I admit that Joel's animated videos were the first to break into my feed, but mostly it's been the live-action stuff that really get me to belly laugh.
I think the best part of the animations is that it brought attention to your whole RU-vid library. It's such a delight to see how you started and where you're heading. Hope you have a great day Joel!
Same here, I was drawn in my the animations at the same time as everyone else, but the longer films are special. Drowning in Potential really clicked with me.
Reddit sent me via the RPG animation. I had the best time watching all your videos you published before that, and the best time watching everything since. It’s astounding that a turtle trapped in a human body can become so successful. I pray for Joel, still trapped in that fish tank.
I’m impressed with your talent and how humble you are. The fact that you developed a unique signature style (which IS cool, btw) and then showed everyone how to use your techniques is really something special. You’ve inspired a lot of people to learn a new talent. I’m also a self-taught video creator and animator and your artistry and tenacity is awesome 😊
Your animations are always really entertaining and silly, my favorite being Lanky Kong reacts to DK Rap. It was my favorite game growing up as a kid. However, Curiosity Killed the George is so unexpectedly well written that I cry every time I watch it and I think THAT'S what makes your content so good. You have such a great ability to teach lessons and touch so many peoples lives with your story telling.
You're making a difference and you're leaving a legacy beyond just your films. Your constant beating of the drum that everyone can and should create is forever and what you've started with the Oscars has been inspirational and influential. We love you ♥️
"I was doubtful because at that time I was just creating to create, because I kind of felt like I've made so much good stuff without getting attention that I just felt a little doomed and was like "ah whatever. I'm just enjoying, happy to make it." And lo and behold... suddenly these animations were something that people wanted from me." You give hope to those who feel doomed to keep creating. And do it because you love it. Thanks Joel. Mush Love 🍄💚📽
I make music and piano arrangements on my channel and have uploaded them over the years whenever I felt like it. There were multiple points where I felt I had an idea that was good and wanted to pursue that idea, but often times I would upload it with the hopes of gaining attention and it'd receive very little. Some of those ideas I still want to pursue but I've felt very discouraged by the lack of an audience. I recognize that the best thing for me to do is to just make things consistently. Upload arrangements, original music, and whatever else I feel like pursuing consistently and just have fun with it. The problem is that I've always felt that everything takes too much energy from me and it doesn't help that I have untreated adhd (still working out medication). This video has made me feel encouraged to not give up and to push myself to improve and be more consistent, so thank you for sharing :)
Joel, if it wasn’t for your Ebsynth tutorial, I would’ve never thought it was possible for me to make animations as a filmmaker that can barely draw his storyboards! (currently working on my first ebysynth animation project!).
surprised im just stumbling across this video now, but i really love all your endeavors and im really glad your animations funneled me into your other content. you have such a phenomenal charisma and passion and your personality applies to every piece of content you put out. love ya man, can't wait to see what you try in the future :)
What a wild and inspiring journey you've been on. I think your animated skits work so well too because they get to be fantastical while also perfectly capturing the essence of what makes your live action skits so great.
The first video I saw from you was the DK rap video. I watched it like 10 times in a row. Since then i have fallen in love all your content. And all the content and channels of everyone you work with. I cant tell you what a huge impact you have had on my mental health and how appreciative I am for that.
The RPG animation was the first video I saw (I know, I'm the only one), and I'll say it's probably the best experience I've had with Joel's videos. Because it was this slow burn of assuming it's this super high energy video with a unique animated style then it slowly descending into Joel's style of comedy realizing what the hero has done and an old man crying softly.
The level of effort you put into your animations will always astound and inspire me as an artist. So far everything I’ve released on RU-vid has sat at a couple hundred views, but knowing that these incredible shorts were the same makes it all feel worth it at the end of the day. Demented Scooby Trent is something I think about daily 😂
Quickly looking at your stuff it’s apparently so creative and well made, you’re already on great track. Also, you’re 15! That’s so young, you’ve got so much creativity and fun ahead of you! Don’t worry about the numbers and keep creating for the helluvit and you’ll be golden. I’ll try my best to give some videos of yours a proper watch sometime! Demented Scooby Doo Trent shall guide us.
59 yr old musician/hobby animator here... been watching your stuff for a while...did Claymation, manual rotoscoping (before computers and stop motion with 8 mm &16mm film (whiteboard screen and tracing)) back in college (80's) and got praise from my college animation professors in the mid 80's...received an award for a cell animation post-drop out...(dropped out to go on the road in a band (4.5 yr))… miss the old days of coming up with HOW TO DO IT!. nowadays we have all the tools, but sadly, feels like I'm out of ideas and time. I have all the tools for music and animation and no more drive... however, you're an inspiration to an old guy... it seems you're taking the "old school" method of using the free/available tools available to you're and making it work... plus your oddly specific sense of humor and timing makes it really work. you've inspired an older generation, so I'm sure you've inspired the younger. Stay real and keep making your art...it IS ART!... (pardon the ellipses and parenthesis... it's part of me)
I very rarely take the time to tell youtubers things like this, but I've got to say. You are TOP TIER as a youtuber and as a person. You do extremely well at popularizing (and pioneering) these techniques. You put out awesome energy and we can all tell you're having a great time with your friends, which contributes a lot to the videos. And your videos are well made technically. Artistically you have great and funny ideas. But best of all in my opinion, you are extremely personable and explain things reasonably. I don't just think of you as a source of entertainment, I actually see you as a good person and I want humanity generally to be more like you. Rock on.
