Identifying your target market at early stages will help you when creating your digital media by having a better understanding of your target demands and needs.
Being creative is equally important nowadays. Most of the people will spot straight away if your work is not an original content. Another thing that should be taken into account is that if your work has relevance to current affairs your work is one step closer to being labeled as spreadable (Viral).
In my second attempt at creating a Meme that it’s goal is to spread as much as possible I went for a slightly different one. In my opinion this is a more “mature” macro image which’s purpose is to give useful information that you can use in your life.
Once again from the very beginning I have thought out completely the audiences that I will target. This time however I have decided to target only Reddit and Imgur just to see if there will be any difference in the spreadability between this Macro Image and my first Meme – The Philosoraptor. The Macro Image was created with the Meme Gen and then uploaded to Imgur. With my already existing digital identity on Reddit I have submitted it in only one subreddit – “r/AdviceAnimals” which has 4,252,150 users.
Analytics
My attempt with the Actual Advice Mallard was uploaded on Imgur on the 15th of December,2014. 10 hours after submitting it, the image has reached a total of 1,842 views. See Figure 1
(in comparison with my first attempt, 10 hours after submission it managed to get 3,641 views).
Figure 1
Fewer “Likes”, “Comments” and “Favourites” can also be seen in contrast with the first Macro Image (the first Meme got 96 “Likes”, 24 “Comments”, 2 “Shares” and 7 people have marked it as favourite).
Figure 2 shows the distribution of the views from the creation of the Meme to the point when the picture was taken. (15th of December – 16th of December)
Figure 2
In conclusion
My little experiment showed that having multiple identities which are promoting your work will spread your media more efficiently than relying only on one source.
Having catchy captions on a meme is not enough. Choosing the appropriate Meme and then applying those captions is what could possibly bring attention to your work.
First of all let me give you a short description on what the Macro Image that I have decided to work with represents.
“Philosoraptor is an image macro series featuring a clip art of Velociraptor deeply immersed in metaphysical inquiries or unraveling quirky paradoxes. Philosoraptor challenges the reader with his deep, existential, Paleolithic questions.”
I had a clearly defined target audience even from the very beginning. The people I targeted were the ones that are visiting websites such as “Imgur”, “9Gag”, “MemeCenter”, “Memes” and “Reddit”. After having a clearly defined market I have created the Macro Image using Meme Generator and then uploaded it to an image hosting website (in my case – Imgur). Specifically for Reddit I managed to create two digital identities and post the same Meme in two different groups (subreddits). With my first account I targeted the /r/Funny (which has a total of 7,418,920 users) and with the other account /r/Memes (total of 44,891 users). It should be noted that both of the post were redirecting from Reddit to the same image on Imgur.
Analytics
My Macro Image was uploaded on Imgur on the 15th of December,2014. 10 hours after submitting it, the image has reached a total of 3,641 views. See Figure 1
Figure 1
Furthermore on Imgur itself the Meme got 50 “upvotes” and 7 “downvotes”. 7 people have favourite it and 12 people have commented on it. From Figure 2 it can be seen how the views were distributed hourly from the creation of the Meme to the the point when the picture was taken. (15th of December – 16th of December).
Figure 2
As mentioned above Imgur was not the only website this meme was uploaded to. However Memes.com, Meme Center and 9Gag have their own hosting service. The views that were generated on Imgur are not connected with the other websites.
On Meme Center the Macro Image got 11 “likes”, 2 Facebook shares and 8 people have commented on it. Unfortunately it can not be seen how the views were distributed so I can not include any more data. In addition it should be noted that Memes.com, Meme Center and 9Gag are less populated communities than Reddit and Imgur and in my mind this is the reason why it did not spread effectively.
Figure 3
On 9Gag the Meme managed to get “34 points” (upvotes) and 2 people commented on it. See Figure 4
Figure 4
On Memes.com the macro image got the least attention. Only 30 views and 1 like. See Figure 5
Figure 5
In conclusion
Total amount of views (Imgur only) – 3,641
Total amount of likes – 96
Total amount of comments – 24
Total amount of favourites – 7
Total amount of shares – 2
With this Artifact I was relying on two vital elements – Originality and Remixes. This particular Meme is not something that is trending at the moment,on top of that there are thousands of Philosoraptor Macro Images out there, but it should be considered that well executed remixes of well known works can attract and even exceed the attention of the original work.
My first artifact is a short scene from the movie “V for Vendetta”. The movie itself was produced by Virtual studios, Silver Pictures, Anarchos Productions, StudioBabelsberg, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,DC Comics and Warner Bros. I used this specific scene from the movie because in my case I was looking for a dialogue where one of the characters asks “Who are you?”
