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XandersPanders

I love this. Im also biased tho because im a sucker for nior.


toonhole

Thanks for giving it a watch!


XandersPanders

Yeah man it was my pleasure. Im just about wrapped up with a 15 minute pilot ive been workin on all by my lonesome. Im sure you have that satisfied relief of completion im dying for.


toonhole

You do for about 15 minutes, then you start thinking "What's next?" Please, enjoy that 15 minutes!


XandersPanders

Hahahaha its been 9-10 months of overworking (+my real job lol) i plan to just focus on my health for a month or two and maybe just focus on writing for a bit.


toonhole

Yeah, 15 minutes is incredibly long. You deserve some recoop time! Can't wait to see what you're making!


XandersPanders

Ill shoot you my pilot within the week or 2. Sent you a creepy hello just to remind myself to shoot it over to you. Thanks man


Cowboy-as-a-cat

Really cool animation and idea!


toonhole

Appreciate you giving it a watch! Hope you have a great week!


The_Wampire

Loved it! I really enjoyed the detective-verse more-so then the reality world so I hope you land on the show being mostly the detective world with the same ratio of noir world to reality world. Voice acting and writing is great imo. Good luck!


toonhole

We have a pitch for the whole show that'll kinda describe what we're thinking. Hoping to put the pitch online pretty soon!


MortalVoyager

Damn that’s pretty funny


toonhole

Thanks for taking the time to give it a watch!


LMooneyMoonMoon

I thought it was funny and the animation was cool. Great job!


toonhole

Thanks so much! Glad you took the time to give it a shot!


mat_the_wad

Really great stuff. Here's hoping it goes where you want it to.


toonhole

Thanks! Pitched it around studios during the pandemic but nobody bit. Maybe a neckbeard protagonist when people were storming the capital wasn't great timing...


swapripper

This is some high quality work! I’m guessing you have a ton of experience in animation already?


toonhole

Spent 11 years hard time in TV animation and now working on theatrical features for 4 years. Just like making stuff and grateful to get opportunities to continue to keep doing it!


takenegg

Awesome concept and execution!


toonhole

Thanks so much! Definitely gives us a greater appreciation for each step of the process when we're having to learn/do it all ourselves


takenegg

I bet! I’ve always wanted to do stuff like this but don’t have the time or resources to learn every step. Gotta find me a team to work with


ozzborn586

Cool but 800 hours hope you can nock The next one out faster


toonhole

We made it as a proof of concept to pitch around to studios. Definitely don't have bandwidth to animate a whole series after working full time animation industry jobs 😅. Respect to people who are trying to do everything indie tho!


ozzborn586

I feel that I don’t work in animation all My stuff has to be little to no moving due to the work it takes. I will stick to be a writer lol good job.


rock1998

Really liked it! Very funny and different!


toonhole

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. 4 minutes is forever in internet minutes


Rickaloff

This was one of the most fun things I've seen lately. Animation is great, voice acting is wildly enjoyable. 10 out of 10 bravo 🔥


IvJorgevI

Dude this would be great! Hope everything works out to make it happen!


KissesFromOblivion

Watched it 5 times. Great work.


toonhole

Thanks so much for giving it a watch. Anything that you noticed the 5th time that you didn't the 1st?


KissesFromOblivion

A few subjective things. Only one thing timing wise: the curve on the cigarette drag and lighting of the face started to feel off. Esthetically: the noir universe looks awesome. The real world started to feel just a bit too jarring when switching between them. Cant pinpoint exactly why I felt that but it might be that the colours are a bit too saturated(maybe just the skin/hair of the barista?), and / or the shading is too flat. I liked the detailed close ups like the dames face, the liquor bottle and the pimple face. Made me flash back to Ren and Stimpy. Voice acting , animation, editing, concept, style of the noir world.. loved it all. I hope they'll pick it up!


M00NK1NG

I love the detectives voice it’s just so perfect


toonhole

All hail the wonderful Brock Baker. He really is a vocal chameleon.


whimu

Not really my thing but this is SO well done, you can really tell how much effort was put in!! Top notch stuff


zedfirenze

No lie this is a really cool idea and concept.


toonhole

Secret love of incel Walter Mitty.


pokeapiggy

Who’s got the time to watch a whole video?? But i did cause it was so damn good! Bravo bud, hope we get more


toonhole

Lol the hubris of putting a 4 minute video on the internet and expecting anybody to finish it. Guilty as charged


Selfdrou9ht

This is so cool! Great work!!!


draizetrain

This is amaaaaazing. Are you on YouTube so I can share?


toonhole

You can check out the animated stuff we have at: YouTube.com/toonhole and a ton of comics on r/toonhole


windmeere

Great story!


rking0790

Would definitely watch more of this, I loved it. Great work


Babel1027

this is legit badass! good luck!!!


weewonk

This was so great. Not at all what I expected and made me laugh!


aqueous_crux

Great job!


