Skip to main content

GoAnimate, Lil' Peepz, Lil' Bat Flash and Jokester

Lil' Peepz Jokester, Bat Storm and Bat Flash.
The Lil' Peepz theme arrived on GoAnimate in a big way back in July of 2010 (can you tell how behind I am on updating this blog?) with it's own custom character creator it's been going from strength to strength ever since. To the point where nearly all the other themes on the site have paled by comparison.

The first thing you notice about the Lil' Peepz is their complete lack of arms or legs. Their hands and feet just kind of float around their body (or if you prefer, in the case of their feet, their body just kind of floats above them). This makes them relatively easy for GoAnimate staff to add new costumes and most recently, action packs.

Adding new actions, for the most part, appears to be just repositioning the character in the poses required without having to create any new drawings. Well maybe a new hand position here and there but not too much else I imagine.

At around the time of the release of Lil' Peepz I fired up their character creator and attempted to recreate some of my Bat Storm Cast (pictured above). There wasn't as wide a selection of outfits back in July of 2010 and, as of writing this, still no superhero style, cowl like masks - I had to improvise with black hair and head bands.

Of the three I think Jokester is probably the only one I wouldn't change. The other two I'm hoping to update at some point as GoAnimate CEO, Alvin Hung, took on board my suggestion of adding some superhero costumes to the Lil' Peepz character creator and said that was definitely something they'd do in the future (it just seems logical as a lot of the action packs feature superhero like powers).

Below is a really quick animation I threw together just to show off my characters back in July of 2010. Bat Storm isn't included because I hadn't made him at the time.

Lil' Bat Flash by etourist

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Lil' Peepz Restaurant background.
Notice the isometric perspective in the entrance carpet,
valet stand and police car but the flat eye level
perspective in the three quarter view of the buildings.
Unusually the animation above features a road 'prop' that is in perspective from the Lil' Peepz theme (also those lights, city backdrop, moon and clouds are from the theme too). Unusual because almost all of the Lil' Peepz props are drawn with a slightly top down isometric perspective that I don't like much at all. Either that or the props are drawn at eye level with no real perspective - just flat (see the image on the right).

That aside, if you don't mind the isometric nature of the props it has enabled a much wider range of custom made scenes to be created just from the props available.

As I said the theme's been going from strength to strength with more costumes being added to the creator by the truck load. You can create anything from ancient Egyptians, early American pilgrims right through to futuristic cyborg warriors and demons.

GoAnimate's thrown so much development behind Lil' Peepz that I'm almost confidently predicting they'll be phasing out all the other themes eventually. Most recently they've given the characters the ability to lip sync with their voices.

Personally I hope I'm wrong on that prediction. At the very least I hope they won't phase out the Comedy World theme - which I use for Bat Storm... and GoAnimate just wouldn't be the same without Happy Bunny and Star Trek.

I do like the actual character design of the Lil' Peepz. The lack of arms and legs takes a little getting used to and sometimes those arms and legs are posed just a bit too far away from the characters body that they look daft but over all they're a lot of fun. There in lies the problem.

They look a little childish. I'm sure you could use them for more serious and mature stories but those big feet and floating hands take some time to overcome. Not to mention the isometric 'looking down' view of many of the backgrounds that makes the viewer feel like they're looking down at children.

I'm sure some skilled GoAnimator will come along and prove you can tell serious stories with them - after all a skilled animator can tell a serious story with stick figures if they really know what they're doing. Until then (or until I decide to give that a try) I think I prefer the Comedy World theme for my animations.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Inochi2D - Free Open Source 2D VTuber Avatar Rigging and Puppeteering Software (Part 1)

Inochi2D Creator - Free Open Source VTuber Software. If you've been looking for a way to live perform as a 2D cartoon avatar on camera, whether it be for a live stream or for pre-recorded content like educational videos, then VTuber software is a low cost (or even no cost) option worth looking into. In my previous post, How to Become a VTuber - 2D and 3D Software for Creating and Controlling Your Avatar , I took a brief look at the relatively new but completely free and open source Inochi2D  which I thought showed great potential for my own needs of creating a live performance character rig for my own TET Avatar that I use for all my promotional materials. While it is possible to live perform my character using Cartoon Animator itself, Reallusion's MotionLive2D capture system isn't great - with lip sync in particular. More importantly though, I can't exactly teach people how to use Cartoon Animator if I'm using Cartoon Animator to control my Avatar. What is Inochi2D

Wonder Unit Storyboarder - Free Storyboarding Software for People Who Can (or Can't) Draw

Wonder Unit Storyboarder.  As an independent and solo animator I'm always tempted to try and skip storyboarding my animated shorts because they're usually only single scene sketch comedy type jokes. As a result I have many unfinished projects that kind of petered out due to having no clear finishing line. Storyboarding your productions, no matter how small, gives you a step by step guide of every shot that needs to be completed (no planning shots as you animate). It also allows you to create an animatic that gives you a rough preview of the finished production. In short, you shouldn't skip storyboards as they, generally, increase the chance of the project being completed. Disclaimer - I'm Not a Fan of Storyboarder Upfront, Wonder Unit's Storyboarder  is not my preferred storyboarding software. However it's completely free, has a number of very compelling featu

Zack in Time - Support an Independent 2D Animated Series that is Creating Opportunities for New Talent

Z ack in Time is an independent, 2D animated series about a biracial 13-year-old  teen, who has trouble fitting in at his new school, until he finds a time-traveling watch developed by a secret government agency.  Created by Christian Haynes, who I featured in December of 2021 , and produced by Imhapie , the production has now launched a Kickstarter  (which runs until October 25th, 2024) to fund the development of the series pilot episode, as well as a full series, which is ready to produce. Why You Should Support Zack in Time Zack In Time is more than just another 2D animated series hoping to be successful, and is worth your consideration on two levels. Not only does the series hope to tell a fun and authentic story, showcasing unique characters but also, behind the scenes, the producers hope it continues to be a launching pad for young artists' careers.  A Relatable Story that Promotes Diversity and Representation The story of Zack in Time reflects the struggle that we all feel a

Glif (Alpha) - Make Your Own Tiny AI Powered Niche Image Generator Apps

I  first heard about Glif through a YouTube video that mentioned you could get access to Flux Pro (the latest 'game changer AI' generative image model) through the site for free. While I had a vague notion from the video of what Glif was, I wasn't expecting it to be so easy to get started with, and so good with my very first results. Glif is an easy to use, low-code platform for creating tiny AI-powered generators called Glifs. While that may not sound inspiring, what Glifs allow you to do is create a tiny app that niches down to a specific type of AI generation that the user modifies with their own inputs. The best way to really understand is with an example.  My First Glif I've recently been using VivaGo's AI platform  (free and unlimited at the time of writing) to consistently generate full body characters in a front facing T-Pose that I can rig as front facing characters in Cartoon Animator. Unfortunately it can be a bit hit or miss maintaining the T-Pose part

Krita AI Diffusion - Generative Image AI For Krita is Seriously Useful, Powerful and Free (If You Can Install it Locally)

Generative AI sequence of a woman in a business suit. From sketch to refined image using Krita AI Diffusion - by TET G enerative image AI, where you describe an image with a text prompt to an Artificial Intelligence model and it produces a new image based on your prompt, is gaining a strong hold as a tool for many artists. Krita AI Diffusion brings generative AI image tools right into your favourite free and opensource, graphics editor, Krita. Not only that, if you have a computer with decent specs (and at least 10GB of hard drive space), Krita AI Diffusion is completely free. What If I Don't Have a Powerful Computer? If you're in my situation, with a computer that was around before anyone in the mainstream had even heard of generative AI, you can still access Krita AI Diffusion for free, using a cloud based AI server, Interstice  and 300 tokens, to get you started. Once your initial tokens run out, purchase 5000 more for 10€ (approx US$11.00). Tokens never expire. I would

The Ultimate Independent Animator's App and Resource List - Animation and Video Life

Image created with Cartoon Animator 4. Being an independent animator is not like a studio animation job. There's so much more to do that is indirectly related to the actual task of animating. Over the years I've sought out many apps, tools, and services that can help me achieve that one single task, expressing myself through animation. Below is my Ultimate Independent Animator's Resource List for 2024 (last updated Oct 2024). It started out as a list of free or low cost apps that could help you in every stage of producing either 2D or 3D animation, and then just kind of grew from there. You may not have been looking for a Time Management App as much as you needed something to get you started in 3D animation but when those commissioned projects start coming in you'll have a head start on maximizing your time. All the apps and services on this list had to meet two main criteria: They had to be useful and relevant to an Indy Animator/artist. The base app/se

Using Avatar Maker with Cartoon Animator - Free Vector Cartoon Avatar Creator with Four Art Styles

I'm always on the lookout for cartoon avatar makers of any kind, whether it be ones that 'cartoonify' your photo, or ones that let you build a cartoon likeness from a library of individual features.  Free Avatar Maker  falls into the latter category and can be used for making head and shoulder cartoon avatars. While it doesn't have an extensive library of character features (you may struggle to get a good likeness), uniquely it will make your avatar in four different art styles concurrently, allowing you to save the one you like most, or even all four.  I wasn't overly impressed how my TET avatar looked in the first two styles, but style three is quite possibly the coolest looking version of my avatar I've ever seen in a third party avatar creator. It's a very contemporary style. Style four, line art, is also not too bad. Avatar Maker's User Interface. Switch between the four different art styles shown across the top at any time. I particularly like the