‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ Creator Gooseworx On Developing The Internet’s Hottest Animated Pilot

Gooseworx’s animated pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus is a bonafide hit and has been watched more than 33 million times since it was released on Youtube less than two weeks ago.

It’s easy to see why the pilot has gone viral. The episode has a twisted sense of humor and the jokes are timed with to-the-frame perfection. It’s sense of humor is mature enough to appeal to a wide adult audience but never feels overly vulgar. Aesthetically, The Amazing Digital Circus offers something that feels familiar without ever feeling cliche. The cg animation is bright and fun, recalling the early years of the artform, yet sharp and clean, giving it a modern feel.

The pilot is produced by Sydney-based independent studio Glitch Productions, which distributes its shows on Youtube. A couple of years back, the team at Glitch saw Goose’s short Little Runmo and was compelled to reach out to the filmmaker. Glitch general manager and development producer Jasmine Yang recalled:

It was exactly the kind of thing that we like to do here. It was funny, a little dark, and definitely very weird, like nothing we had seen before.

Goose remembers when Glitch reached out and says she was eager to accept their offer to work on something together:

Glitch approached me. I was in the middle of making a sequel to one of my personal toons, The Darly Boxman Show, and they were like, “Hey, you wanna make a pilot for us?” and I was like, “Hell yeah I do!” and now they own me.

Goose initially pitched three ideas to the studio, but Yang says one really caught the attention of the Glitch team:

What really stood out for us in that initial pitch was that it had a 1990s computer render art style and little references to the toys and computer games we had growing up. We knew that if we were to make this show, our audience would absolutely love that kind of stuff.

Goose remembers the pitch and what she was hoping to get across with the idea:

When I knew it was gonna be a 3d pilot, I tried to come up with an idea that was best suited for 3d. I’m a big fan of really old 3d stuff from the 1990s and early 2000s, where it looked kinda bad and creepy but was also completely unrestricted creatively. They’d just have weird shapes and eyeballs flying around just because they could, and I like that kitschy vibe.

It was vital to Goose and the team at Glitch that the show landed on precisely the right aesthetic. It needed to evoke memories of the earliest cg animated films and series without feeling dated. According to Goose:

When developing the look, we wanted to ride the line between retro 3d and toys. There’s part of me that wanted the show to be pure and faithful to the retro rendering style of early 3d animation, but there was also the part of me that realized that look only appeals to weirdos like me. We ended up going for a rose-tinted version of that, the way our child brains perceived these amazing revolutionary graphics at the time. I’m a big fan of juxtapositions like happy music playing to something horrifying or cute little characters being miserable, so I wanted the look of the show to not necessarily reflect the darker side of the series (Even though we technically had an eyeball polygon monster and a nightmare office maze. Pretend those weren’t in the pilot!). Above anything else, I just wanted it to feel kind of lonely.

The show’s cg nature posed a significant hurdle, though, as Goose’s background is in 2d, hand-drawn animation. To bring her work into the third dimension, the artists at Glitch took over. Yang explained:

We had to work very closely with her to translate all her 2d drawings, sketches, ideas, and animation styles into a 3d animation medium. Here at Glitch, we believe in providing our expertise and giving our showrunners a very talented team of artists who can take the ball and run with it. So Goose came on as a showrunner, and here at the studio, we worked hard to maintain her vision as much as possible.

During Digital Circus's production, we created different walking animation loops for each character. There's SO MUCH PERSONALITY you can put in just a walk! pic.twitter.com/WL1bjw0Nro

— GLITCH (@glitch_prod) October 19, 2023

When asked if Glitch would shop The Amazing Digital Circus to any streaming platforms, but according to Yang, that’s not the plan. She says that Youtube offers has more to offer an indie producer/distributor like Glitch:

We are a Youtube-first company. We believe very strongly in the future and potential of Youtube for long-form animation. A lot of this stems from what we’ve seen in the trends from streaming services, particularly towards animation. I don’t need to go into details about the recent wave of cancellations or the general disrespect towards animation from the mainstream, but we believe that Youtube is the best way forward.

She says the studio has met with streamers over the years, but the terms they have offered weren’t what Glitch was looking for. According to Yang, the company wants full creative control of their productions and to own its brands:

Control of the brand is essential to us. Having control of merchandise, marketing, and licensing under us, who work directly with the showrunner, lets us translate the artists’ visions more accurately.

And finally, we asked if Glitch was working on new episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus, but Yang says a decision has yet to be made on the show’s future. If viewers keep tuning into the pilot the way they have over the past two weeks, we’re hopeful that more will be on the way.