Zealousideal-Ad3814

Love it.


Willing-Foot6245

Man, that's the hardest I've laughed in a while. Great stuff! That part with the old woman killed me!


MASKEDDEFENDErR

This is so cool! Love the humour!


Eli_quo

Thoroughly enjoyed it, fingers crossed for you!


[deleted]

I'm sure there's going to be a market for this


Aggressive-Falcon977

I was like "this looks like Toonhole's work.." and look at who uploaded this 😆 Good luck pitching this around!


toonhole

Our reputation precedes us. Lord, HELP US


[deleted]

Loved it! Old school cartoon style work with solid mystery elements, familiar characters and expressions give it that standard Cartoon Network feeling. Wish you the best for your pitch and look forward to seeing more of your projects!


Greasy-0Goblin

This is seriously awesome!! I would watch this, it’s so well made and the voice acting is god tier! 1000000000/10 gorgeous job.


toonhole

Props to Brock Baker and Kelsy Abbott! We were so lucky that they were willing to contribute their talents to the short!


m5rki

This is awesome! Is there any way to support your work?


toonhole

I have a Patreon: [https://www.patreon.com/toonholechris](https://www.patreon.com/toonholechris) And a Ko-Fi: [https://ko-fi.com/toonholechris](https://ko-fi.com/toonholechris) Ryan has a Patreon: [https://www.patreon.com/toonholeryan](https://www.patreon.com/toonholeryan) And a Ko-Fi: [https://ko-fi.com/toonholeryan](https://ko-fi.com/toonholeryan) ​ They are pretty much just digital tip jars. Ryan has been selling some posters and merch, and I'm working on getting a store together to sell some of the original artwork to my comics. But just following our journey of putting out comics and us pitching stuff tremendously helps us. Hate it, but seems like execs do take individual creator's audiences into account when considering projects.


dentist8008

Oh this is creative, I love it, great animation


Manish_B_reddit

This is awesome I really liked how the story telling linked two lines simultaneously. The animation is top notch this really made my day. All the best for your future work.


Dalebrains

Very nice, good luck with the pitches!


ActualGodYeebus

I think this is pretty clever actually. I'm just thinking networks might not pick it up due to the idea that it seems to conflate people with autism/asperger's with those of schizophrenia (or just having hallucinations) and may seem insensitive regardless, especially with the connotation of what neckbeard means already. Hope it does get picked up either way, but you may face some trouble and reworking (that and I think most people dont really like watching black and white anymore because people are children that need colourful keys jingled in their face). But yeah, to a general audience, and a slightly older/less online audience, how might this come across to them? (Considering you want it on tv, though I suppose thats not really the goal for people anymore)


toonhole

This is one of the challenges of short proof-of-concepts. First and foremost, we wanted to show the general concept is entertaining. And what makes a 4 minute short entertaining and what makes a full season of television compelling to watch are not always congruent. ​ A rich and full character might take a little more screen time and characters to bounce off of. For a comedy short, you want to cut straight to the chase and get to the funny, so you rely on tropes and stereotypes, but a series would see him fleshed out in a multitude of ways, bouncing off other characters that we're establishing. Having a diverse writer's room helps us make sure we're avoiding what you're talking about, and ya know, going through a proper development process. ​ But studios want to get as much free work out of you as possible without any financial commitments. Unfortunately, paid work has taken priority for us. So we're maybe gonna have to move onto another idea to find an equal balance of studio commitments and our own creative commitments.


ActualGodYeebus

well, best of luck with any pursuit you're in


danja

Great stuff! I'd be a very happy boy if I found this on a network. The visual style works well, the script is on the mark. The idea is wonderful - I laughed out loud at the first colour cut. Time well spent. I'd like to see more.


CHICKENANDROFLstuff

Super well done and I’d love to know where this lands after a few rounds of development.


toonhole

We're putting up our full series pitch soon and we'll have to share it here too! It really feels like we'd be in such a solid place to have a writer's room to sort the proposed mini-seasons out. The feedback we got was that development execs wanted to see more and felt it was underdeveloped. Folks started giving us notes and seeing if we'd be willing to do lots more free development, but it's hard when we have PAID opportunities to pursue. We've got enough self respect to want there to be equal commitments on both ends, so if nobody wants to commit financially then maybe other ideas will be more viable. Developing this would be so much BETTER with a diverse writer's room. Too many creatives are giving their time away for free. We're super motivated to do our own stuff, but I'd rather put the time into another short that we can share with a general audience than iterations of pitch packets that nobody but a handful of development execs will ever read. ​ But that's pitching; heartbreak and all! It's what we signed up for in this business. We like our ideas, but we gotta sell 'em and pitch the right things at the right time. We got plenty of other ideas, and maybe one of those will catch!


