Individual cartoon need a link

Flash

China is full of individual cartoon makers. These people usually have a day job, but enjoy making cartoons on their own in their spare time. Some of these animations, such as Kungfu Rabbit, have become internet sensations.

This is Kungfu Rabbit and his "enemy".

People went crazy for them as soon as they appeared on the internet.

The maker Li Zhiyong is a teacher at the School of Animation at Communications University of China. He makes cartoons in his spare time with help from his students and friends.

Li Zhiyong, Individual cartoon maker, CUC, School of Animation, said, "Individual cartoons are only made in China's academies. This is because only students don't have to think about money when they create something. We make cartoons the way we want. We don't have any restrictions. That's why we call them individual cartoons. That's the reason why I choose to stay at this school."

Busy with teaching, Li doesn't have much time to make cartoons. There are currently only three episodes of Kungfu Bunny. Not enough to sell commercially.

Li says there's no official source of funding to encourage cartoon makers in China.

Li Zhiyong, said, "Individual cartoon makers usually release their works at animation festivals. They can get feedback on their works at these events. In some countries, there are outlets to assist individual cartoon makers to help them make money. There is nothing like that here. We do it all alone."

Apart from Kungfu Bunny, there are a lot of other good individual cartoons made in high quality at low cost. They range from comedy, experimental, emotional... some even reflect real life.

Many of these works have gone on to win awards, but like Kongfu Bunny they couldn't be produced on a large scale, and ended up only being released on the Internet.

Gao Jin, Qiyi.com, said, "We provide a platform for individual cartoon makers and s! tudents. Some of them have good products but no channel to air them on. I think Internet can play an important role."

Internet and new media are avenues for individual cartoons to connect with the public. It's something that hasn't been tried before in the Chinese animation industry. But these individual cartoons still need to find a way to rival the production quality of commercial animation if they are ever to turn a profit on their creations.