In May of 2005, Evans and his wife, Kristin, opened their own animation production company, Tricked Out Toons. But they are learning that the leap from doodling for fun to animating for profit can be quite a challenge.
The backbone of their company is a cartoon called Cool Rules, geared toward kids 6 to 10.
So far, they have produced one 30-minute episode chronicling the adventures of the cartoon's multiethnic cast of cartoon kiddies. That episode cost $150,000 to produce.
According to Evans, that is a modest fee within the industry.
Done at a discount
Evans said the quality of the animation that composes the first, and thus far only, episode of Cool Rules could cost larger studios millions to produce. He said he was able to cut costs by doing a lot of the work himself and by setting up an office with 10 computers in his home for any help he might need to contract out. "We never outsourced anything to another company," he said. "We wanted to keep all of the work here in Houston. Everything in the cartoon, including the music, is all done here in Houston."
He added that everyone within the industry who has seen the cartoon has marveled at the level of sophistication Tricked Out Toons was able to achieve on such a low budget.
The problem is that Tricked Out Toons has been open for over a year and still doesn't have a well-defined income stream that will allow it to become profitable.
Running behind
The business began selling DVDs of the completed first episode in May, but so far it has not sold nearly enough to recoup what Evans referred to as an "ongoing investment" by Irene Denny, his mother-in-law and the company's chief financial officer. Evans is confident his mother-in-law will see a sizable return on her investment.
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