Robot Turkey, Cyborg Bunny and GoAnimate Complaints Dept.

GoAnimate Complaints Department - Cyborg Bunny was prompted by me being featured on the first episode of GoAnimator, RoTV's series, Robot Turkey. However the idea to replace Happy Bunny with a robot rabbit at the complaints desk is something I thought of way back in December of 2009.

GoAnimate, Product Manager, Nicolas, created his own custom character set known as Isometrix which I featured in my animation, Blink in December of 2009. At the time Nicolas suggested to me he would create an Isometrix rabbit character. I said, if he did I'd definitely use it in an episode of the GoAnimate Complaints Department.

I guess Nicolas got too busy because, as far as I know, he never made a rabbit Isometrix character so I never used it as a robot rabbit on the Complaints Desk.

Then in January of 2011 RoTV released his parody of Adult Swim's, Robot Chicken, called Robot Turkey, featuring me, which prompted me to revisit the idea of a robot Happy Bunny. Ro's animation is below. If you watch it first it'll help you understand some of the references in Cyborg Bunny.

Robot Turkey - ETOURIST EPISODE by RoTV

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

RoTV invited me to record my own voice for his episode which was pretty cool. Though he only gave me my lines so the jokes were still a complete surprise to me when he released the episode.

Having watched Complaints Department - Cyborg Bunny again I've noticed a considerable amount of it references some very specific events on GoAnimate that newer users won't be aware of. So here is the cheat sheet for what you need to know going in...

The opening Bat Stick preview came about as a prize I awarded to the person who made the best comment on Episode 1 / Part 3 of Bat Storm. The winner could have any of their animations featured on this episode of the Complaints Dept. (Note: GoAnimate CEO, Alvin Hung, really did give a presentation at TEDx in Bangkok).
Musics Milky Boy was a very controversial GoAnimate member for about 5 months before he suddenly quit the site, renouncing it as a waste of time. He gained a genuine following of core fans but he also systematically tried to fan every new user, knowing that a good percentage would fan him back. His catch cry was 'Everybody deserves at least one fan'.

He not only managed to get multiple animations listed on the Top Animations page frequently he also progressed through the sites levels to level 28 (I think) in record time and is the only GoAnimator to be the featured animator two months in a row. Musics Milky Boy was a fairly young member (aged 15-16 I think?) he seemed to be involved in a lot of forum discussions that would incur the wrath of many much older members.
The girl complaining about no one believing she is really dead is based on an actual user (who's name escapes me now) who pretended to be dying right to the point of writing a last forum post on the day she supposedly died. She later admitted to faking it all for the attention.
The phrase "We are the borg of GoAnimate" comes from a GoAnimate site meme that only got minor traction (unlike the 'plague' meme before it that really did spread like the plague on the site) in October/November of 2010. Essentially it involved users creating a 'cyborg' version of their profile picture and changing their username to read their name 'of borg'.
The Lil' Peepz theme, just like the Comedy World theme before it, came with its own pre-made Santa character.

That should give you enough background. Everything else should be pretty self explanatory to anyone who has used GoAnimate for a reasonable length of time - the Complaints Dept after all is really meant for GoAnimate users rather than general viewing. Without further ado...

Complaints Dept - Cyborg Bunny by etourist

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

Oh... in case you were wondering... anything that sounds like a real human voice was voiced by yours truly.

Eight 2D Animation Apps For Your Phone or Tablet Mobile Device

M obile productivity apps have become so capable that they can be great alternatives to their PC/MAC equivalents or serve as great tools in their own right when you're away from your desk. While some apps simply mimic their desktop counterparts, others offer well thought out, touch-friendly interfaces that are easier and more fun to use. Every so often I check out what's available for 2D animation for Android devices, since that's what I use, that can complement my workflow with Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5. Some may be available for Apple devices as well. Below I've listed six free (F) apps (with optional paid (P) upgrades) on the Google Play Store that you might want to explore. Some are just fun apps on their own while others may be useful as part of your workflow on bigger animation projects. Not all are exclusively animation apps and could be used on any production. JotterPad (F/P) The name JotterPad makes this sound like a notepad application but it's ...

Custom Animate Your Christmas Messages in Minutes Using Any Character Image with Good Quality Lip Sync

B ack in December of 2023 I created a video showing you how to quickly Make a Festive Animated YouTube/TikTok Short! , about 18 seconds in length, using Cartoon Animator and ElevenLabs for a pretty good, AI generated Santa voice. The resulting Christmas message actually took me a couple of hours to create despite the tutorial video only being around 30 minutes. Create Comparable Animations in Minutes with Generative AI Fast forward a couple of years and you can create easily comparable 2D animations with any number of image to video generative AI sites that also support audio and lip syncing. Some of the best can do full body animation, music, and character voices all in the one prompt. I particularly recommend OpenArt AI as your all in one AI tool for advanced generative AI. However if you want something that can just animate a pretty great, talking head image with lip sync, that doesn't require a lot of noodling around to find and learn all the settings, then LipS...

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...

OpenArt Versus Dzine: AI Consistent Character Training Compared

TET2d Avatar Image created with Dzine . R egular readers of Animation and Video Life will be familiar with my alter ego, 2D avatar character, TET, who is both the face of The Lazy Animator Cartoon Animator Tutorials, and is currently part of my Resident Dragon joke cartoon series. It is my goal to use him as an animated avatar for both my Lazy Animator video courses and my Cartoon Animator tutorials that you'll find on my @AnimLife YouTube channel . Unfortunately I don't have the time to animate him for every single project. Even with Cartoon Animator's time-saving workflow I wouldn't be able to produce animated content quick enough. Which is why advances in AI animation is something that is increasingly more interesting to me each day. Consistent Characters Before we get there I have to overcome one of the biggest hurdles in AI I've come across... reproducing my art style consistently. I don't want an approximation of my characters, I want my characters looki...

Can a Solo Animator Make an Animated Feature Film or TV Series?

Series Creation Tip: If this is your first attempt at a series start small with two to four main characters and two or three sets that you can reuse each episode. My new series in development, Resident Dragon has four characters and is set in a suburban home. Recently I was asked if a solo animator could make a feature film? The short answer is 'YES'. Logically, with enough time, you can achieve anything. The very next question I was asked is how long do I think it would take and could it be done within a year? My initial answer was, it depends on the skill of the creator, noting that a Disney feature film takes a minimum of (I'm only guesstimating here) three to five years, based on when a movie is announced to when it actually gets released, with thousands of people working on it. Which implies that a single person trying to do the same thing may take the best part of a lifetime to make just one animated feature film. However is this really the case? Let's be clear, ...

Moho 14 Released - Still the Best 2D Animation Software for Indy Animators on a Budget

Moho 14 Released. Regular readers know I am a Reallusion, Cartoon Animator advocate through and through. Hands down I would recommend Cartoon Animator 5 first over Lost Marble's Moho 14 to anyone who is just starting in 2D animation, is a team of one, or just needs to animate as quickly as possible. However, feature for feature, Moho is, arguably, the best 2D animation software for the rest of us who can't justify a Toon Boom Harmony , or Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (and even with their applications Moho is very competitive on features). You can get started with Moho Debut for just USD$59.99 which is a cut down version of Moho Pro but it still has the most essential features needed for 2D animation. While Moho Pro is a whopping USD$399.99 (Cartoon Animator, which only has one version, is just USD$149.00) upgrades to new version numbers come down to a quarter of the price at USD$99.00. Even though Reallusion just released features like Motion Pilot Puppet Animation and...

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...

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog