Still telling people you're

"working on" your animated short?

Xavier & Joel

The Polanco Brothers

Indie Animation

Xavier & Joel

The Polanco Brothers

Indie Animation

🎬 Turn 20 Minutes a Day Into a Finished Animated Short

Turn 20 minutes a day into a finished animated short.

Steal the exact indie production pipeline we used to finish our own animated short in 20-30 minutes a day, around full-time jobs. Built by two indie filmmakers with 10+ years of experience making shorts, including pitching to networks like Cartoon Network and Fox. No studio. No budget. Still works.

Steal the exact indie production pipeline we used to finish our own animated short in 20-30 minutes a day, around full-time jobs. Built by two indie filmmakers who've pitched to networks like Cartoon Network and Fox. No studio. No budget. Still works.

90-day money-back guarantee
Lifetime access
Direct support from us

50+

animators are using this kit.

90 day money back guarantee. Lifetime access. Direct support from us.

Inside the kit, you'll find:

The three questions that give you an honest finish date for your short, even if you haven't planned a single shot yet
Why most of your film doesn't need your best animation, and how to pick the few shots that do.
The reason your free weekend never saves your short film, and what actually does
How we finished a film across two countries, two day jobs, and two different time zones, using one tracker
What to cut first when your film is too big, and why it's almost never the thing you think
The move that makes a two-week gap in production stop being the thing that kills your project

If you work 32-40 hours a week, know how to animate and are trying to make your own independent animated short film, but you are struggling to make actual progress, the "Indie Animator’s Survival Kit" was built for you.

We built this kit using our 10+ years of combined experience making independent shorts. Your future self will thank you for getting rid of overwhelm and starting with a system that actually works.

We see incredibly talented but exhausted animators trapped in this exact same cycle all the time:

You get home with only 15% energy left
You expect your work to look like it was made by 500 people
You get completely paralyzed trying to do it all, so you just let your project sit in your head or in your harddrive

Many haven't even finished a personal project in years. If this is you, it’s time to try something different.

With the Indie Animator’s Survival Kit, we took the exact system that got us across the finish line and turned it into a repeatable roadmap built specifically for and by exhausted indie animators.

You can use it to start your next short immediately, or bring your existing project back from the dead. You will make progress faster than ever before because you will finally have a clear plan.

If you think this is another BS course, read what people wrote to us.

The Indie Animator's Survival Kit To Make A Short in 20 Minutes A Day

Seven pieces. Two free bonuses.

Only $27.

Seven pieces.

Two free bonuses.

Only $27.

The Indie Filmmaker Roadmap (PDF)
Always know your next step
Every phase of making a short, from a one-sentence idea to your premiere. Written for someone with 20-30 minutes who is exhausted after work and not for a studio with a hundred artists.
The Indie Production Tracker
Run your film like a producer
The tracker we built to produce our own shorts across two countries. Every shot, every asset, and what the film actually costs you, in one file that works on your phone. Four things are built into it, and each one is worth knowing about on its own:
The ROADMAP Checklist
Never lose your place again
The entire roadmap built into your production tracker as a checklist with a progress bar. Check off steps as you go and watch how far you've come. Take two weeks off and you'll still know exactly where you left off, which is the moment most shorts die.
The Finish Date Calculator
Know the actual date your film gets done
Answer three honest questions and see the actual date your film gets done. No animatic needed, no shots planned yet. As you add real shots it corrects itself, and it tells you straight when your short is too big for your life.
The S/A/B Shot Tier System
Make your short look great without going all in on every shot
The technique we used to finish NDF. This is a system that identifies what are your most important shots, and what shots need less attention.
Energy-Matched Shot System
Always have a shot you can do tonight
Tag every shot by the energy it actually needs. Zombie, focus, or deep work. On a dead night after a shift you open the file and there's already a shot waiting that matches what you have left.
The Golden Folder Structure
Stop thinking about files for good
Our exact folder setup, with a note inside every folder telling you what goes there and how we name our files. Nothing gets lost, your editing file never breaks.

Plus: You'll get these included for free as part of the kit

Background Art Guide
Stop letting backgrounds slow you down
We break down background art in a step by step 120+ page guide we wrote "Fearless Backgrounds", so you can elevate the storytelling in your shorts.
Direct Support from Two Indie Filmmakers
You're not doing this alone
We’re two filmmakers who want nothing more than seeing you succeed. We’re here to help you if you hit any roadblocks and help you implement as you go along.
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And the best part? It's ONLY $27, and backed by a 100% 90-day refund guarantee. If you don’t see value, you don’t pay. Period.

(left to right: Us photographed with "King of Indie Animation" independent animator Bill Plympton; with founder of Frederator Studios and former president of Hanna-Barbera, Fred Seibert, known for jumpstarting careers of animators including Genndy Tartakovsky with Dexter's Laboratory, and Pendleton Ward with Adventure Time; at The People's Film Festival premiere of our indie short Tommy The Hamster, And with former Disney Director of Original Programming, Leah Hoyer, who worked as creative director on Phineas & Ferb and other animated series).

