# Pencilmation
**Pencilmation** is an American animated comedy web series created by animator Ross Bollinger (born 1987), in which pencil-drawn stick figures and doodles come to life and struggle against their animator's pencil and other drawing implements. The series began as a Flash cartoon on [Newgrounds](https://www.edgepedia.org/newgrounds) in 2004 and became, on YouTube, one of the platform's largest independently produced animation channels, with 20 million subscribers and 11 billion views as of February 2024.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creator | Ross Bollinger, American animator, who made the first episode at about age 16 after watching the Looney Tunes short *Duck Amuck*[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) • [2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/7-tips-for-building-a-successful-animation-channel-on-youtube-173406.html) |
| First release | *Pencilmation #1*, uploaded to Newgrounds on June 4, 2004, winning the Daily Feature and Weekly 2nd Place awards[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) |
| YouTube channel | Created February 1, 2007; first video posted June 14, 2009[3](https://insidecreateurs.com/en/channels/pencilmation) |
| Scale (Feb 2024) | 20 million subscribers and 11 billion views, though not YouTube's most viewed or most subscribed animation channel at that time[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) |
| Scale (2026) | 20.5 million subscribers and 12.3 billion views across about 1,983 videos[4](https://open.subsub.io/channels/pencilmation/view) |
| Main characters | Pencilmate (blue) and Pencilmiss (pink), part of a consistent cast featured from 2017[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) |
| Production | Produced and directed by Bollinger, animated by a global team of more than 100 artists and production staff[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/7-tips-for-building-a-successful-animation-channel-on-youtube-173406.html) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and style
The series follows what its own tagline calls "the endless struggle between creator and creation": pencil-drawn characters come to life on the page and contend with the animator's pencil and other drawing tools.[5](https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation) The cartoon is recognizable by its ruled-paper backdrop, traditional frame-by-frame animation, visible pencils and drawing materials, energetic music, classic cartoonish sound effects, and simple character designs, mixing slapstick, situational comedy, meta humor, and doodle-based gags.[5](https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation)
The central characters are Pencilmate and Pencilmiss, supported by other "Pencil friends". From 2017 onward, many episodes prominently featured this consistent cast in various roles, and past episodes began to be reused to extend video runtimes to about half an hour each, a format aimed at maximizing ad revenue and algorithm exposure on YouTube.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) Content ranges from standalone Pencilmate adventures, such as his time as a firefighter or museum guard, to the later *Gil Next Door* series featuring Gil the frog and his brother Wolly.[4](https://open.subsub.io/channels/pencilmation/view)
## History
**Newgrounds origins.** Bollinger created the first Pencilmation cartoon in Macromedia Flash at about age 16 and uploaded it to Newgrounds, where *Pencilmation #1* won the Daily Feature and Weekly 2nd Place awards on June 4, 2004. The short was not originally meant as a pilot, and the premise took time to catch on: *Pencilmation #2* ("The Pen is Mightier") did not appear until October 31, 2005. With *Pencilmation #3* ("Mc Hammered") in May 2009, Bollinger committed to making Pencilmation a full-fledged series.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) After picking the series up again as a college project at the [School of Visual Arts](https://www.edgepedia.org/school-of-visual-arts), he began producing episodes regularly and posting them on YouTube.[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/7-tips-for-building-a-successful-animation-channel-on-youtube-173406.html)
For the first 36 episodes, apart from music and occasional animation assistance, Bollinger did all of the work himself, including writing, drawing, animating, sound design, composing, and voice acting. From *Pencilmation #37* onward, he increasingly delegated responsibilities to other creatives while serving as producer; animator Joshua "Zeurel" Palmer, for example, animated several shorts.[6](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation) A character introduced in *Pencilmation #6* ("Turtles in Time", 2009), Hank Hanky, received his own spinoff series in 2012.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) An official Pencilmation Newgrounds page operated from 2017 to 2018, and the last episode released there, "No Bus, No Fuss", appeared on March 23, 2018.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) As of May 2023, 726 episodes had been created, a large share of them between 2017 and 2020.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation)
