MyToons was an online business that developed a free

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members engage in computer-mediated communication primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, on ...

for

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

that supported content sharing and

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. MyToons.com was headquartered in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. The site was founded in 2006 by Paul Ford, Stacey Ford and Dan Kraus as a spinoff of Bauhaus Software.MyToons.com lays off some staff

San Antonio Express-News The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas, founded in 1865. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the sta ...

online, January 29, 2009 The

Texas Emerging Technology Fund The Texas Emerging Technology Fund (often abbreviated as TETF or ETF) is a technology investment fund created by legislation in 2005 at the urging of Governor Rick Perry to provide Texas with an unparalleled advantage in the research, development, ...

supported it with a $500,000 grant. After four months of private

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

, the site launched publicly in March 2007 during the

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

festival in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, and began distributing member-created animation videos to Internet audiences worldwide. Three weeks after its launch, MyToons had received more than 1.5 million

unique visitor A unique user is a term in web analytics that refers to data of a Pageview of a unique IP, whose presence is only counted once, regardless of the number of pages they visit. This definition does not count repeat or returning users for a standard pe ...

Milestones

In June 2008, MyToons.com became the first global animation community to offer users the ability to upload and view animations in

High Definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

. At this time, the HD animation contest Get With the Times! was also launched.MyToons.com to Deliver High Definition Online Animation Contest
,

Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...

, June 24, 2008 In January 2009, MyToons laid off a large part of its staff. In April 2009, MyToons closed down completely after venture capital funding ceased.

Affiliates

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

– Sponsor of Get with the Times! contest, June 2008 **

Adobe Media Player Adobe Media Player was a desktop media player that allowed users to manage and interact with their media content, and allowed content publishers to define branding and advertising in and around their content. The Adobe Media Player was one of the ...

(AMP) Channel Partner, March 2008 * MonsterJam Animation Contest – Co-Sponsor, May 2008 * Warner Bros., Entertainment – Contest Partner, May 2008 * The Second Annual Animation Book Look – Co-Sponsor, May 2008 *

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

–

Google Search Appliance The Google Search Appliance (GSA) was a rack-mounted computer device that provided document indexing functionality. The GSA operating system was based on CentOS. The software was produced by Google and the hardware was manufactured by Dell. ...

(GSA), April 2008 **

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Channel Partner, February 2008 * DRAW Exhibit, London – Co-Sponsor, March 2008 *

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

– Contest Partner, February 2008The Briefing Room » MyToons Celebrates Simpsons’ Creator’s Birthday And Opening of Spiderwick Chronicles IMAX Movie
/ref> *

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...

– Contest Partner, February 2008 * 35th Annual

Annie Awards The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origi ...

, Hollywood, CA – Silver Sponsor and After-Party Entertainment Sponsor, February 2008 * Animation Army – Monthly Meetings Sponsor, 2007 – 2008 * INTERspectacular Design and Concept Studio – Bumper Blastoff! contest partner, December 2007 * Best In The Southwest Flash Animation Festival – Gold Sponsor, Albuquerque NM, October 2007 * Los Angeles Animation Festival (L.A.A.F.) – Major Sponsor, October 2007 * Animators: Andrew Gordon, Mike Wellins,

Rusty Mills Russell P. "Rusty" Mills (c. December 16, 1962 – December 7, 2012) was an American animator, director and producer. A Primetime Emmy winner, Mills was best known for his work with Warner Bros. Animation, including ''Animaniacs'', ''Tiny Toon A ...

– Bust In and Win! contest Judges, September 2007 *

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized b ...

– Major Sponsor and Panel Speaker, September 2007 *

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

– Event, Promotions and Panel Speaker, June – July 2007 * Kalamazoo Animation Festival International (KAFI) – Bronze Sponsor, May 2007 *

Limelight Networks Edgio, Inc., formerly Limelight Networks, was an American company that provides a content delivery network (CDN) service, used for delivery of digital media content and software. Following a 2022 acquisition of Edgecast, the company re-brande ...

– Flash Video Streaming Infrastructure, April 2007 * Draw/MyToons Launch – Platinum Sponsor for DRAW exhibit & Gallery Lombardi, SXSW Austin, TX, March 2007Draw
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516173812/http://www.gallerylombardi.com/exhibits/0703exhibit.html , date=2008-05-16

References

External links

MyToons Official Site
Internet properties established in 2007 Internet properties disestablished in 2009 Companies based in San Antonio Animation organizations Online advertising Defunct social networking services Online companies of the United States