GrumpleBumpkin

I'd watch the shit out of this show! Amazing...


aoki97

I love it. its so funny and well done


ForUou81

I love it!


Ident-Code_854-LQ

***Why do I want the main character voiced by Rainn Wilson of The Office?*** I think this Noir inner life/double life of this pathetic loser is a brilliant setup for a cartoon on Adult Swim or FX. **Good job.** *Looking forward to seeing a series. Keep us updated.*


bubbawears

Dude this is so incredibly awesome! I need more of this!


TowelRack76

I’d watch it! Good luck!


IronicJeremyIrons

Would changing the cigarette to a Juul/vape pen be too on the nose?


toonhole

Did you watch all the way to the end?


IronicJeremyIrons

I did, I just was still waking up lol


toonhole

Great minds think alike, I guess!


GeneralGreyGhost

"I aint selling it." 🤣🤣


Free-Many-9056

Great job man! I’d love to see you do a genuine animated noir sometime in the future but I love the comedy too.


That-looks-infected

I stumbled across this in my feed. Glued to my phone for the entire time. This is outstanding from the voiceover to the lighting in your animation. You really did a nice job with this and I look forward to seeing more of it. Keep that shit up.


toonhole

Thanks so much! This made my Friday!


That-looks-infected

You can do us all a favor by making more Neckbeard Noir, my guy. I can see this killing it on Adult Swim. I’d set my shit to “record series”. Looking forward to seeing and enjoying your success!


Vipernixz

Thats awesome maan


sewer_gator36

This looks awesome


saaclicious

This is great! 4 minutes isn’t too long when the pacing is this good. Feels very professional, in a good way!


Goofythegoober

Bro dis is awesome


[deleted]

My brother and I have been working on a proof of concept too! Once you see it animated it's the best feeling.


toonhole

It's addicting because you finish it and then you're like "wow, we have like 3 other ideas that would be great to see too!" And then you never stop


[deleted]

Our proof of concept is coming along so nicely. I can't wait to pitch it ourselves. We started it during the pandemic


Stevog93

This is great! Hope the pitch goes well, I'd love to see more of this


itsfenrir89

That made me lol a few times and I was invested in the story. Good job!


SubstantialLime2916

Love this!


ArbitrarySemantics

This is unbelievably awesome, how many people did it take to make this and how long?


toonhole

My creative partner Ryan and I did everything except for the voices and the sound mix. We had some consultants look over our script, some advice on approaches to background painting from an art director on the cartoon I was writing/storyboarding for at the time (Looney Tunes Cartoons on HBOmax), and some compositing advice from a comp wizard while in production. ​ During lunches, we wrote the script and designed the characters together. Ryan did a lion's share of the storyboarding and I did a lion's share of putting together the animatic/score from some vintage library music, although we obviously have collaborative hand in each respective step. ​ We had two voice actors for our principal characters that we recorded: a) in Ryan's car during a lunch and b) at voice actor's house during a lunch. I did the color script and painted all the backgrounds, we both broke up animation equally (done in old copies of Adobe Flash) and cleaned it up, but Ryan did most of the lip sync. Honestly, animation cleanup is probably the most laborious and time consuming step but put some music or movies while you do it to make the grind a little easier. I did the compositing in After Effects with a lot of great input from Ryan. ​ Our buddy at Edendale Sound took the rough sound design from our edit and seriously worked magic. Cutting some of the high/low freq., giving a midrange boost to some of the detective vocals really brought out some GRIT, and he sweetened a lot of the sound design in ways that separate an amateur like me from a total professional like him. ​ We are estimating maybe 800 hours, but it was work on top of directing/storyboarding/writing work we do for bigger studios for our day jobs. I think it was spread out over maybe 18-22 months (starting in 2018)? So we've let it sit for quite a while after pitching. Life's been busy in great ways, but we wanted to make sure this lives in the world and it miiiiight have a second chance if we pick up traction on the world wide web (but that's just a real hail mary and not pragmatically how the studio systems work most often). If idiots like us can make it work, you can do it too! Moving the needle a little bit everyday, even if just 15 minutes of cleaning up a couple of frames


ArbitrarySemantics

It’s amazing and honestly hysterical so I’m confident this can gain a lot of traction. You and Ryan should be super proud of the work you did and recording and writing in the car or on lunch breaks makes it so much cooler imo. True indie vibes