**Growth on YouTube.** The channel was created on February 1, 2007, and its first video, "Pencilmation" (Pencilmation #1), was posted on June 14, 2009, eventually reaching 8.1 million views.[3](https://insidecreateurs.com/en/channels/pencilmation) In April 2010, "Pencilmation #10", *Hook, Line and Stinker*, won 1st Place in [Animation](https://www.edgepedia.org/animation) at the 31st College Television Awards hosted by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation.[6](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation)
The channel's largest growth came between 2018 and 2020, when subscribers rose from a little more than 1 million to over 18 million and total views climbed past 9 billion. This growth was attributed largely to YouTube's algorithm promoting videos on the [YouTube Kids](https://www.edgepedia.org/youtube-kids) platform and to exposure from the 2019 [YouTube Rewind](https://www.edgepedia.org/youtube-rewind), which named Pencilmation the third most viewed creator channel of the year with 2.8 billion views.[6](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation) By the time of a 2019 Cartoon Brew interview, the channel had 4.4 billion views and was made by a team of more than 100 people worldwide.[2](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/7-tips-for-building-a-successful-animation-channel-on-youtube-173406.html)
## Channel performance
By February 2024 the channel had reached 20 million subscribers and 11 billion views.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) • [9](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/internet-television/heres-a-chart-of-the-most-popular-animation-channels-on-youtube-exclusive-208690.html) As of October 2026 it stood at 20.5 million subscribers and about 12.3 billion views across roughly 1,983 videos, ranking 210th among United States channels by subscriber count.[4](https://open.subsub.io/channels/pencilmation/view) • [3](https://insidecreateurs.com/en/channels/pencilmation)
The channel's most-viewed video is "Pencilmate Needs A Bathroom! - Pencilmation Cartoons", with 321.2 million views, about 53 times the performance of an average video on the channel; its five best videos account for 7.9 percent of total channel views.[3](https://insidecreateurs.com/en/channels/pencilmation) Long-form compilations over 20 minutes perform best by median views, at 1.9 million across 1,520 videos analyzed, about 13 times the median for videos under 3 minutes.[3](https://insidecreateurs.com/en/channels/pencilmation) In recent years the channel's uploads have shifted almost entirely to Shorts, which made up 100 percent of its recently tracked uploads as of late 2026.[7](https://www.ytproanalytics.com/yt-stats/channel/UCUAL--p3qAa27luR0IYbjZA)
The franchise also runs secondary channels. Pencilmation TV, created on November 22, 2019, carries full episodes and compilations and had reached 1.68 million subscribers and 770 million views as of October 2026.[8](https://vidiq.com/youtube-stats/channel/%40official_pencilmationtv/about/)
## Reception
On Newgrounds, Pencilmation accumulated a large trophy count: Bollinger himself won 102 awards across the series, the Hank Hanky shorts, and other works, including 5 Weekly User's Choice awards and more than 30 Daily Features, while the standalone Pencilmation account added 87 awards. Despite this, the series drew generally fewer views on Newgrounds, where only 8 episodes, mostly from before 2010, exceeded 200,000 views as of February 2024.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation) Some older fans have argued that the shift toward a consistent cast, reused footage, and half-hour runtimes contributed to a decline in quality.[1](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation)
## References
1. [Pencilmation, Wikigrounds: the Newgrounds Wiki](https://newgrounds.wiki.gg/wiki/Pencilmation)
2. [Tunde Vollenbroek (2019). 7 Tips For Building A Successful Animation Channel On Youtube. Cartoon Brew.](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/business/7-tips-for-building-a-successful-animation-channel-on-youtube-173406.html)
3. [Pencilmation channel statistics, Inside Créateurs](https://insidecreateurs.com/en/channels/pencilmation)
4. [Pencilmation YouTube Channel Analytics, SubSub](https://open.subsub.io/channels/pencilmation/view)
5. [Pencilmation, Soundeffects Wiki](https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation)
6. [Pencilmation, Wikitubia](https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Pencilmation)
7. [Pencilmation YouTube Stats, YT Pro Analytics](https://www.ytproanalytics.com/yt-stats/channel/UCUAL--p3qAa27luR0IYbjZA)
8. [About Pencilmation TV: YouTube Channel Profile, vidIQ](https://vidiq.com/youtube-stats/channel/%40official_pencilmationtv/about/)
9. [Here's A Chart Of The Most Popular Animation Channels On Youtube (Exclusive)](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/internet-television/heres-a-chart-of-the-most-popular-animation-channels-on-youtube-exclusive-208690.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Early English-language web series (1997–mid 2010s)*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license