Wird: The Future of Animation

Written by James Quinn

Animation is absolutely incredible! For a lot of us, cartoons are the first forms of media to capture our imaginations as children. Even now in my mid-twenties I still find inspiration in the zany lines and colors of animation with a limitless amount of possibilities. It’s always been a dream of mine to meet a working animator, so it’s with pleasure that I introduce: 

Wird! The bizarre, corky, and fun adventures of Jamir Jones’ super-powered friend Wird and his college-bound friend Milo. Wird is an animated YouTube series that sees Wird and Mylo solve problems and fight bad guys in a world filled with an and not limited to magic, robots, magically powered and time traveling Mafia-men, anime and video game references, giant monsters, and super-sayian abilities: 

  Jamir Jones describes Wird as a superhero cartoon with all the elements of things he’s loved from childhood: “I’m gonna make an animated series to practice, and I’m going to put in everything that I like and everything that I grew up with I’m gonna put it all in my show; I don’t care it doesn’t fit together; I’ll figure it out later. So, of course there are sonic elements, the power-ups of Dragon Ball Z, you’ve got wacky characters with different abilities.” Jamir has said that the characters he writes in Wird share some of his traits: Wird portrays his confidence, while Mylo shares his college experience of being an artist, a lot more reserved, and a little unsure of himself. 

   Jones certainly wears his influence on his sleeve as he utilizes YouTube to practice for a career in animation with a major studio; particularly cartoon network. “Growing up I was a huge Cartoon Network fan, and still am” Jones said “That’s where I wanna be in five years making their stuff. Adventure time specifically got me into film-making. I would take my action figures, and record my own episodes of Adventure Time. The show was everything I’ve wanted and more. After that I started animating my own characters on DSI flipnote.” 

    After graduating high school, Jones decided to attend college for animation but not without also practicing animation himself. In talking about what he wished most animators knew going in, Jones reflects on his own college experience as an animator: “A lot of problems I’ll have with art students is that they’ll get into animation and be an animation major and won’t have anything prepared. If you want to be an animator, you have to kinda start now. Especially aspiring animators get started now; watch YouTube tutorials and practice. It can be as easy as ever to learn animation. 

As of now, the animators that Jamir admires are Pendelton Ward (the creator of Adventure Time), Ian Jones-Quarty (the creator of OKKO: Let’s be heroes), Rebecca Sugar (creator of Steven Universe),  and JG Quintel (the creator of Regular Show). Other inspirations come from internet animators such as older Newgrounds animators, the Eddsworld YouTube channel, Worthikids YouTube channel, and other famed internet animators. Jones looks up to many independent artists for inspiration: “I would rather watch something that one person worked tirelessly in their basement or something than a big project made by a studio.” Jones enjoys the freedom he has now as an independent animator: “You don’t have to follow all these rules and regulations; you can just do whatever you want. It’s just you and your vision untouched by the corporate hands.” 

Bringing up the studios led into the discussion on the current state of Cartoon Network and other televised cartoon channels. Jones concluded that televised cartoons are dying off and moving to streaming like the rest of entertainment media. 

“When was the last time you watched regular television? Cartoon network is realizing televised cartoons are dying and are making content for HBO max where many of their shows are already streamed. They care less about their television market, because they’re simply not there anymore.”  

   Jamir offered a wealth of advice for future animators. In asking what he would teach in an animation class, Jones offers animators to start with the 12 Principles of Animation by Frank Thoimas and Ollie Johnston. “This book will help you implement rules that will make your style more animated, cartoony, and expressive.” Jones would also teach Adobe flash animator for beginners and offer other software for students to grow familiar with. “I would also teach them to have fun and be prideful of their work” Jones said “I would teach them that their animation doesn’t have to be the most beautiful or most detailed thing in the world. It can be a cute little simple cartoon character.”    

Linktree for Wird and more of Jamir’s work: 

  Jamir and I had a great conversation about the state of animation today and streamed entertainment. Here is a clip of it, but if anyone wants to see the full interview please visit my writer’s Facebook page. Link below!