Animation on the Internet

[DrampardonMe]

It's quite possible I'm not looking in the right places, or maybe I've just been conditioned to only check YouTube, but I don't think indie stuff/passion projects lasting longer than a college endeavor are as prevalent as they used to be. I understand there are a lot of reasons, like platforms being rigid/unrewarding, people getting animation gigs, the fact that animation is hard work, general burnout, and so on, but it's still a shame.

It's obviously not exclusively an animation issue, but far be it from me to complain about the lack of free, high-effort cartoons/anime/whatever else at this point. Trust me, I have a hard enough time building up energy to finish any comics more than a few panels in length, let alone one of nice quality, and I'd argue comics (the way I do them, at least) aren't even an eighth of what animators have to do (though it's probably not a fair comparison, or fair to word it that way...) so I have mad respect for any who still makes an effort despite the odds and/or their upload schedule.

Like I said, I might be under a rock on this issue, so if the winds are changing, I'd like to know! What are some of your favorite projects or animators-- past, present, or whatever's in the works? They don't have to be fancy or plot-driven, mind you-- I enjoy a good Homestar Runner cartoon whenever the Bros. Chaps are able to get them out!-- but on the subject, and on something relatively more recent, I've seen a bit of Monkey Wrench, and it's pretty cool so far. I think the second episode's probably my favorite.

Addendum: I know Newgrounds is still around, and I even ended up watching something there today... which was a video game trailer that aired on YouTube months ago. How many projects end up on YouTube before anywhere else these days, or else get crossposted? In the trailer's case, it was one of those "Hi, I'm the animator and this was cool, now I can share it!" deals, but how many Newgrounds-ers are on Newgrounds for the long haul? I'm sure there are quite a few, but I'm guessing (for reasons I mentioned previously) you want to get as much reach for your stuff in that line of work, so posting across platforms seems almost inevitable.

Might as well ask if anyone on PKMN.net dabbles in animation, too. I'm curious.