Man, I’m early. Love to see these types of videos. I don’t know how it has come to this but you and Trent have seriously inspired me to create more and more, I have so much more hunger for this. Granted nothing has been public as of yet (it sucks), but I can’t wait to begin uploading next year. I grow artistically from each of these videos. I wish I could steal your integrity, your work ethic and quality. I want to create to create. I want to experiment every week. Fuck the numbers. Anyway. I love to see these rant videos. Makes me all giddy inside and excited about the future. Feel free to pump these out, if you want to of course.
So happy to hear we’ve inspired you to create!! Even if your stuff ain’t all there technically, it doesn’t suck! It’s all part of your creative learning and journey. Keep at it and you’ll approximate closer and closer to work you’re fully proud of.
I remember first seeing the RPG video you about 4k, and a couple of months later I recommended it to a friend of mine and was shocked to see your channel had grown so much. Congrats Joel. Oh yeah the Lords of the Fallen was great- loved the concept
The galactic emperor skit is probably the best example of mitigating production costs It provides a utilitarian solution to suspending disbelief since live action skits add depth of field to what the viewer registers on screen Even in this video, I was drawn to the healthbar plushie in the background and my mind wandered to the time I shared that video with my older sister Animation is a powerful tool, allowing you to emphasize and distinguish elements as quickly as can be seen or heard I mean, your costume in both that and dinglemire is just you with shorts and an odd head shape, but the plain shot put you dead center. Captivating the show. Before you know it, Trent is on screen adding his own flavor and I'm not concerned about what to glean from his expression or what his feet are doing Its just like "do you want some water?" and I'm laughing already
in my years on youtube i always found strange that a channel has "only 300" subscribers and then suddenly it's 1 million. yes, that's how a channel grows, but i always felt weird about those 300, they found a gem but for some weird reason they are the only people that know about it... well, i'm still glad to have found you when the algorithm pushed the rpg video c:
Thank you joel. I am currently trying my throw my own ideas against a wall and hopefully one day something sticks. This video was perfect timing for me and I am trying not to worry on the views but rather make the best videos i can make. Thank you.
You've certainly inspired many creators, including myself, and I thank you Sir for sharing the EbSynth software. You're a talented man, and we are lucky to have the pleasures of your creative entertainment.
I found the channel, and stayed for the animations. But after being subbed for awhile I explored all the content and they're all fun. If the animations stopped or disappeared, I wouldn't notice.
I think people can really tell how much fun you're having making these, and that genuineness is always going to attract people. I know it was the animations that originally drew me in, but I have enjoyed so many of the videos you have posted over the years, and I hope you keep enjoying it for years more!
I was one of those 3200 people! Actually I wasn't because I didn't use the subscribe thing on youtube yet. But I was there! I remember seeing one of your live action skits for the first time and being like, wait is that the same guy who did the RPG animation? And now there's like, a million people watching them. It's crazy.
As someone who found your stuff when I saw that first RPG animation on reddit, I remembered being amazed by the quality of pretty much all your content. That consistency is a real inspiration. Kungo the pool boy, the job interview, and thor the dark world were all just amazing. There's something about the way moments are held in your films, especially the older ones, that kind of reminds of Kafka, both with the unaddressed weird/surreal subtext and how you visually frame the scenes. Caleb and his self-imprisonment really convey those existential feels to me. Thanks for all the amazing content to consume. Also the full quote is, "Jack of all trades, master of none, is still better than a master of one."
As someone with personal connections to more traditional animators (both 2D and 3D), as well as people who have used your ebsynth style, it has been really interesting to see how it has opened the door for new people to explore the visual language of animation. I don't wanna use phrases like "democratizing animation" or whatever bc that's a little too AI art bro sounding for me. imo the ebsynth style is something wholly new and unique, that is itself extremely valuable, without devaluing the incredible amounts of dedication and effort traditional animation styles demand. Both have uniquely different roles to play. Maybe this is all pretty obvious and self-evident but it's been something I've thought about a lot, and just wanted to thank you for helping add another tool to everyone's artistic toolbox.
