How long do you estimate it'll take to "reboot" an animation channel? [NSFW and long post warning]

Cromartie

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It shows in my "related channels" playlist, it shows in the fanbase I attract , and it especially shows in some of my earlier content. I know my subscribers and high viewership are thanks to the fact that I'm basically a covert cartoon fetish channel. I hate coming off like that. I am bloody embarrassed to show anyone irl my channel (and a grossed-out reaction to my trailer this week reminded me of how I come off to people). It's also probably a big part of the reason I have so much trouble securing collabs and whatnot too.

Admittedly, I started purposefully appealing to the horny demographic back in late 2011 when younger me saw the money in it (lawl, classic regrets). Yet as I've aged into wanting to be more in line with my childhood animation dream-the present ironically contradicts my "equality" mission statement. Leaving me with a Wilson Fisk style, "I am the ill intent" realization. I wanted to reverse gender tropes in cartoons with my exclusively female characters, yet here I am just making tons of sexualized content with them. :(

On top of that, I feel like I'm holding myself back big time. I'm a musical theatre performer of over six years, I've been beatboxing for 13, and I've been shaping the universe of my animated series since 1992. I use none of these on my channel as bad I'd like to. There's so much more I can be doing with my channel than getting people off to wedgies and clothing inflation.

TL, DR: I'm totally not making what makes me happy, or what I at all envisioned. So in 2016 I'd like to change that, preferably by the time I hit 5K subscribers. As I'm currently near 4k subscribers and 4 million views-I don't quite want to start a new channel, or delete everything I've ever made neither. I've taken the best steps I can to prepare for change but I'm running out of ideas. I've:
  • Gone back and changed all my titles, descriptions, and tags. Instead of "blah blah inflation" it's become stuff like "blah blah parody."
  • Deleted and/or unlisted some of the more blatant older videos.
  • Stopped replying to the real kinky comments depending on how blatant they do so.
  • Separated the inflation stuff away into a series and playlists and tried to make it obvious that it's separate from my "main" content.
  • Stopped interacting with and cross-promoting other fetish channels.
  • Stopped making stuff so blatant myself. I don't want to suddenly lose my current audience all at once so I still do some of it, but I really try to push the comedy a lot more than the arousal. I.e.: I'll make sure there's legit story context to a scene, or make it obvious that I'm just answering requests or doing commissions if not.
But what do I do to truly make the transition I wish? That's where I need help. Can I even make that transition anymore five years in? Is my name and my channel in too deep to ever separate from it (just Google MrCromartie1989 to see what I mean)? I did choose a new custom URL but, now I'm wondering if I'll regret that too when eventually uploading music contradicts "CartoonsByCromartie" (unless it's animated). Should I just pack it up and throw away all five years if I don't want to completely start over?

Do I keep going? Uploading new content and taking the heat, flak, dislikes, and low views a sudden change may bring along? Will it be another few years for things to settle? I know predicting the future is impossible, but I want to not keep repeating past mistakes either.

Do I just fully embrace what I am SpazKidin3D or NutsvsGuts style? This loops back to what my first paragraph is about though, and is the main reason I want to expand.

I don't know-I know where I want to end up, just not how to organize things into putting myself on a path for it. I feel like I'm redeemable as I still have a well balanced gender split, and people still calling my stuff funny, but what do I do to make that transition?

Or am I doing completely fine and just overthinking everything? Ugh.

So far my only ideas have been:
  • A new channel trailer for 2016 that parodies Arrow: "I can no longer be the cartoon fetish person I once was..." before changing everything.
  • To begin the transition with foreshadowing in my "fetish" uploads. Stuff like relevant music covers in-between a scene to warm people up for change.
  • To actually run with that whole Fisk comparison, and make a meta series about my channel trying to be "cleaned up" by a vigilante.
  • To go with that animated "Part of Your World" cover with new lyrics that reflect wanting to change.
But that's about where it ends. Sorry for such a long post, my mind has been a complete mess and thinking about this has pretifried me for more than a month. Guess I really needed the vent (albeit I tend to like to be private-so I kind of regret making this public. Yay social anxiety). If anyone has any ideas or has gone through similar feel free to let me know. As it stands right now about 80% of my motivation is gone because it feels like I'm working towards nothing.
 

DaRealApollo

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I feel like an alternative idea would be to keep your current channel just the way it is now, so people can see your old content and it wasn't a huge waste of time. With that said, you make a new channel starting up with your new style, and tell your thousands of fans on your current channel that you're starting fresh with new content on a channel called _______. I mean, you'd obviously not transfer all of your fans over to your new channel, but you'd have enough loyal fans to help jumpstart your new channel/career. Best of luck to you!
 

YouTuber1978

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Hmmm...

Couple of questions for you. How much time do you spend per minute of animation?

What's your goal on YouTube? Be creative or make money? Can't pick both?

I have a ton of thoughts I want to share with you but might want to take it offline. Could be interested in really helping you with your channel. One of the more talented animators I've come across.
 

Cromartie

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Hmmm...

Couple of questions for you. How much time do you spend per minute of animation?

What's your goal on YouTube? Be creative or make money? Can't pick both?

I have a ton of thoughts I want to share with you but might want to take it offline. Could be interested in really helping you with your channel. One of the more talented animators I've come across.
Just about every minute of my free time is devoted to animation. By minimum a couple keyframes takes a few hours. I work traditionally, PC mainly cleans up what I do on paper. ;)

Creative. Been that way decades before YouTube, and I think now that I've been on it this long I'm pretty much seeing it as a variation on what I've wanted to do since the early nineties and throughout the millennium: Make the cartoons I wish I could see on television and entertain and inspire likewise. So hard to explain. I get a special kind of enjoyment out of seeing the stuff I've imagined in my head come to life. Lol. Even though money has been a roadblock to some of those imagined things at times.

Feel free to contact me offline. I'll try to work through my shyness well enough to respond. :bounce: