Creator Toby Lockerbie has made space go viral by fusing science with intricate visuals on his YouTube channel, Epic Spaceman. He gained half a million subscribers from just his first eight videos, each built on astonishing visual effects. Lockerbie delivers cosmic data with striking clarity, whether he’s pouring every galaxy into a swimming pool or shrinking into the size of an atom.

Coming from a background in photography and filmmaking, he used the COVID-19 lockdown as a chance to try something new. He taught himself computer graphics to build a YouTube channel inspired by Carl Sagan’s groundbreaking series “Cosmos.” Within a year, he began making science videos that use VFX as visual metaphors.

He told us he was wondering how his work would stack up with the Internet’s biggest teams at The Webby Awards. After seeing our Creator category, he decided to go for it and submit his work. It paid off.

Lockerbie earned the most recognition of any other individual during last year’s competition. He won four Webbys across Science & Education in Video & Film and Best Longform Video, with both a Webby and a People’s Voice Award for Best Narrative, Storytelling or Writing in our Creator category. He also received a Webby Nomination for Best Editing.

His wins prove that independent creators can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the industry’s best at the Webbys. In our latest edition of Feedworthy, we spoke with Lockerbie about what fuels his creativity and how he made his Webby win happen.

What inspires you online? Who or what is always on your mood board?

My science videos are all VFX, so my inspirations are often from that world. I love finding people who are just focused on making something so beautiful and special in one genre. Teun van der Zalm makes the best nebulae in the world, Chris Jones makes the most incredibly realistic CGI animations of faces that anyone’s ever seen, and Ian Hubert makes the most impressive and clever use of software in his short films.

Ash Thorp, Corridor Crew, Ben Marriott, people who are just great at what they do, really inspire me. If streaming counts as online, I love innovative storytelling or visuals like Storybots and Love, Death & Robots. On YouTube, channels like Kurzgesagt and Melody Sheep are always inspirational to me.

Describe your content in three words.

Art, Science, Wonder

What’s a social media trend you’re obsessed with right now?

I’m not sure if it’s a trend but I really like that there’s a bit of momentum towards longer form content. Whether that’s podcasts or long videos. A lot can be explained in a few seconds and it will always be a strong way to communicate with people, but if you really want to connect with people on an emotional level, spending more time with them will probably always have more power.

What’s your social media ick? And your favorite thing on social? 

Anything with AI-generated people gives me the ick. Even if it’s outside the uncanny valley, even if it’s perfect, I find it so creepy and I hope one day it will require a warning label as it’s a huge misinformation danger too.

As for my favourite thing on social, I think it might be the Reddit front page. It’s more user-filtered rather than a pure algorithm, so you see what people are interested in, not what an algorithm thinks will evoke emotions in you. Having said that, the YouTube algorithm knows me pretty well by now and usually makes good suggestions.

Who or what is your dream collaboration?

My channel was inspired a lot by Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Cosmos” TV show, so making something with NDGT would be wonderful. In terms of YouTubers, there are so many, Physics Girl, Adam Savage and Mark Rober to name just a few. There are lots of film directors that would be totally unrealistic dream collaborations for me, but if I had to pick one person, it would probably be working with my favourite Director of Photography, Roger Deakins, or my favourite composer, John Williams.

What’s next for you?

My videos take me months to make, so my main focus right now is just making them faster. I’m in the unusual situation where I’ve got too many ideas, and if it took me two months to make a video, I’d be delighted! I always want to make YouTube videos as I love the community and how anyone in the world can access them, but I do have other plans to work on in parallel in the future. I’ve written a children’s book, I’m exploring making an indie computer game, I’d like to make something in VR and maybe one day a film or TV series. I might get to a point where I can assemble a small team to help, but for now at least, I’m enjoying the freedom and flexibility that comes with doing all these things as a solo creator. I hope people continue to enjoy my videos as I absolutely love making them.

Good Work Wins at the Webbys, From Indie Creators to Major Brands

Epic Spaceman’s story shows that bold ideas can shine at The Webby Awards, no matter the size of your team. If you’re creating work that pushes the Internet forward, enter by the Final Entry Deadline on Friday, December 19!