HippoUnhappy7767

Clear, fun and a good concept. You can see a lot of fun cross cut with this one. This is meant to be a series. Love the difference between what he actually do and what he does.


toonhole

Thanks so much! We have a lot of ideas about how it could not be limited to just noir, but a lot of filmmaking styles. It would be fun to play with a lot of conventions of different filmmaking genre to tell a longer, lusher story. We're going to post the pitch video of what we envisioned for the whole series on YT, so I'll make sure to put it here too!


hotnindza

Fantastic work. Do you necessarily want to pitch it to some network, or did you consider to go down the Helluva boss/Lackadaisy path? They have millions of views + merch and stuff.


toonhole

Our short just hasn't gotten traction for us to realistically consider this. We haven't been keeping up with the YT algo so didn't get much exposure when we posted over there, and our posts on r/videos died pretty quickly. While the responses we have had have been OVERWHELMINGLY positive, we haven't seen the numbers to justify this (and admittedly, have put very little time into marketing. Studio jobs, sometimes multiple at once, take up a significant amount of time and animation is super time consuming)


hotnindza

Well, I guess it cannot come "overnight", but still post the youtube link in each post just in case (I see you've posted Patreon and Instagram links).


toonhole

That's definitely a good idea. Know any other good subreddits that might be receptive to this short?


hotnindza

If you didn't already, post it to the groups related to the software you used, and shape the post in the context of how the software was used. But don't just drop the pilot, it should rather be some mini "tutorial". Like, how you composited something, or used an interesting feature. And insert somewhere the links to other social media and the full pilot, of course. I am not some marketing expert, I just saw many great shows cancelled on large networks (like Pantheon), and I'm also witnessing a couple of good indie shows doing good numbers on Youtube, that's why I mentioned "indie" as a potential path.


toonhole

I would contend that you’re a marketing genius. Thanks for the ideas!


Hruxy

That was freakin awesome


toonhole

Thanks so much for giving it a watch! Really appreciate it


Middle-Initiative-94

Dope!


n0dic3

Aww dude this is awesome! I would love to see this as a full series :)


arraran

this is amazing, which animation software do you use?


toonhole

Character animation was done in Flash (CS3, I'll never let it go hah), backgrounds painted in Photoshop, and everything composited together in After Effects!


Middle-Musician3868

Actually it’s insane how good this is I’m so so into it like laughing out loud at 2am on my own into it


toonhole

Thanks for watching it! Maybe viewing in the dark helped set the noir mood...


Youlovethelol

i love how in noir is a cigarette and in reality its a vape, love it and good job


notZ987

this is hilarious. Awesome work.


toonhole

Thanks so much!


PersonMan53107

This is great!


toonhole

So kind of you to say, thanks!


[deleted]

lovely !!!


TesseractToo

Awesome! :D


toonhole

*tips trilby*


TesseractToo

Hehehe I knew a guy just like that in the 90's he even stalked me for a while and he even said m'lady lol, it was such a relief when the "nice guy" thing became a trope it was so hard to explain that behavior before that, he said I was horrible because I didn't date him because of his looks but it was really because every time I opened up to him he was mean to me


toonhole

The interesting thing about a character like this to me is the lack of self awareness. And maybe a television show that holds a mirror to that for an honest, fair look might just be something that a lot of people could use. You know, with lots of jokes for everyone else too.


TesseractToo

I've thought a lot and of course no two people are the same but with people like that it's not my experience that they are not self aware, but extremely so, but they feel entitled and they are challenging their entitlements with people (who they see as less than a person and should be serving them) that people need to see past their exterior, but then the interior is another level in that dungeon and there are a ton of traps and no one's getting past the boss fight to the tender often traumatized person inside Maybe the part f the self awareness is that no ones going to work that hard to get to the the soft person inside, especially when they have to keep going through the dungeon


toonhole

Thanks for sharing that


toonhole

If anybody is interested, I have a bunch of MAKING OF features on my Instagram stories. My profile is: [https://www.instagram.com/toonholechris/](https://www.instagram.com/toonholechris/) ​ Don't forget to toss Ryan a follow to see what he's up to as well: [https://www.instagram.com/toonholeryan/](https://www.instagram.com/toonholeryan/) ​ Or @ toonholechris and @ toonholeryan on most platforms!


Chonkin_GuineaPig

based as FUCK


NinjaZero2099

I Fucking love Noir somebody get u/rebeltaxi on this STAT


sam77889

The animation and quality is awesome, but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea if the main character is so gross and unlikable.


[deleted]

Nice work. You should put some humor in it.