Ideas

Have you heard of Sketchpad on http://www.lunchtimers.com? It is quite cool with at least a few dozen people there sketching at any one time. So maybe making the sketches more permanent would be the way to go? Also, users should be allowed to vote for their favourite storyline, characters, etc... All in all, great idea!!! Especially now when consumers are sick of being fed mass media and crave for something different.

i think several of this idea were submitted in CH...and seems already existed..i'll try to google...

Thanks saigon, I did a quick search and couldn't find much. Let me know what you find.

mcX- yes, it would be more than just people sketching at the same time. (though that would satisfy my desire to just doodle sometimes...) The goal would be to create animations that end up being short films. So animations with story and flow.

So the person starting a project would be the "director" and people can join the project to add to the end result. If you are familiar with Source Forge, think like that but making animated movies instead of software. Plus there would be powerful but freely available software to make the animations, splice them together and add sound.

BTW, this idea generates revenue in the typical website way... through advertising. Videos viewed would have a brief video (5 seconds) or single screen from the sponsors. This would include videos that get embedded in blogs and other web pages. (So advertisers would have a broad reach as people start sharing their videos)

perhaps its:
http://www.cambrianh...er/ideas-id/jFFBVjt/

or something like this:

http://www.dfilm.com/live/home.html
http://www.funnytimes.com/playground/

and this one is a blog:

http://www.makezine....w_to_make_an_19.html

i forgot to ask you business model by the way....

The first link from CH is not quite it. That idea was for comic strips, which are static images on panels. This is animation like looney toons or anime animation.

The second link has some good ideas, but I think it limits creativity too much. I would want it to be more open ended.

The third link is more or less like the first link... multi panel comics.

The last line is getting to the idea. This your classic animation drawn frame by frame. Users on the site would do something similar and collaborate on short films. Animation takes a long time and is well suited to group collaboration. Some people can focus on the backgrounds, maybe another person on another character and so on. And because it would be a group effort, everyone would be proud of the work and share the video.

When they share it a small add that goes with the mood of the piece will be included in the final piece. It might even be user selectable for the mood of the piece. Say they set it to funny, the advertisement might be for a funny movies coming out soon.

I pulled out some of the videos in the comments of that blog for everyone's viewing pleasure:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.c...;/param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CPtV1Ca2T4E" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.c...;/param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iGj8Sb1PWng" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.c...;/param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xmH0t6OFAOM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.c...;/param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TT_jLYxQtCY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

oops, no embedded movies... here are all the links

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=Juod1vENFPQ
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=xmH0t6OFAOM
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=CPtV1Ca2T4E
http://www.youtube.com/v/iGj8Sb1PWng
http://www.youtube.com/v/TT_jLYxQtCY

How will this make money?

It will make money from advertisements embedded in the animations. These advertisements will precede the animations. Look at the video on cnet for an example of what I mean.

Ccozad has the best ideas ever. He should like write a book.

right.... I'll get right on that ;)

glitter_ducky is an example of what happens when your real life friends join... they take it upon themselves to harass you :)

hmmm...youre a very good addition 2 CH!
I like your ideas...

hmmmmmmm

let me think about this idea more.

Thinking is good :) Let me know if there is anything I can clarify. I would also love to hear any suggestions you have to make it a stronger idea.

A fun idea. I think you'll have to consider carefully where to pitch it - a bit of fun with an easy-to-use engine and a fluffy interface, or something more powerful but serious like sourceforge, which you mentioned?

Obviously, the hardest part will be producing the online tools necessary for creating a video. Coding it all yourself would be a monster task, but I don't know how much you'd be able to borrow from elsewhere without licensing issues. Bandwidth and storage space could also be a problem, given the size of video files.

yes, bandwidth and storage could be quite an obstacle. New advances are coming everyday so I think this barrier would reduce with time.

I was thinking both fun and easy AND powerful :) (well not at the same time) Your comment made me think and I think it would make sense to have a basic and an expert mode available.

This IBM developerWorks article gives me hope that building animations on the fly from a web interface is within reach.

http://www.ibm.com/d...php-flash/index.html

whats the advantage of a collaboration website, when major companies do let art depart and HRd outsource the whole project anyway and submiTted via online too?

This is collaborative because animation takes work to do and people may not have have mastered all of the skill sets of creating an animation (or they may only like to work with music or drawings)

This site would not be for commercial projects. So this is not a place that companies go to to submit animation work they want done. This is more like a you tube, where animations are made for pure fun and entertainment.

This gives people something do and gives them something "cool" to place on their blog/myspace/web page, just like people do with you tube videos right now.

Check out FilmFunder.com or Filmlot.com

Thanks Gods_Light. That sight sounds pretty cool with their community fund raising work. FilmLot sounds more or less like a place to gather funds and then distribute the final product., not so much the actual making of the content. (which my idea focuses on, making the content)

Users could make the their animation based movie using my idea above and then go to film lot to raise money to pay for an ad free version that they can distribute and market. It certainly would be worth looking into ... maybe even have an area on the site for animations that have an intent to sell.

If filmlot does move into the tool space, then making this site would place the business in a good position to be bought out. Getting a technology going can be as profitable (or more profitable) than dealing with the day to day troubles of then marketing that technology.

It's been done. Too bad, it would be a great project. Good luck.

Dutch_Vincent, do you have a link? I would love to see it. Then maybe I can adjust the "secret sauce" to compensate for problems previous sites have come across.

ccozad gave me an idea for a business. I made $3000 in two weeks, it was so awesome. Ccozad is a wizkid! However, now I have gone bankrupt and can't even afford to pay my light bill. i'm onto you, ccozad.

glitter_ducky, stop harassing me... or...I won't come over anymore... unless you are serving cookies again :)

and I'm onto YOU....

This is a great idea! I know many talented drawers/animators here in denmark, and a site like that would be very useful.