I've been thinking about all this alot lately. I know that may sound hypocritical but I think that post I made long ago is ridiculous myself. I cant believe i said that shit. I'm aiming for higher shit from now on. Harry has set me a good example. keep on rockin' dude. :D
Wonchop
With a few exceptions, pretty much all the popular animators have gotten noticed because of a parody or collab held by a guy who got popular from parodies.
Success is all down to the strange nature of humans. You make something just for the hell of it, and on the offchance it gets popular, you feel enticed to make more animations around the same kind of theme to appeal to that newfound audience. Not forgetting when people pay you to continue making them. Weebl didn't expect Badgers to take off like it did, and did follows ups for the fans of those. Heck even guys like Rubberninja who swore off making parodies got right back into them when Gamer Tonight got commissioned for TV.
It's all about holding interest. Cos even the most fantastically animated music video with a well written story is gonna get ignored by me if it fails to drag me along.