When deciding how to release your short film, one of the more common questions in recent years has been whether to forego the festival circuit and go directly to the web. With that in mind, animator Avner Geller, co-creator of the 2011 Student Academy Award winning animation short Defective Detective (which you can watch after the jump), shares his experience along with some tips now that he's gone through the process:

First, in case you haven't watched it, here's the short:

Geller points out that there are a lot of benefits to going the festival route, especially for animation students who are trying to get into the industry and looking to network, but he also recognizes that:

"In a way, the Internet is the biggest festival in town these days. If you advertise right, there is a huge potential to reach thousands of people, and different kinds of crowds, ones that might never even consider to go to a film festival. Just like in school, people in studios surf the web and you never know who will see your film. I know that we, as well as many people from our class were approached by big magazines, festivals and other artists, all because they saw the film online."

But even better, these days, we often don't have to make an either or choice. Many festivals have no problem with a short that has already been released on-line . Just because something is on-line doesn't mean everyone has seen it, and just because someone has already seen it on-line doesn't mean they wouldn't want to see it on the big screen (for example, I would be thrilled to watch Solipsist on a big screen). Of course, there are festivals that are still strict about these things (Geller points out that if you want to be considered for the Student Academy Awards, you can't premiere on-line beforehand), so it's best to do your research ahead of time.

For the full post and other advice, go here. Have you gone either route exclusively? Done a mix of both? What do you think is the ideal path?

[via Cartoon Brew]