The idea behind this:
This year the movie “22 Jump Street” was released and from this feature film, there is one catch phrase from one of the characters that went viral on the internet. The catch phrase is when the main character is introducing himself to a gang of criminals with a funny voice. People started editing different movies in which the original dialogue can be replaced with this buzzword “My name is Jeff”. These types of short edited videos can only work with the right material and the right time. At the current moment when I have created this short video the “My name is Jeff” thing was at its highest peak. Furthermore from what I learnt in class is that there are 6 high-arousal emotions which help in the making of content contagious. Personally I went for the “Joy” and “Surprise” emotions. Here is a list with all of the 6:
Joy – anything that’s positively uplifting
Surprise – go against expectations
Anxiety – potentially losing out
Awe – something remarkable
Anger – Challenging someone’s beliefs
The Original
V for Vendetta – My Name is Jeff
Examination
From many discussions with my classmates and my lecturers I have come to the conclusion that well composed, thought out and well planned strategy on how to reach the audience/target market with the right material is a media that could be considered spredable. My target market for this short sequence was everyone who liked the movie “22 Jump Street” or anyone in general on the internet who was up for a giggle. My main goal was to spread this video as much as I could, that is why I used the following technique: Uploading the video to only one website (in my case YouTube), then by creating multiple digital identities on different sites such as “Reddit”, “4Chan”, “9Gag”, “MemeCenter” and et cetera to promote my work. It is very important not to target everyone at the same time. This is why I first started with “MemeCenter” after 8 hours I have submitted it in “9Gag”. The next day I used the same technique with “4Chan”, “Reddit” and so on. On “Reddit” itself, I set upped different accounts for each “subreddid” that I was targeting. This is the so called term “reposting”, the only difference is that I am reposting the link to my video on YouTube through different accounts that I have personally created.
Analytics
My parody video was uploaded on YouTube on the 9th of December, 2014, by today (15th of December,2014) the video has reached in total of 2,946 views. See Figure 1
Figure 1
In demographic terms the video got the most views from the United States, following by United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. For more detailed representation in the matter of percentage measurement (100% in total) please see Figure 2
Figure 2 – Demographics
As mentioned above, the strategy that I applied worked out as planned. The Top playback locations for my video are 80% from the YouTube watch-page and 20% from embedded players on other websites. See Figure 3
Figure 3 – Top Playback Locations
The relative audience retention is pretty stable in this case. From Figure 4 it can be seen that there is an increasing point where the catch phrase is. In addition,I have conduced from seeing the absolute audience retention that 76% of the people have watched the video till the end (see Figure 5) If we take into account how nowadays the average internet user is going through open “Internet Browser Tabs”, I think I succeeded in grabbing the viewer’s attention.
Figure 4 – Relative audience retention
Figure 5 – Absolute audience retention
Concerning the playback devices on which the video was played showed obvious results. Computer is the leading device following the tablet and the mobile phone. See Figure 6
Figure 6 – Playback Devices
In conclusion
Targeting the right audience at the right time is the key element that I used in regards to making my media spreadable. I have done my research on what is trending at the moment, found the right place to submit my media, created multiple digital identities which I used to promote my work on various websites and most importantly I enjoyed doing all of this.
Special thanks to the Reddit and 4Chan community for their contribution. Without a doubt the biggest view count surge of the video came from them.
These DVD’s are for professionals and students and cover the knowledge of the underlying principles of sophisticated animation which apply to any style or approach to the medium, including computer, classical, games, stop motion and internet animation.
The Animator’s Survival Kit – Animated is about how things move, and specific work methods used to make characters live, breathe, think and give a sustained commanding performance. Williams demonstrates his points with drawing, performance and over 400 specially animated examples – many from his best-selling book. (Source)
You can buy the book from various sources, I would recommend Amazon’s market place for the hardcover (link). However if you want to have a portable version of the book (digital copy) you can buy it for your iPad on iTunes here.
In my opinion the best website with video tutorials.
Animation Tutorials to Bring Characters and Scenes to Life Learn powerful 3D animation software and how to create seamless animations from today’s creative professionals. Watch tutorials and training to learn proven 3D animation skills, techniques and workflows
Link for their Animation related tutorials can be found here
Yes, they are not free, but are totally worth it if you want to hit the industry as an animator (and not only). I know that there are a lot of video tutorials on YouTube, but from my personal experience I would go 10 out of 10 times with these guys. There, I’ve never heard the tutor telling his wife/girlfriend that he will pick up the kids later because now he’s doing some “tutoring” (for instance), every project is completed from start to finish, where as on YouTube I have watched tutorials that are only halfway done and if you don’t know how to finish it, you are basically stuck + you have wasted your time. In addition their customer support is brilliant.
