Quickly I just want to give shoutouts to memorable people. I want to highlight the people I met in my time in this community that genuinely changed my life. First I want to thank some of my animator friends, such as JacobsDrawingsInc, Inanimate NC, Nyzly, King and all of my other close animator friend for always being there for me, and being just amazing people and being extremely loving towards me throughout the time we’ve known each other, and especially for talking with me about my decision and giving amazing perspectives from the view of an animator. I always want to give a shoutout to my first former animator friend RedroVal, for always believing in me and staying in contact throughout the 4 years we’ve known each other. I want to thank my real life friends for being by my side and talking with me immensely on my decision and always being there for me to talk to. I want to thank the rest of my friends and family for understanding me during this hard time while I’ve been deciding this all. Thanks to all of you guys, I couldn’t be here without you. I want to thank you all, every single one of you for making little Toby’s dream a reality, you guys have given me immense love and support and I love you guys so much. You guys have helped me meet amazing people and have always supported me through my time here, and through all those videos that I’ve made since day one. Genuinely the experience you guys have given me has been a gift and I couldn’t be more fortunate, but I just hope you guys can understand my decision. I know you guys are either sad, angry or just disappointed but I want to leave you guys with some advice. For all those young creators who watch and engage with my stuff, I want to let you guys know my biggest advice is and always has been to just make what you want to make. Don’t just follow a stupid trend, or make something because someone commented it, make it because you want to make it. The best animators come from passion and love rather than force. You should always be happy and excited to work on or make a video, yes there will be times where you could be burnt out but always remember to take breaks and relax and don’t make the same mistake I did. I wanted to tell my story so you guys could not follow in my footsteps in that way, and pursue your work in your own way rather than someone else's. I believe in every single one of you guys, and I’ve seen some young and inspiring people in the community make some amazing things built up from love and passion for animation and it's amazing to see you all grow. I love you all so much. For some context I will be leaving Discord and YouTube by the time that this post is published, but the channel will still be up of course, just not active. I’ll miss you all so much. Love yall.
2 months ago | 713
Really sad to see you go dude! I fully understand your reasonings. I think it’s great at your age you’re realizing what even most adults never realize in their life, and that is LIVING! And living in a way that makes YOU happy, and that’s ALL that matters. Take some time for yourself bro, enjoy your youth, stress free. If you ever come back to creating, here to support you! Take care man and go live in the present with the people you care about the most🙌
2 months ago
| 753
We understand and we will miss you dearly. It's been a pleasure knowing and watching you this year man. We love you!
2 months ago
| 433
Winter Animates brainrot aside, you were a gem of a channel for me to find. Everyday I spent animating, I thought of you, I looked up to you, I took inspiration from you. I couldn't thank you enough for the motivation you probably weren't even aware of giving me, it really changed me as an animator. Take care dude.
2 months ago
| 254
We all respect your decision Toby. Your work and growth has been amazing and your reasoning is insanely understandable. I hope you pursue whatever hobbies and interests you’ve found outside of YouTube and find your creative flow within something that feels right man. Best of luck🙏💙
2 months ago
| 158
I Love You, Toby animates. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the time you’ve spent with me. Being in VC, working together, gaming, and the losses you’ve helped me through. When you posted “I Have a Mouse in my Wall,” I loved it, watched your past content, and reached out. Thank you for all the moments on this channel with me and others. I love you, Toby (not gay).
2 months ago
| 147
So sad to see you go, but we understand you left an incredible mark and did something so many people wish they could do! Good luck Toby!
2 months ago
| 98
Out of the 5 animators I got inspired by you we to one who inspired me the most and all the other newest animators Thank you for being part of small animator community We will never forget you. and I mean NEVER Tootles toby. God bless you
2 months ago
| 56
Dam wow, toby this is basically exactly what I feels like what I’ve been going through for the past three years now, and holy moly it’s so odd but happily reassuring hearing the understanding of the pressure of giving over so much of yourself for your videos, from another animator. I just want to say thank you for your message bro, I also can’t believe I’ve been so stupid and also let myself be pushed to mental exhaustion and burnout from constantly trying to keep making more videos. I’ve gone through every issue you’ve listed here too and then some, like pushing all my freinds to the side and losing focus on what is important to me… living my life. I feel like I’m constantly running and falling behind in a race that never ends and that I didn’t even know I was running in to begin with. Toby I just wanted to say I’m really happy for you for choosing to live your real life you truly wanna live man, you couldn’t have said it better, you’re genuinely a really great animator friend, and you’re an even better human being. I genuinely I was taken aback by your words and im happy with how much you’ve grown dude. I caint believe Ive held onto this unrealistic idea of myself for so long, Ive almost felt like a fake version of myself with each day that passes because I’m not “perfect” I can’t help but feel as if I am STILL trying to also be a representation of my channel too, Ive been swept up by the numbers before it’s addictive like a drug man, and now I’m just trying to be my authentic self. I’m choosing to live my real life now, to be my real authentic self now. I’m really happy that you’ve chosen to prioritise your real life over some stupid numbers, and honestly it’s given me hope. I’m going to try and let go of this unrealistic idea of myself now too and just try to keep moving forward with making the things that I want to make for me again. I can let go of this too now, and just be myself again. and it’s reassuring to know that if you can do it, then I know I CAN do it too. I know I can. I mean it Toby, thanks allot man. ❤
2 months ago (edited) | 38
Good on you for doing the best for your health, I'm sorry to see you go but I respect you for it. You've made an unbelievable impact on the small animator community, and I hope to see you here again someday. You're a real one Toby
2 months ago (edited)
| 76
Thanks for the inspiration dude if you see my animation style you really influenced me and inspired me to start my channel seeing someone so young be succesful happy ur happier now. (I know ur not gonna read this tho)
1 month ago | 2
you did wonders on the small animator community, we will miss you toby ❤
2 months ago
| 4
Goodbye Toby! We will remember you as one of the best small animators!
2 months ago | 2
Goodbye, Toby. You've been a phenominal animator, and an inspiration to many.
2 months ago (edited) | 5
Toby Animates
After half a year of consideration, I have finally made the difficult decision to quit YouTube.
I’ve been on this platform for just about 4 years of my life, and I’ve always put my all into the content. I started this all because I wanted to show my work, and express my talent to people for feedback and thoughts on the final work, and overtime it’s gone from a small little passion that would take up a very small amount of time to something that has taken up my life to the point where I became the channel more than my actual living self. When I started, I was very young, as you can tell from my voice change, and I saw others on the platform animating, getting large followings and meeting amazing people. I wanted to do that too, no matter how much work I needed to do for it. I never knew what I was getting myself into. For the first 2 years I was a very small animator, and I just did this all as a side hobby, primarily focusing on school and other forms of art and just discovered more hobbies, such as electric guitar, racing, etcetera, which was some of the best times of my life, especially around that time. But around the 2 year point is where everything changed. I started to grow, faster and faster, and I started to see the potential of all of this, and I decided that this is what I want to focus on. I threw all my hobbies to the side for YouTube, and focused on it more than anything for about a year. I still hung out with friends and family, but I would only call and chat with my friends from school outside of school twice or so every week. I wanted to see the numbers keep going, which eventually happened. I worked hard, met amazing people and I always wanted more and more. I always wanted to do better and better work because as my audience grew I always had that pressure to do better in that way. I would always pressure myself because that was the only way I would actually end up being productive. So that led to more and more deadlines and more time dedicated to animation. I started to do the bare minimum in school, not even studying for tests and exams so I can have time for drawing and animating. I became unhealthy attached to YouTube and the life YouTube had for me that I started to throw away my other life, my actual life, for some stupid numbers. I became a bad friend, which I can recognize from how little I hung out with my friends outside of school last year. Back then I didn’t care, I always had the same mentality that everything will be all good once I get super large and just always grind 24/7, which was a terrible mindset for me to have but I believed it and it led me here.
So as the numbers increased I started to work on the video that made me think about even quitting in the first place, which was the “Being A YouTuber In School” video. Some would see those numbers it gained and be excited, and you guys right now probably don’t understand how that made me want to quit, but just let me explain. When that video grew and grew I started to realize this whole thing could be a real job, and a real career I could step into in the future. I started to spend a lot of time by myself, thinking about it, and I started to realize how it won’t get easier, I’ll get more obsessed, addicted to the channel like it was a drug.
But in the end I didn’t give the thought of quitting too much attention besides from that moment because that didn’t matter, since I had my biggest project yet that was coming up, the “Why I Am Obsessed With Cars” video. It was and still is my longest video by far, reaching 11 minutes when my videos usually reach around 5-6 minutes or so, so when I was reading the script I wrote and realizing the length I had to make the decision: do I want to dedicate my entire summer to this? Do I want to waste a portion of my childhood, my whole summer and throw people to the side for this? Will it be worth it? I thought hard, and ultimately decided I wanted to, just because I wanted to “try out” a longer video format which was the excuse my YouTube obsessed brain gave myself to justify my actions, but that was a terrible mistake. I cancelled all camps and events for the summer and isolated myself, so I could only animate the entire summer and so I can get the video out within 5 months, and so I can give my audience the quality they want in a time they want, which I somehow ultimately did, but it was a price I had to pay. I paid that price with several hours animating every single day, not even leaving my room besides getting food, not even seeing my family for some days and putting deadlines on myself every single day. And around the 1 month mark I started to get insanely burnt out. To the point I didn’t even wanna work on the video anymore, it was draining me immensely, but I kept going. I was always stressed about the video because if I even missed or took one day off I’d be behind schedule and the video wouldn’t make it out in time, so I put harsher deadlines, more hours and less time with friends and family. Way less time with friends and family. I would skip calls with friends so I can animate alone, I wouldn’t talk with family so I can animate alone, I wouldn’t even go shopping because I knew that I was behind on the deadline around the corner. I was frying my brain, I was missing my family, my friends and feeling terrible, rotten even, but I always said to myself: “just a couple more months, then I can spend all the time I want with them during the school year.” and over the weeks and weeks I noticed how inaccurate that really was, in reality I was just stuck in a loop that I trapped myself in. I started to realize how much I became the channel, I wasn’t my real self, I was always Toby Animates, all the time, 24/7. I would only talk about YouTube with my family and friends because it was always on my brain, I couldn’t let it be for a moment. I was rotting myself just making the content.
People who aren’t animators won’t understand me much on this just because they don’t know how much work these videos take which is completely fair, but yall who animate know how it is, its rough. I did 100% of that video, because that was the challenge I faced myself with. I made every background, every character, every little doodle was all me, which for an 11 minute video which was double my normal amount of runtime that I would get done in the same time that my deadline was, was very difficult. I decided as I started to complete my video that I would take a week break when I finish the video, so I can live my real life more than my second one, which was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. I barely get breaks for myself, just because as mentioned, I was always stressing on the video so I wanted it out ASAP without any slack, so this break was like heaven. I spent that last week of summer hanging out with the friends I shoved to the side, hanging out with my little brother some more, and overall just enjoying life and going places. I can’t describe just how free I felt, just because I didn’t have that stress on my shoulders that I always had work to do, and that I always felt behind from my realistic standards.
By the end of the week I went to a campsite for a quick last minute vacation before school with a lot of my family. It was an amazing experience, I spent time with people I haven’t talked to in forever, and YouTube wasn’t on my mind that whole trip which was a first in actual years. I started to enjoy life, and it made me realize, this is just amazing. It made me realize how much I wanted to be a normal kid some more, and how I wanted to experience everything that other kids my age can because of the free time and bonds they have with people. When I got back I decided to take one more break, just to live some more of everything I’ve been missing. This is when school started, so I began to focus on school a ton, and spend time with my school friends who I haven’t hung out with in forever and that was when I made the decision. I wanted to quit and live one life rather than two. It took me half a year to realize that, but it’s something that I decided was right, especially because in hindsight I can see the switch from a passion and a hobby to a job or a chore from all the time I’ve been animating on here. So after that realization I started to talk with more and more friends, both school friends and animator ones, and also my family about this decision. And after talking with them for a while and hearing their takes on it, and others as well, I have decided that I do want to quit, and live my childhood before it’s all thrown away because of my addiction to numbers and YouTube.
It’s been a dream doing this for all of you, and I hope you guys enjoyed my time here. There may be people that are angry, or even some people who might actually be happy I’m leaving, but no matter who you are I want to thank you all one last time for everything you all have given me. This has all been a blessing but all good things come to an end, and I really wish all the young animators reading this a bunch of luck with YouTube, and I hope you all don’t make the same mistakes I have.
So for one last time, I love you all, thank you.
Toodles.
2 months ago | [YT] | 4,857