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yes, i sold a show to MTV animation. this was done exactly with the "ptich book" someone mentioned above. detailed description of the concept, the characters, storylines, lots of funny. had everything illustrated by a cheap but totally pro cartoonist. sold the show. totally redevelooped it under a steady shifting of execs. project highlight: i hired cameron stewart to do the artwork. made a 7 minute animatic (not fully animated but kinda animated in AE) pilot. wrote a full length script. rewrote it. rewrote a godawful script that some dumb exec had marv wolfman write. watched as entire mtv animation dept was shut down and project was killed.
learned a lot. made great contacts. got an agent. launched career. score: 6 out of 10.
on the how to write for an existing show front, this is a different -- and difficult -- setup altogether.
to answer one of the initial questions: is animation written or drawn first:
SOME animation is image based for story, and some is script based. a show like spongebob squarepants is storied out in boards by staff creatives, then pitched to the show team, then animated/recorded. spongebob is a kind of show often refered to as "Squash and Stretch" which means its visual, has cartoon physics, is based on crazy characters and images rather than story. the way into that field as as an illustrator/animator working up through that rigorous career track, and i know very little about it. i know the original poster wasn't looking for this kind of thing, but if anyone else is, there you go -- Nicktoons is just now soliciting entries for their "cartoon festival", that might be a good place to launch if you've got something done already.
superhero / action / saturday morning shows, or primetime narratively driven shows are totally based on a script that's written, rewritten, rewritten again, approved, and then recorded/drawn. basically this is a subsection of the televsion writing career. cartoon network is probably not going to accept your unsolicited JLA script, read it, pay you for it, and then make it. very small chance of that happening, unless you know someone there and talk about it before hand. here's what you do to write for tv, seriously: 1st you write a script for a CURRENT show that you understand very well, but which is probably not the show you want to write for. this is called a "spec script" and it is the most valuable thing you ever do in your career, if you sucede. your second step is often to then write a second spec script for another show. then you are ready to approach agents. that is not nearly as hard as it sounds. these people are always happy to hear from new writers. they'll talk to you for 5 minutes, cheerfully, and then they'll say "we'll be happy to read what you've got". so if you dutifully done step one, you're all set. if not, you've wasted everyone's time. if your spec script is awesome, the agent will sign you and send the script to a show that is hiring. it will, as i said, probably be different than the show you wrote your spec for. show runners want to see that you can come into a show, understand its rules and characters, and kick its ass. if you HAVE done all this, than welcome to the lucrative world of writing for tv; though animation is sub-lucrative compared to liveaction.
i know plenty of writers who do both animation and live action, i know writers who have done spec scripts for sitcoms and dramas and animation, just to show they can do anything and to be ready for any possible job.
if you feel like you can jump through all these hoops, go for it, make it happen. if it sounds like a lot of work and all you really want to do is play around with your favorite show, then yr not really in it for the long haul and its probably not going to work out. but give it a shot -- maybe you've got a great idea for a teen titans script; if you write it out, you've got nothing to lose and you might well get a hell of a lot out of it.
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