The short version of everything. Shows raise money in stages. Every stage names what it will make and what it costs. Backers fund the stage that's open. And nobody ever walks away with nothing. The longer versions are below.
One production stage of one show, with a named deliverable like an animatic, a finished teaser, a scored cut, or a pilot. You're funding a specific piece of work, and when it's done, you see it first.
Only if the stage you backed reaches its goal by its deadline. When you pledge, Stripe, our payment provider, saves your card and charges nothing. When the deadline passes, if the stage hit its goal, your card is charged once, for the amount you pledged. If it didn't, you're never charged. Not a processing fee, not a penny. Each campaign page shows the goal and the deadline.
Yes, any time before the deadline. Email info@smokescreen.cc and we'll take care of it. A cancelled pledge is never charged.
Sometimes a bank declines a charge or asks you to approve it. If that happens, we'll email you a secure link to complete your pledge with Stripe.
Nobody is charged and nothing is owed. And unlike all-or-nothing platforms, everything from earlier funded stages is already delivered and already yours. If a show's stage 3 doesn't fund, its backers still have finished stages 1 and 2. Nobody leaves with nothing.
Animation runs long sometimes. We're a studio, we know. The creator has to post progress updates, and most of our own platform fee stays locked until the deliverable actually ships, so we're in it with you. Late doesn't mean forgotten. The deliverable is still owed, and the campaign can't open its next stage until the current one delivers.
Because they quietly eat the show. Physical rewards burn budget, months of fulfillment time, and creator energy that should go into frames on screen. Every reward here is intangible on purpose. Credits, early access, a real say in the work, a seat close to the production. It's what fans actually want, and it costs the show nothing to fulfill.
It's on the page before you pledge. Every stage publishes its budget. Animation, boards, sound, our fee, all of it, with honest numbers for what animation costs per finished minute. If a campaign won't show you the math, it doesn't launch here.
You get the launch announcement, the full stage budget when it publishes, and first crack at backing before the public. Following is free and doesn't commit you to anything.
No. This is not equity or investment. You receive the rewards of your tier and the deliverables of the stages you back. No ownership, no revenue share, no financial return. That's on purpose.
Nothing up front, ever. There is no listing fee. The platform charges 5% per funded stage (2% at greenlight, 3% held until you deliver), plus about 3% payment processing passed through at cost. If a stage doesn't fund, you owe nothing. Founding creators keep the 5% rate for life.
Because one big goal is how great campaigns die at 18%. Stages match how animation is actually made. Development, proof, pilot, season. Each one has a reachable number that builds momentum instead of a cliff that kills it. Your first funded stage gives your audience proof. The wall model gives them nothing to show for their support.
A pitch package. The same materials you'd bring to a network, sized for the stage you're starting at. Logline, character designs, tone, a stage plan with a real budget, and a 90-second video of you telling your own story. We provide the template, and for the founding group, hands-on help building all of it. The bar exists on purpose. It's what makes backers trust every campaign here, including yours.
You do, with real numbers, and the platform's job is to keep them honest. Stage budgets have to reflect actual production costs (we publish per-minute benchmarks), and every line is public to backers. For the founding group, Studio Smokescreen quotes production directly.
Every stage names its deliverable before it opens. "A fully timed animatic of the complete pilot," not "progress." Delivered means that named thing is posted to your backers. Defining it up front protects you from moving goalposts and protects backers from empty promises.
You do. Launching a campaign transfers no IP to the platform or to backers. You grant us a license to display your campaign materials, and backers receive their tier rewards. That's it. Studio-owned shows on the platform, like Petey & Jas, are labeled as such on their pages.
Two of our three launch shows are Kickstarter relaunches. One raised $97K against a $147.5K wall, the other $18K against a $100K wall, and both made $0 for their backers. A failed all-or-nothing campaign isn't a mark against you here. It's often the clearest proof your audience exists and the model failed them. We keep the receipts on the campaign page and turn them into your strongest argument.
First, tell your backers early. The platform requires progress updates, and silence is the only unforgivable sin. If a stage genuinely can't be completed, you have to account to backers for funds spent against the published budget and make up the shortfall, either by completing the work or refunding unspent funds. The staged model exists to make this rare. Goals are small, budgets are real, and no stage opens until the last one shipped.
Studio Smokescreen, a working animation studio founded by major-studio veterans, with broadcast credits across Disney and beyond. We built this after watching great projects with real audiences die on funding models that were never shaped like animation. Some shows on the platform are Smokescreen-produced or Smokescreen-owned, and those pages say so in plain words.
5% per funded stage. 2% when a stage funds, and 3% held until the deliverable ships to backers. Most of what we earn comes after the work is delivered. Full breakdown on our economics page.
No and no. ShowSparks is reward-based support of creative work. No equity, no securities, no returns. That's deliberate. It keeps things simple, legal, and focused on the outcome that matters, which is the show existing.