Skip to main content

Part 3: Evolution of a GoAnimate Contest Entry

Contests are always difficult because you want to do something that really captures people's imagination or at least gets their attention. So, when you don't feel you've achieved that, it can be a little disappointing.

If you've yet to read Part 1 or Part 2 of this series following the creation of my GoAnimate, What's Your New Year's Resolution contest entry then you may like to read them first before continuing.

You can view my completed animation below noting that all the voices are mine. My natural speaking voice for my character and a digitally altered, lower pitch and faster tempo version of my voice for Kevin.

Being More Ninja, TET Resolves by etourist on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Once you've watched the animation you'll see there's nothing particularly ground breaking. It's a straight up conversation with a couple of cut scenes to illustrate specific points being made by the characters.

You may also notice, if you've watched the video of me performing the very first draft of the script, that the final version is considerably shorter and missing quite a few lines. This was a result of some seriously harsh editing.

Originally I animated the full script with pretty much everything included from the first draft of the script. However the more I watched it the more I realized it was just unnecessarily long, not that funny. I also wasn't able to come up with any cut away scenes that could add in the humor that was missing. So I chopped out more than a minute of dialogue.

What you're left with is what I consider to be the funniest part of the script I wrote, though I'm not entirely sure if it's all that funny anymore. It can get that way when you've seen a joke over and over. You just have to trust it will be funny for people the first time they see it like it was for you when you originally thought of the idea.

I'm also not that happy with the voice I came up with for Kevin. Digitally altering a voice rarely results in something that sounds anything other than digitally altered to me. You kind of end up with a TTS voice that is able to be expressive but still doesn't quite sound natural.

There's not too much else to say about my entry. I don't think it's bad by any means. I just don't think it has the spark to really stand out from the pack. Though I never know with my audience. I've seen other top level GoAnimators produce work of similar standard that really connects with their fans. I may be pleasantly surprised.

Wish me luck in the contest.

Comments

  1. I know what you mean, about digitally altering the voice. I am pretty good with male voices so I normally don't do any altering. However, I just wasn't happy with some of the male or female voices I came up with for my "A Prince of Persia" so I did alter the female voices and the main male character. I refer not to and except for the occasional female voice, I don't think I will in the future, like you said "Just doesn't sound real.

    By the way, I found your entry funny and entertaining. Maybe I wouldn't after viewing it a ton of times during production. I am however going to watch it again now, having finished your blogs on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoyed my entry. It's not really one to watch over and over again I think. It's pretty straight forward. You've pretty much got everything from it you're going to get after two or three watches.

      Delete

Post a Comment

This blog is monitored by a real human. Generic or unrelated spam comments with links to sites of dubious relativity may be DELETED.

I welcome, read, and respond to genuine comments relating to each post. If your comment isn't that save me some time by not posting it.

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

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...

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...

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, ...

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...

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

In part one of my deep dive into the free VTuber software, Inochi2D , I focused mainly on Inochi2D Creator, which is used for rigging your character avatar in the correct file format for use with Inochi2D Session, the puppeteering part of the software. The two sides of the software are still very much in development and the documentation, particularly for Session, is very thin on the ground. To the point where I don't think I could even do a comprehensive tutorial because I'm not sure I'm even doing things right, and the software could change significantly in a single update. As a result, in this part of my Inochi2D deep dive I'm changing tact from presenting my finished Cartoon Animator TET Avatar, and will be summarizing my experience of getting Session up and running using OpenSeeFace as the recommended webcam motion capture software. To do this I will be using  the TET avatar I created in my review of Mannequin , since that can be exported as a full, ready to go r...

Jarrad Wright, The Big Lez Show - Who Would've thought Animating with MS Paint Could Take You So Far?

A friend of mine recommended I should check out The Big Lez Show after I mentioned to him I make animations for living. He said the show's creator, Australian animator, Jarrad Wright , just makes episodes from his home using MS Paint. Somewhat shamefully I hadn't heard of The Big Lez Show, but the fact that it was being made with MS Paint absolutely hooked me into checking out. If you've never heard or seen the show then you, like I was, are probably thinking how good could it be? MS Paint has kind of a cult following of hardcore animators but no one would use it as their primary animation tool on a series, right? WARNING - before going any further, you need to know The Big Lez Show and its humor contains some pretty strong language. By strong I mean it's peppered very liberally with the 'F' and 'C' words and is very every day Aussie, blue collar speak. Unapologetically, all of that, is part of why it's so good. There's a good chance you've...