this is a place where they can post their animations and animatics by themselves.
Hue
Indie is a short term of independent production, it is where big corporations are behind but rather a small team or the creator themselves are working on the project whether it be music, film, or animation. Indie has become popular specifically in the animation industry on the platform of YouTube. This rise in popularity – specifically in indie pilots – is by the creator named VivziePop who posted the pilots of Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel in 2019, where many more animated pilots and shows appeared in the recent years.
Indie animation ranges from animatics and animation of songs redrawn as the animator's vision whether it is their own characters or characters of another piece of media to pilots of web animation. Majority of indie pilots have different ways of funding: KickStarter, merch, or being found by studios giving creators numerous opportunities to start.
The biggest studio with indie series is GLITCH Productions, found on YouTube, where they produce shows that creators have complete freedom in creating. GLITCH Productions’ most well-known series are The Amazing Digital Circus and Murder Drones. By comparison, the two shows that were produced by the studio show a range between one another: The Amazing Digital Circus has a more abstract and bright design while Murder Drones has an edgier and darker aesthetic.
With no limits bound on aesthetics or tone, stories are released from the threshold with no warning at all. Majority of indie productions showcase a female character as part of the main cast or being the leads themselves. Themes and conversation range and even where it is set in, for instance, the upcoming story of Knights of Guinevere is about a story of two overworked women finding a broken android princess, Princess Guinevere. By the pilot, the audience can notice that the story deals with the topics of corporate greed, inequality and class division, and exploitation through the experiences of the protagonists.
Value
Television today works in different ways than before. Companies settle more with just a few episodes in a show’s run time or one to two seasons before being cancelled when the story has only yet to blossom. Showrunners and writers then push the story into a packed and fast-paced manner due to the fear of not being cancelled after the season ends.
Indie animation is flexible in its run time, the schedule of release, and how many episodes the creator wishes to release. With no date implied or scheduling, each post can become a surprise and excitement from the audience. From a YouTube post, it has found that 61% of 14 to 24 year old fans prefer independent animators’ content more than a major studio.
An animator on YouTube can post an animatic, though rough and incomplete, still has beauty that viewers find. It may be a draft and still the passion shown through the time of creation made by flesh-and-blood hands and hours of leaning down on their gadgets refining the lines and details they have missed.
The digital landscape creates a place where the arts can be accessible to anyone – young and old, the good and the bad. It leaves a mark on a viewer's mind that they could possibly do as these creators can. Every little thing comes to sprout and itself will curl by its own will.
A dot by a creative’s tool, may it be the pigment of paint or a pixel from the screen, a spring of color yet so little brings itself into existence on its own.
Written by Rio Kassiel Mañalac (Amnis De Ira), Insight PH
Rio Kassiel Mañalac (Amnis De Ira), Insight PH is a dedicated campus journalist and contributor. Their insightful writing sparks meaningful conversations and keeps the community informed.
