The Last GoAnimate Complaints / Animal by Neon Trees

The Last Complaint...

March 12, 2012 is the day Jim Benton's Happy Bunny Theme license expired on GoAnimate. Before it did I wanted to release just one more episode of this topical and much enjoyed series. This was the result, completed in just five days. (I usually spend at least a couple of weeks on these).

The Final Complaint - GoA Complaints Dept. by etourist on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Over the years my series The GoAnimate Complaints Department has become synonymous with the Happy Bunny theme for many people on GoAnimate. Here's something I wrote in the comments on the video...

The Complaints Dept. is one of GoAnimate's longest running series, with the first one minute episode appearing about two and a half years ago. Even though there's only 10 episodes it's continued to be popular and has been one of the most imitated series from my own catalogue. All but one uses speech balloons to tell the jokes.

Including this episode there is, in fact, 11 episodes created in the two and a half years of it's existence, among them Christmas and Easter specials. The Easter special is a particular favorite as I love the scene of Happy Bunny trapped on top of his stand's sign trying to convince a bunch of kids he's not the Easter Bunny.

In this latest episode it seemed only right to focus on the 'More Actions Protest Group' featuring the chick and the Dog that are also part of the Happy Bunny theme. The MAPG have been a part of the series from the beginning and appear in almost every episode. I did all their scenes first and then wove in the rest as I thought of different ideas.

I had to start with Captain Kirk from the Star Trek theme, as that theme is the only licensed theme left on GoAnimate. What Kirk says about licensed themes 'making this site' is partly true. Quite a lot of GoAnimate's most respected members discovered the site through the introduction of the Star Trek theme (including RoTV - featured at the end of the video inquiring about the Water Cooler Valet position).

Incidentally RoTV made it into this episode because on the GoAnimate forum he recently mentioned he'd consider any opportunity to work at GoAnimate if something came up.

That idea of Happy Bunny's job opening up became the second running theme through the episode and enabled me to do a lot of self referencing to earlier episodes in the series.

Only Robo Cop seems completely random but I figured the last episode, Cyborg Bunny, had featured a robot Happy Bunny so why not include another cyborg - plus I had Robo Cop already made up for another animation that ultimately didn't get made.

Having the chick burn down the Complaints Desk wasn't meant to be as sad and reflective as it feels with the video finishing on the smoldering remains. I just thought it would be funny if the chick got the last laugh after two and a half years of being pretty much ignored.

I actually don't see this as being the last Complaints Department I'll ever do which is why I left it with the idea that the Complaints Department was just closed for renovations. I'm sure it'll be back some day with a new look and a new character at the desk.

Animal by Neon Trees...

GoAnimator, Rocque, issued a music challenge on GoAnimate's forum asking members to suggest animated music videos they would like to see other GoAnimators make. It's been one of the most popular forum topics in a while with plenty of music videos being created - purely for the fun of it, since there are no prizes.

The song Animal by Neon Trees was suggested for me by GoAnimator, TheseStars. It wasn't a song I was that familiar with. In fact I'd really only heard bits of it in play outs to commercial breaks on some TV shows I watch.

At first I wasn't too inspired by the lyrics but I noticed they weren't too specific and were open to interpretation so I thought I'd give it a go. Plus it seemed like an ideal song to do something a little more significant with GoAnimate's Lil' Petz theme.

It was TheseStars that suggested Chaostoon's Wolfman make an appearance somewhere. Which further inspired me since I've only ever used Wolfman briefly in the third of my Harry Chalk series. This would be a chance to feature him a little more.

Animal by Neon Trees by etourist on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

I have to admit that through the course of making the video the song really has grown on me. Whilst I'm not a big fan of the bands original video, despite its art gallery theme and people transforming into animals, I'm very happy with how my own video turned out.

Probably the only thing that seems a little unexpected is when the girl Petz starts shooting fireballs from her fingers. This came about because wolfman was kind of heading towards a creepy, stalker kind of character by looking into her window. I didn't want girl Petz to seem like a victim and I thought, why can't the she not be all she seems too - in a Buffy the vampire slayer kind of way?

Comments

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

Eric W. Schwartz: Cartoonist, Animator and Amiga Die Hard

July 1992 Edition, CU Amiga Featuring Amy the Squirrel. American Cartoonist, Eric W. Schwartz , (whose unofficial Amiga Icon, Amy the Squirrel, is pictured on the July 92 edition of CU Amiga cover on the right) is my only real animation hero. Sure there are the big names like Disney , Chuck Jones , Tex Avery and even Preston Blair whose influences can all be seen in my own cartoons but Eric did what none of the others could. He showed that really great 2D computer animation was within my reach with little more than an Amiga Computer , a copy of Deluxe Paint and Moviesetter . This was at a time when computer based animation was in its infancy (outside of computer game animation) and Flash was something that lights did. There were many great Amiga artists but Eric was really the only one consistently making very funny, traditional style animations. His humor and drawing style is heavily influenced by classic Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons but he managed to build on this,

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

Can You Learn Reallusion's Cartoon Animator 5 for Free Using Their 137 Official YouTube Video Tutorials Sorted Into a Logical Learning Order?

Or you could just buy The Lazy Animator Beginner's Guide to Cartoon Animator . While Reallusion's Cartoon Animator is one of the easiest 2D animation studios to get up and running with quickly, learning it from all of the official, free, video tutorials can be more overwhelming than helpful. With more than 137 videos totaling more than 28 and a half hours of tutorials, spread across three generations of the software (Cartoon Animator 3 through 5) it's hard to know if what you're learning is a current or legacy feature that you either need to know or can be skipped. Many of the official tutorials only teach specific features of the software and don't relate at all to previous or later tutorials. As a result there are many features either not mentioned or are hard to find. To make your learning easier, on this page, I've collected together all of the essential, official, free video tutorials and sorted them into a learning order that makes sense. Simply start at

Creating an AI Digital Avatar and Voice Clone of Myself with Free and Low Cost AI Tools

O ver the years I've looked at various ways of creating and animating a digital avatar, from simply creating a character for Cartoon Animator and voicing and animating it myself, to creating a live motion capture ready Vtuber avatar puppeted and voiced by me in real-time. In the last year or so, making photographic images talk, using AI and AI voice cloning has really progressed. To the point where I wondered if I could create a photographic AI avatar of myself, complete with my cloned voice, that I might use on some of my videos? Creating My Avatar: Artflow To create my avatar image, as far as I'm concerned, Artflow.ai is the best value AI site for creating consistent digital characters (or 'actors' as Artflow calls them). That's pretty much their entire focus. Artflow's actor model training user interface. You get your first actor for free, 100 free credits per month (which equates to 100 still images per month - get an additional 50 credits if you sign

Dollars Mocap: Full Body Webcam Motion Capture (Including Hands and Fingers) For iClone and Cartoon Animator

Even though I should be further away from the camera Dollars Mocap MONO still does a good job of tracking my arms, hands and fingers. Ever since I wrote my series on becoming a VTuber , discovering it was possible to do full body motion capture, including hands and fingers, with just software and a webcam, I've been on the look out for any motion capture software that can bring that functionality to Cartoon Animator. Dollars Mocap is a low cost motion capture application with a free trial that I learned about through the YouTube Channel Digital Puppets and their test video . It can record full body, upper body, arms and hands, and facial mocap from a live video source or pre-recorded video. Investigating further, I discovered not only does Dollars Mocap have a free iClone7, iClone8 character profile file download (look for it at the bottom of the main program download page), so you can use the saved motions with iClone8, they've also got a demo video for how to convert your

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

Animation and Video Life

Search This Blog