As the old entertainment models crumble, animation professionals are finding new, original and creative ways to put their creative work out there for audiences around the world. Genevieve LeDoux, a writer and musician who was a producer on the Emmy-winning series Tumble Leaf, found a new way to apply her creative talents after the COVID pandemic days of 2020 disrupted the traditional entertainment models.
After moving to Atlanta with her husband, VFX producer Chris LeDoux (Crafty Apes), she launched a new company called Silver Comet Productions and created a first-of-its-kind multi-media universe titled Star Forest, which features a colorful, virtual band of animated characters. The titular characters deliver catchy synth-wave pop music (co-written by The Owl House composer Andrew Morgan Smith) and convey a timely message of kindness, friendship and connecting with nature through real music and immersive stories designed to meet kids where they are.
We had the chance to catch up with Genevieve to find out more about her innovative mix of fun songs, anthropomorphic animals and eye-pleasing 3D and 2D animation.
Animation Magazine: Congrats on the successful launch of your musical IP, Star Forest. Can you give us a quick backgrounder on how you decided to create your own independent animated brand?
Genevieve LeDoux: I’ve been working in kids television for 20 years and have been really lucky to be part of this industry. My husband, Chris, and I moved to Atlanta from L.A., and then during the pandemic, we decided to start building this multiverse featuring an animated band. What I realized during this process was we were doing what no one else was doing at the time. We had our head down for five years on Star Forest. We are based in Atlanta now, and we’re a small but mighty creative team made up of a lot of rising young animators.
We spent about three years just on the lore before we even made a single piece of content. Now we’ve launched a YouTube series of animated music videos, created Fortnite maps, developed a mobile game and launched a podcast featuring the virtual band. But animation is where we really went wild. Using Unreal Engine, we knew we had to gamify it and build a universe that could be many different things.
What is the status of Star Forest today?
We are doing an ongoing YouTube series, and I very quickly learned that independent animators are where it’s at right now. We spent eight months creating music videos and an opening lore piece that introduces the band and the Star Forest universe, but now for YouTube the timing has to be a quicker turnaround. Music is at the heart of our project, so when we partnered with Sony’s The Orchard Magic Star Kids label to distribute the album, it affirmed we were on the right path.
Ironically, my nine-year-old son showed me who was succeeding in this YouTube space. He said there’s a show he loves called Battle for Dream Island [created by Michael and Cary Huang] and it has three million subscribers. The premise is you have a bunch of hand-drawn objects, and viewers get to vote off one of them after every episode, like Survivor. I recently went to VidCon where they premiered an episode. That’s where I thought, “YouTube works because the kids are involved: They’re in the comments, they are actually helping the creators make things.” So rather than building a full-length series, which takes years to monetize, we decided to focus on quicker turnaround content kids can connect with right away.
But it has to have the heart of what we’re doing, so we frame the story so our characters themselves are in a real band, making their own YouTube shows. It’s animated and beautiful, but it’s also meant to look and feel approachable.
Can you talk about the animation process and how you hired the animators for the show?
Our animation team is made up of talented young artists who bring fresh ideas to the project. We’ve built a pipeline that allows them to collaborate, experiment, grow and learn from the more experienced people on the team to help ensure this next generation of animators will continue to thrive. We’ve already launched four episodes of Fawn’s channel (Fawn’s Fantastical Forest Field Guide). We also dropped another one for one of our other characters, with more on the way. The plan is to drop a new episode every other week.
What would you say is the toughest aspect of the job for an indie creator like yourself?
You know the answer: money and resources. How do you do a lot with a little, and how to be in a lot of places at once.
One thing I’m very happy about is that I listened to my kids. Back in 2020, I was teaching them at home during the height of the pandemic. We needed to get out of the house, so we would just drive around. That’s when my five-year old said, “You know, there’s no music just for me!” That sent me on this mission to find music for that in-between space (five- to eight-year olds) who were too old for preschool songs like Disney Kids, but not ready for the pop music like Cardi B. This made me also realize my kids are only hanging out on YouTube where they have the power of choice to build their own algorithms, and then YouTube rewards them for picking what they want. Star Forest is designed to meet kids where they are while giving families content with real heart.
When my kids graduate from high school, 60% of the jobs won’t even exist. It’s all going to be tech-driven. I’m working on a keynote discussing how I spent a year following my kids around in Roblox — they were five and seven at the time, so I told them if you’re going to be in these spaces, I need to be there too! It was the biggest learning experience of my life. I realized there’s a lot of scary stuff out there, but there’s also a lot of good. They made a lot of friends, and also learned resilience from trolls. As a content creator, what I took away from that experience was that we’re not providing our kids with any tools to be ready for these spaces. Nobody is talking about this out there. So, now we’re trying to incorporate that into our animated band’s story and experiences and share how they deal with social media and other challenges.
What do you love about Star Forest?
It’s everything I dreamed of as a kid. My team and I share the same core values and dreams. I love the fact that we can pass on these important messages — the same kind of family entertainment that Mister Rogers and Jim Henson conveyed with their work. I would like to bring that magic back.
How do you plan to monetize your creative content?
Good question! It all has to do with partnerships. We’ve built an IP we believe has long-term value. Right now, my goal is to do live shows because that’s one of the biggest white spaces out there. When you’re a young kid, you can go see Blippi, The Wiggles or Sesame Street Live. But by age six, that starts feeling like baby stuff. So you’re going to want to go see Travis Scott and Metallica with your parents. We want to fill that gap between the two with something kids and parents can enjoy together.
What kind of advice can you give other people who want to do the same thing you’re doing right?
Do a little bit every day. Keep persevering and remember that you don’t have to solve it overnight. Also, remember that it’s important to find your tribe.
You can find out more about Star Forest and listen to some of their great songs at starforest.rocks.