CGSociety is managed by Ballistic Media and maintained by a group of 15 staff working from around the world. We are based in Australia with representatives in the USA and the UK. Our forums are guided by dedicated team of volunteer Forum Leaders spread around the globe. Our Forum Leaders are all industry professionals who generously share years of experience and wisdom with the CG Community. Ballistic Media also produces amazing Digital Art Books in partnership with the best digital artists in the world. Our company is a reflection of the community we maintain and we are proud of both. We value signal over noise, quality over quantity and people over product. We believe great places to work in are full of great people to work with.
We all have these days when inspiration is just nowhere to be found. Whenever I feel that way I simply go to their community and in no more than 30 minutes ideas are flying in my head and I am off to work.
That’s it, these are my Top 3 resources that helped me when I was just starting with animating. I really hope that this blog post will help someone who is currently in the same position that I was couple of years ago.
3D model of a Victorinox army knife that I have created using Maya. The inspiration behind this came when I received a real Victorniox knife as a gift.
This cat was on every big social network website, literally on every big social network. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin you name it, it was there. I remember there was a period of time when whenever I log into my Facebook account I see at least one post about “Grumpy Cat” on my news feed.
Have you ever wondered though, how did that cat became the internet celebrity that is today?
Well, the Grumpy Cat’s popularity originated from a picture posted to the social news website “Reddit” by Bundesen’s brother Bryan (the cat’s owner is Tabatha Bundesen) on September 22,2012. Afterwards the picture was transformed into a image macro (or the so called “Memes”) with grumpy captions. This is one of my favourites and it suits perfectly this time of the year.
As of today, “The Offical Grumpy Cat” on Facebook has over 7 million “likes”, on top of that the cat was featured on the front page, I repeat the front page of The Wall Street Journal on May 30, 2013 and on the cover of New York magazine on October 7,2013.
Now, lets cut the chase and get into some numbers.
Over the past two years, this cat has made approximately £64 million for its owner (yes, Bundesen have quit her job as a waitress and now manages her pet’s career full-time, with the help of Ben Lashes, a dedicated internet “cat agent”. Let me put it into perspective. This fluffy creature has made more money in the past two years than Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. On top of that “Grumpy Cat” already racked up a Christmas film, has her own coffee named “Grumpuccino” and a book.
Amazing article on how to create 3D realistic models. This particular model was created by Dan Roarty in tribute to his grandmother’s birthday. He explains his workflow and shares some light on his ways of rendering an object.
Walking, running, crouching, jumping, posing, moving objects with different weights and the good old pendulum movement are just some of the things a good animator should know how to do perfectly. Basically if you are applying somewhere for a position as an animator, the company that you are applying for will most likely ask you to do one of those exercises as part of your interview even if you have already submitted your portfolio. From these exercises an animator can be judged whether he understands the basic concepts of animation or not.
Here is a list of the the basic concepts that an animator should know how to do:
Like every job in the world, animating is not an easy thing. Sometimes you can get so angry that you will want to throw your laptop/desktop out of the window…
… but it can be very rewarding as well. Just think about it. Creating something that does not exists, something that in the beginning is just an square object like the one illustrated in the next picture …
(original content)
… to a highly detailed 3D model, which can be animated and do things that a real human being can not do.
Good news! Reddit has just announced “Reddit Made”, which is their equivalent of “Kickstarter”.
Now all of you product innovators can promote your products and ask for sponsorship with no upfront costs or risk. Basically you can promote almost anything, from unique T-shirt designs to some really oddly shaped mugs. Once you publish your innovation on Reddit Made you will have 30 days to get the desired amount of money you need to go into production mode (and again, this is completely free). If enough people pledge to buy your product then Reddit will walk you through every step of the process and will connect you to their network of quality sourcing partners. From there on if you have any profits you get to keep all of the money you have generated from your product. Moreover you will have the option to donate your profits to any organisation, charity, event, or individual so you can support other redditors or causes that matters most to you. A secure way to rise funds will be provided from Reddit and to pledge your payment will be as easy as pie. However you will not be charged a penny until the product reaches its goal. In the cases when the product you funded doesn’t reaches its goal you will not have to worry about your money because you will not be charged a single penny. Another thing that I really liked is that the campaign creators will not have access to any of your personal information, ever!
Right now Reddit Made is in open beta stage, so people who have any ideas for improvements, can contact Reddit using this form that can be found here.
If you want to create a campaign you can do it from here or if you want to browse the current active campaigns, you can find them here.
Dannik1 
