GoAnimate – Fast Team-Based Animation with Much of the Work Done for You
GoAnimate – Fast Team-Based Animation with Much of the Work Done for You
GoAnimate Animation Resource, Web Delivered
By David Cox
First published in Examiner.com
GoAnimate is a new product that enables you to animate sequences on the web as an individual or in groups using a range of pre-made template type vector graphic 2D objects or to import your own such objects.
It uses a asset-list, timeline and project window format, much like a simplified version of Adobe Flash or After Effects, and among the types of items you can choose from are characters, backgrounds, props and a series of pre-made animated moves.
Animations can be shared as can the numerical information about how those animations are made up. The target market is mainly web content providers who want to add motion to their pages to attract visitors who are more likely to stay and watch if there is some moving content than if if the visuals are static.
Audio can be added via microphone, prerecorded audio or via a text-to-speech capability built into the browser interface.
GoAnimate uses a subscription model, much like a stock photo library, so you pay for it on a regular basis, and from then on can use the supplied content. Custom content can be provided by arrangement also. The vector graphic look of GoAnimate eventually can be eventually exported as an mpg4 file for delivery on the web. This means that these can thus work on iOS devices. The fact that multiple people can work on the same production online means that variations on the one file can take place and that larger productions can be done using the same assets piecemeal.
GoAnimate would be ideal for use as a storyboarding tool for TV and film productions, or in the games industry where a linear sequence needs to be communicated quickly and easily to all involved in cast and crew. Because it is easy to use, the GoAnimate user interface can be learned quickly and shots can be modified by someone with little to no animation experience. So a sequence of shots can be re-ordered, framing modified, even sound and dialogue manipulated by different members of a team, and each version saved as a different file for consideration by all.
Schools would benefit from GoAnimate by enabling it to assist with storytelling classes, or adapting it to work with theater, film or even existing animation classes as a storyboarding resource. As a design tool it could help create what are called ‘design fiction’ narratives – essentially ads for products that are not built yet but for which stories about their use need to precede the process of making or designing them.
GoAnimate would be ideal for the electronic greeting card market also – a business making custom business cards or greeting cards could revolve itself entirely around GoAnimate, as could a cartoon satire show done once a week commenting on events in the news or current affairs ready for YouTube, the blog or both.
The pre-make animated moves for characters, backgrounds etc are simple, anything more complex that involves the 12 principles of animation would be better done in Flash but for a quick animated result to visually improve a website, or to generate a vivacious looking snappy moving graphic to illustrate an idea for a client, or to advertise a product, GoAnimate is the solution.
You pay by the year or the month for different plans, each with different screen resolutions. The Full HD “Gopremium” plan costs $79 per month or $599 per year. Another plan, the “Goteam”, allows multiple users at $250 per month, or $2000 per year for 3 users or more, with escalating volume discounts and up to 1080p screen resolution. Given the advantages the system could bring to a production, these costs are minimal. On many cable TV shows, this would be the cost of catering.
But such subscription services using cloud storage and databases of assets are becoming the norm today when animated content is finding expression in more and more contexts where screens are found. I have a feeling that GoAnimate is one of those solutions to situations that problems have yet to be found. Its uses will really become better understood with use over time.
As web developers, film makers, game makers, bloggers, cartoonists and others start to see the potential of GoAnimate, the product will really start to come into its own.
Try it out. Nade a simple animation. Add some sound. Publish it.
Visit – goanimate.com