I remember I got recommended the Scooby Doo video and didn't really get it, maybe a week later your RPG video blew up and I was like "Oh it's the guy!" I'm really happy about your success Joel, I hope you continue to go further :)
I personally know that some traditional animators and even some well known masters (like Milt Kahl or Toshiyuki Inoue) are completely uninterested in telling their own stories or in some cases don't even like to draw, seeing Joel's goal of using the medium as a tool to tell stories in a way that is unachievable (or incredibly expansive) in live action and not just a way to make pretty pictures is surprisingly rare these days. Love seeing the animations, great stuff! As a side note I suggest watching Fleischer's Superman and On-Gaku: Our Sound for some rotoscoped fun
Joel, I meet you because of the RPG's animations, they simple appeared in my video suggestions. Since then, i became a fan of everything you do! The way you craft your art is inspiring and impacts people from all over the world. Keep pushing! Greetings from Brazil.
I’ve always thought the reason you’re animations got so many more views is bc there’s a huge subset people who discovered you through the RPG video and just never even considered watching a different type of video from you, bc they enjoyed that one thing and that’s all they think they want from your channel. I know there’s some people I’m subscribed to that I have that relationship with, there’s a particular type of video that’s all I know I like from them and I never am drawn to branch out so I don’t even know what I’m missing. Which is funny, bc as someone who watches all of your videos pretty much every week, I know that some of your funniest and most creative content is in that form and I feel bad for the ppl who don’t know what their missing! Not sure if this is helpful outsider intel or not heheh but this could be the reason.
Those three years "wasted" seems to be three years well spent. It appears that you, along with the crew, really enjoyed every bit of the process and everyone damn well enjoyed every video done. Gotta love the style that the animations have to offer. Keep up the good work Joel!
As an artist with many different media interests, I am so inspired by how you can do both fun animation and clever live action sketches, and I also enjoy your longer pieces. I have aharder time watching a movie in one setting, but I'm just glad you get to do all the stuff you love. The joy you take in your creations always shows :)
I'm so glad I discovered your channel! I saw the Scooby Doo one first, and it's been one of my favorite videos to watch at least once every other month. The RPG one of my all time favorites that I just loved so much I shared with my animator friend at the time while he was going for his animation degree. You have been nothing more than the utmost fun person on RU-vid and the crossover with Wizards with Guns is also just great. Thank you for every form of content you produced that's made me smile each and every way!
I'm really glad your mom was right about your RPG video... It was how I found your channel, and it was so good, I decided to look into the other stuff you had done, and of course I watched your other animations first and really enjoyed The Giant... Then I stumbled across Pretend That You Love Me and that film really resonated with me (it kind of feels to me like what The Postal Service was describing in Clark Gable), and it may be to this day my favorite thing I have ever watched on RU-vid... I rewatch it every few months, and I honestly can't believe that wasn't the thing that caused your channel to blow up... As much as I like your more silly videos, I enjoy your more emotional, awkward and real stuff the most... A Little Film About Love, Curiosity Killed the George, Drowning in Potential and We Have to Leave Here Together are some of my other favorites of yours... You have a real talent for thought provoking film making, and I feel like I was lucky to find your stuff among the massive amount of content on RU-vid, and I'm really happy you didn't just stick strictly with the funny animations once they started bringing in massive amounts of views...
Thanks for being so consistent and for sharing your journey in real time, so to speak. I hope more creative minds are born from your willingness to share your passion. Love ya, Joel.
You were very smart with only using the animation to create fantastical worlds. I think it's the strongest aspect of the animations. You know that by watching one you'll be drawn into a playful colourful world
As an animator, I strongly believe that what he says at 3:00 is exactly the reason why people animate. At some point in every animation production, the creators have to ask themselves "why do we choose animation instead of live action?". A very viable reason could be that the otherworldly environments and sets are easier to obtain when you have to draw them, instead of building a set or CG environment. Well done for asking that question from your intuition, Joel!
Keep doing what your muse pulls you towards. I've enjoyed everything you've put out, one way or another. Total privilege to see it all unfold in real time.
I love most of your content, including collabs, and the people you work with. But one of the coolest thigs ive seen you do was teaching everyone how to do that animation style, and encouraged other people to do it. Alot of people did, and some great laughs came from those videos. You are a very creative person, as long as you keep doi what you like you will be successful, not just financially, but in every personal regard.
I love your films Joel, along with your animations. I found you through animation but your improv skits are hilarious. Keep creating however you want, im just glad i found you
I think I came across you from being recommended “Speedrunner through an NPC perspective” which I think is a really fun idea. I know I have see. Some other stuff visualizing gamer weirdness, but focus on the NPC perspective was new to me, and the weird animation, and the different small creative choices. Also you come across as a very honest and cool dude, like doing explainer video on your style - your focus is on your own improvement, not trying to gatekeep. I was so surprised tracing and video was even part of the process. Best of luck in your future endeavors!
"I sort of trained my audience" hell yeah you did, great work man, like a lot of people I found you through the animations but I love almost everything you make now.
It blows my mind that I was one of 100 people watching the old animations. I have no idea what caused youtube to recommend you to me back then, but I'm glad it did. The algorithm turned me on to a guy called Jeremy Covering the other day who just does covers of 90s songs by himself, and I'm hoping he blows up and becomes the Joel Haver of 90s covers