Just so you know:

We aren’t ex-Disney directors or CalArts grads or freelancers making 200K a year. We aren't "animation influencers" preaching about the fundamentals, either. We have been making indie animated shorts since 2013, working a handful of different, draining day jobs just to support ourselves as adults.

We built this kit because the internet is full of harmful advice that actively costs independent animators their time, money, and energy. Things like:

Following a massive studio pipeline: Trying to force a workflow designed for hundreds of people and hundreds of thousands of dollars onto a solo, zero-budget project.
Preparing to prepare: Believing you need to master every animation fundamental and buy expensive software before you are "allowed" to start your short film.
Waiting for permission: Putting your own stories on hold to build "safe" portfolio pieces, praying a studio will eventually hire you and validate your talent.

The problem is not your work ethic. The problem is your pipeline.

The industry is changing. It's time to play a new game.

For years, animation gatekeepers have sold you a lie.

They teach you that your work is worthless unless you land a prestigious studio internship, master complex software, and produce flawless, frame-by-frame perfection.

But nobody is talking about the reality of being an exhausted army of one. Nobody is teaching you how to make a movie when you are working 40 hours a week just to pay rent and live your life.

Right now, the animation industry is shrinking. AI is infecting major studios like a virus, and incredibly talented people are struggling to find work.

Instead of chasing perfection for a studio job that might not even exist soon, we believe it is time for indie animators to rise up and save the art form themselves. We may not have hundreds of thousands of dollars or huge teams, but armed with the right tools and mindset, we can make a massive difference.

Three years ago, after we realized we were done begging the animation industry to pick us. We were unemployed, deep in debt, and needed money fast. We took whatever regular jobs we could get. But we refused to stop making art.

While working 32 to 40 hours a week, one of us living in America and the other in the Netherlands, we built a scrappy system to force ourselves to make progress no matter what. And it worked. We finished our short film "NDF" and premiered it right on our Instagram (@thepolancobrothers) in February 2026.

We built this kit on one simple rule: A finished short film is always better than a perfect concept that never leaves your hard drive.

Like you, we are indie animators working long hours who just want to tell our own stories. Everything inside this kit was battle-tested in our own lives first.

Throughout the entire production of our latest short film, we had:

Zero major studio backing
No viral GoFundMe campaign
No wealthy investors or art grants

And here is the truth: you do not need any of those things. In fact, they can actually hold you back.

Going down the rabbit hole of seeking funding drains the exact time and energy you should be using to actually make your movie. And studio backing just means executives second-guessing your vision and handing you notes you didn't ask for.

Instead, we treated our draining day jobs as our angel investors. We self-funded the entire production and built the film frame by frame. Over two and a half years, no matter what life threw at us, we used this system to guarantee we made progress every single month.

That consistency started and ended with the exact tools inside the Indie Animator's Survival Kit. It is the only reason our film is out in the world today instead of rotting on a hard drive.

Here’s the reality.

There are plenty of animation and art influencers out there teaching skill and style.

They aren’t lying to you about how to improve your craft. But learning how to draw a perfect walk cycle does not teach you how to finish a movie. If your goal is to actually produce your own animated short, the answer is not another course on animation fundamentals or character design.

Those courses leave you without a clear production path, trapping you in a cycle where you never make consistent progress on your own stories.

First, we are proving this system works by actually using it. You can go to our Instagram right now (@thepolancobrothers) and watch the short film we just premiered. We didn't just make this workflow up; we built our film frame by frame using this exact survival kit while working full-time day jobs.

Second, this is more than just a folder structure. We aren't just teaching you how to organize files. We are teaching you the fundamentals of animation filmmaking on a tight schedule, and on a tight budget. These strategies can be applied to any story or format you want to make, whether that is a short film or a web series. We show you how to act like a Showrunner, make strategic cuts, and push a project to the finish line. These are high-level skills that apply to any creative project you will ever tackle.

Need more proof?

We’ve been making and finishing indie animated shorts since 2013, entirely self-funded by our jobs. Using these exact indie production methods, we have:

Pitched original concepts to executives from Cartoon Network and Fox (semi-finalists at MIA Animation Conference 2016)

Become Semi-Finalists in major film festivals (ANNY New York)

Premiered our short films in festivals across NYC and Argentina

Maintained consistency in our latest animated short and finished despite being in separate countries and time zones and while at 15% energy after work.

We did all of this without hundreds of thousands of dollars, and without waiting for a massive studio to give us permission.

All of our hard-earned production strategies, shortcuts, and survival tactics are now rolled into one complete toolkit so you can do exactly the same.

Making a short film is hard. We get it.

Especially when you are exhausted and feel like the odds are stacked against you.

If you have read this far, you’re probably hesitating for one of three reasons. First, you might be thinking, "What kind of hell are these two guys signing me up for? I’m already dead after work!" We know that exact feeling.

That's exactly why we built this kit for tired indie animators just like us. We didn't design this system for people with endless free time and thousands of dollars lying around.

