You Suck at Photoshop

You Suck at Photoshop is a 2 season, 20 episode Webby award winning web series that chronicles fictional character Donnie Hoyle’s messy divorce and rampant emotional problems through a series of Adobe Photoshop tutorials. You Suck at Photoshop is unique in the sense that no characters are ever shown on screen, and instead the viewer is presented with a screencast of Donnie’s computer monitor. The dialogue is all presented through voiceover, along with Skype calls from Donnie’s friend sn4tchbuckl3r, who seems to be constantly begging for Donnie to join him in World of Warcraft. Occasionally, minor characters such as Donnie’s wife or his characters can be heard talking to Donnie off screen.
Although You Suck at Photoshop contains a well thought out story arc, each episode stands on its own not only as an informational Photoshop tutorial, but also as a piece of comedic fiction. While Donnie presents his information condescendingly to the audience, the techniques he uses are actually quite useful and it would be relatively easy to learn the basics of a professional level program just by watching this series.
You Suck at Photoshop was initially distributed through YouTube, and it was meant to be a one-off series. However, Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe (voices of Donnie and Sn4tchbuckl3r respectively, and the masterminds behind the series) were contacted by Rob Barnett, who had been formerly employed by MTV, VH1, and CBS and asked to create Barnett’s web television channel, MyDamnChannel.com. Much of You Suck at Photoshop’s success can likely be attributed to many of the episodes reaching the front page of the popular social news website Digg, as well as many users speculating that the series was voiced by popular comedians Dane Cook or Dane Cross. Due to viewer demand, the series was brought back for a second season, as well as spawning a spin off series titled Sn4tchbuckl3r’s Second Chance.
You Suck at Photoshop makes it apparent that with a good idea and clever writing, you don’t need massive resources to create quality web television content. Hitch created the first episode in only two and a half hours, which is amazing compared to the week long shooting schedules per episode of other web series. By working within the confines of what the team had, they were forced to rely on something more than fancy production techniques. Donnie was a character that the audience could relate to, and effectively made learning fun. You Suck at Photoshop can be equated to Sesame Street for the now nearly grown up Generation Y.