reddit.com/r/animation
Animation is an art form with the ability to tell a story with a wide range of emotions and information. As an animator, you can convey a wide range of motions and connect the story together. Each frame is like a dot and within a second, you can turn those dots into a line. My experience with animation began when I started working on flipbooks as a kid. I would draw static pictures across various frames, and if I wanted the characters to move, I could get them to do so by connecting the dots together in the right way.
When did Animation begin?
There is no one specific source for this information; it is quoted by many sources that animation developed in the early 1900s. The first animated feature film was made in 1918, but there are animations discovered before 1910. Everything changed when celluloid was introduced in 1913; this is when Walt Disney was the first one to add sound to animation, which premiered with steamboat Willie in 1928. Ten years later, he followed it up with a full-length feature - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Let's go explore one of the biggest animation communities on the internet - r/animation. Now that we've learned enough about this history-making storytelling format, let's dive deep into one of its most active forums - r/animation.
My recent experience on r/animation
I highly recommend you check out the video if you are at all interested in bizarre animated content. It will definitely make you laugh.
I recently visited r/animation, where I saw a post titled "Cute Animation." What I saw was not cute at all. Each frame was filled with a visual double entendre. Though the animation does look cute, the content is quirky as hell. The post attracted more than 3,700 upvotes and shocked more than 190 users who were expressing their disbelief over what they saw. I would recommend you check out the video if you're at all interested in bizarre animated content. It will definitely make you laugh.
About r/animation - Community & Members
The subreddit "r/animation" is a community where users can find news, short stories, and creativity related to animation. One of my favorite content buckets on this subreddit is user creatives. This community never ceases to astound me. With over 160,000 members, r/animation has 350-700 active members at any given time. Though the growth rate has been slow considering that it started its journey 12 years ago, you can give that a pass considering the quality of content you get on the subreddit.
If you're into animation, this subreddit is perfect for you! There are a lot of talented artists here, and the content is varied enough to keep you inspired. Whether you want to see how current animation styles are done or explore some of the more creative ideas out there, this community has it all.
How to access r/animation?
If you're not a Reddit user, you can sign up for an account and confirm your email address. Once you do that, you'll be able to follow subreddits, comment on posts, and even post anything on any of the subreddits.
Moderators of r/animation
Though the r/animation subreddit has just 160,000 members, it's not a small community. In fact, it's one of the biggest animation communities out there. More than 15,000 users are active daily, and they are constantly updating and interacting with the content on the platform. Thus, it isn't surprising that the subreddit has quite a few moderators to keep everything in check.
I found nine mods on r/animation at the time of writing this review.
Why should you follow r/animation?
I can't express how amazing and creative this community is. There are so many amazing things to see and do here, from rotoscoping to 2D/3D animation. I'm surprised that the effort here is underrated, because I saw an amazing animation that would easily get 1000+ upvotes on other anime platforms but only 35 upvotes on r/animation. It might be because the volume of creativity and content here is so great that it leads to saturation.
Community Engagement
I wasn't very impressed by the engagement in this community. Sure, it's not dormant, but given the time and effort people take to create such amazing art, I believe that it should get more recognition. The upvote rate is abysmal and the overall engagement rate is underwhelming. On average, a regular post usually gets about 10-15 upvotes with the top post of the day getting anywhere between 300-500 votes. As for comments, 5-10 is an average number you'll find on r/animation.
Browsing & Navigation
Only a few hundred people are active on r/animation, which is a blessing in disguise because that prevents the page from lagging. Having said that, this page does have a lot of short HQ videos and thus, it can be hard to watch videos on a data connection. I would recommend you only browse and watch content if you have an active WiFi connection. Other than these content forms, you will also find polls regarding 2D and 3D animation.
Reddit Gold
Since the content on this subreddit is so high quality, it's surprising that it's not catching on with the audience. It's not that every post goes unnoticed-it can even get a little bit of gold-but compared to other subreddits, there's a lot less of it. And that makes sense because the Reddit gold standards for this page are really high. I browsed through 30-50 top posts from the past month, and I was only able to find 2-3 golds across them all. It wasn't hard to spot since there weren't many comments or threads in depth-so it was easy to see how few golds were given out in comparison to other subreddits.
Filter by flair
An aspect that I appreciate on this thread is the Filter by Flair option. Using these tags, you can find content that you're interested in. For instance, if you want to share your artwork, you can bill it under Sharing flair. Similarly, if you want to ask a question, you can choose the Question flair. As for options, you can choose between six different flairs - Megathread?, Sharing?, Beginner?, Critique?, Discussion?, and Question?.
Important rules you must know before joining r/animation?
The rules of /r/animation are not complex. If you want to become a part of this community, just make sure that you follow the guideline set by the mods. The only requirement of being an active member of this subreddit is to not indulge in content theft. You can share work done by others, but you must give credit for it and not own the content. If you share a post and do not credit the original creator, it can lead to a Permaban.
Design
Overall, the page is a simple and easy way to find what you need.
This page has a simple icon and distinctive pink cover image. I like it because it has a unique look and is different from other subreddits. It doesn't have the standard Saturn logo as chosen by other subreddits, but it does have all of the usual Reddit features. There are sorting categories and a sidebar with options such as ?Filter by Flair?, ?Rules?, and a couple of banner ads. Overall, this page is easy to use and has a unique look.
Content
We've compiled a list of the most popular posts on this subreddit so far.
6. I want to animate a scene from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I need at least 50,000 upvotes. - 2,700 upvotes 7. ?Someday my works will be as revered and beloved as those of Hayao Miyazaki.? - 2,100 upvotes
1. I'm Butch Hartman, creator of The Fairly Oddparents. And this is a never-been-seen pic of Chester's mom that got 11,900 upvotes.
2. Animating a laundry basket got 8,600 upvotes.
3. My work got stolen and I'm now out of commission due to lockdown so I decided to dip my toe into something really time-consuming and tried animating the first layer is done 4100 upvotes
4. Since I can't work due to lockdown, I decided to try animating something else for a change and made a flipbook during quarantine with 3800 upvotes
5. I want to animate a scene from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic but need at least 50,000 votes for it so my goal is 2 700 votes
6 . Someday my works will be as revered and beloved as those of Hayao Miyazaki if people love them like this 2 100 votes
The most popular content on the Upvoted website in 2020 will be posts that are funny, interesting, and encouraging.
1. I just uploaded a bunch of animations that got a lot of upvotes - 3,700 upvotes. 2. I made an animation using new Toon Boom and After Effects techniques I learned in quarantine - 3,600 upvotes. 3. This is the result of one month of hard work - I taught myself how to use toon boom and after effects for this one - 3,400 upvotes. 4. Here's my latest animation! It's a flipbook with music by Corbin - 3,200 upvotes. 5. Finally, here's an animation I created using my phone! It's not as good as some of my other ones, but it's still pretty good - 2,700 upvotes
Conclusion
I really admire the dedication and attention to detail that goes into making everything look perfect on r/animation. The only change Iâd suggest is an increase in engagement per post, which would make it even more loveable for animation fans like me. As an animator or someone who loves animation, youâd be hooked on this subreddit from the beginning.