Second, you might be worried that working 20-30 minutes a day means you will end up with a cheap-looking animatic. Let us stop you right there: you are going to make a real movie. We will teach you how to manage your shots and strategically budget your limited energy, ensuring the most important scenes in your film look absolutely incredible.

Finally, you might be telling yourself you just don't have the time right now, and you would rather wait for life to slow down a bit. Trust us, life doesn't slow down. It speeds up. That magical, totally free weekend where you swear you will finally work on your short? It’s not coming.

And even if it does, you will only work for a few hours at most because you'll be so drained you just want to enjoy your day off. Then you are right back to square one, abandoning your short for weeks or months.

Our kit is designed to help you make actual, compounding progress in just 20 to 30 minutes a day until you finally finish your film. Consistent momentum beats a rare weekend marathon every single time.

If you are still not sure if this kit is the right fit for your specific project, just shoot us a DM on Instagram (@thepolancobrothers) and we will chat one-on-one.

Our Story

We’re Xavier and Joel. And just like a lot of you, we sacrificed five years of our lives chasing the traditional animation industry dream.

We thought if we just built the perfect portfolio, mastered the right software, and grinded hard enough trying to build a freelance motion design career, we would eventually "make it." We were desperate for a studio to give us permission to be filmmakers.

The plan was to land "safe" animation jobs to fund our true passion for indie filmmaking, and eventually get our own show on TV.

But the reality? That chase left us completely burnt out and deep in debt.

Things got so hard that Joel had to sell his car just so we could survive. We even moved to Colombia to lower our cost of living.

Eventually, we had to move back in with our parents until we found regular, full-time day jobs just to pay the rent. We found ourselves exhausted, with absolutely zero energy left for our own stories.

So, we made a choice: we stopped waiting for permission.

We stopped caring about getting hired by studios. We stopped believing we needed to master every industry-standard software or raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a film.

Armed with one piece of animation software, two cheap tablets, and whatever was left after a full day of work, we got to work.

It took two and a half years. Twenty to thirty minutes a day around our day jobs. No weekends blocked off, no vacation time saved up, just the small daily sessions we could actually show up for. And we finished it: a 1 minute 19 second short film, after an 8-year hiatus from filmmaking.

That is exactly the system we want to hand over to you today. Let's make shorts and fire up the indie animation revolution, together.

-Xavier & Joel Polanco

Your 90-Day Risk-Free Guarantee

⭐ Your 90-Day Risk-Free Guarantee

Read through the roadmap, set up the Golden Folder Structure, and plug your project into the production tracker.

If, after 90 days, you feel you aren't making consistent progress, and your project is still dead, just email [email protected] and we’ll refund you in full.

No forms.

No hoops.

No hard feelings.

We built this to help you cross the finish line. So we only want customers who feel good about their progress.

Still Got Questions?

Do I need an expensive tablet or industry-standard software?

Absolutely not. You can execute this entire roadmap using cheap hardware and free or low-cost software. If your tablet turns on and lets you draw, you have everything you need to make a movie.

Is this just another drawing tutorial or animation class?

No. This is a production survival kit. We aren't teaching you how to animate. We are teaching you the project management, file organization, and filmmaking strategies to actually get your movie across the finish line when you are running on 15% battery.

Will this help me get a job at a major animation studio?

If your goal is to mold your art to perfectly fit a massive, 500-person studio pipeline, this kit is not for you. The traditional industry is shrinking. This system is specifically designed to help you finish your own indie films and build your own audience, so you never have to beg a studio gatekeeper for a job again.

I am a total beginner, will this work for me?

To be completely honest: no. You shouldn't get this kit if you have never animated a single frame in your life. This system assumes you already have a basic understanding of animation principles and know how to use your preferred software on your own. We are here to teach you how to produce and finish a film, not how to learn the basics of drawing or animation.

How quickly will I see results?

If you are starting a brand new short from scratch, you will start seeing real, measurable progress within the first two weeks as you move along the roadmap. If you are bringing a dead project back to life, you will feel the relief immediately as you see where you're at in the roadmap. The second you plug all of your messy, scattered shots into the Golden Folder Structure and the Production Tracker, you'll be exactly where you need to be to start making progress after work.

What if it doesn't work for me?

Then you don't pay. That’s why we offer a 90-day, risk-free guarantee. Test the roadmap, use the spreadsheet, and set up your folders. If you feel you are right back where you started before you bought the kit, just email [email protected] and we will refund your $27 in full.

P.S. Nothing changes if you close this page and do nothing. The project sits, another year passes, and you tell someone you're "still working on it" again. The Indie Animator's Survival Kit is $27, backed by a 90-day guarantee, no forms, no hoops. Get instant access and start your first 20-minute session tonight.

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DISCLAIMER: Our Digital Products are provided for educational and informational purposes only. We teach creatives the end-to-end process of making an independent animated short film. We make no guarantees regarding specific results, studio hiring, funding success, or festival acceptance. Results vary based on your effort, experience, and execution. Any examples or frameworks shared are illustrative only and do not constitute a promise of success. You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for your actions and results arising from the use of our Offerings.