Animation and Video Life

Ever since the closure of The GoAnimate Complaints Department due to Happy Bunny's license expiring there's been something of a gap in social satire of GoAnimate Staff and member relationships. I honestly don't think any of GoAnimate's existing characters could replace Jim Benton's Happy Bunny on the Complaints Desk. Rather than try to do that, I thought, why not look at another area of the site that could use a little help. There's always been areas of customer service where GoAnimate staff could use a little help - usually because they're too busy making the site even more awesome behind the scenes. At the time Staff picks and how to get one was a big talking point on the GoAnimate Forums (Staff picks are always a talking point). The biggest issue being how to get staff to actually view your animations. Thus I created the Staff Pick Submissions Department with Sid (Vicious?). Staff Pick Submissions by etourist on GoAnimate Animation Softwar...

In the past I've featured various GoAnimators in this blog that just happened to catch my eye but, since this blog has become something of a resource for many members of GoAnimate, I thought it would be something of an ego boost to have their work featured here on a more regular basis. As such I've developed a competition for my GoAnimate family where by almost anyone with talent will have the opportunity to be featured right here in this blog. To announce the competition I created the animation below which features Lil' Peepz versions of myself and my dog, Oscar. (Note: If the video below isn't loading or playing click the link to view it directly on GoAnimate - currently having some issues with GoAnimate Players.) Competition - Get Featured in TET's Blog by etourist Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com . It's free and fun! The video won't mean a lot to non-GoAnimate members but if you are then watch for my Invitation to be Featured in TET...

One of the ideal uses for a website like GoAnimate is creating animations based upon comments, feedback and conversations online. The kind of thing you just wouldn't sit down and spend months animating - well, maybe, if you're from Ardman Animations  scouting for a new season of Creature Comforts  you might - but for the rest of us... probably not. However, just for a bit of fun with your friends or simply for your own amusement, animating an online discussion or comment is one of the things GoAnimate can do well without taking months away from more important animation projects. Here's a recent GoAnimatation I did of an email reply I received about my post, Harry Partridge, GoAnimate, What I Observed . I did send this person an actual email reply that, after thanking him for his comment, opened with the line written at the end of the animation. The exchange of emails did lead to a slightly more interesting and coherent discussion than is presented here but the c...

Xtranormal, Star Trek Entry Summer Movie Contest. To begin, I'd like to thank all of you that took the time to vote for and Youtube 'Like' my entries in Xtranormal's Summer Movie Contest and the Sydney Opera House's Graphic Contest . Thanks to your efforts I managed to place a very respectable seventh place in Xtranormal's contest - where the top ten most Liked entries received a prize. Seventh won me 2000 Xtranormal points - which I think equates to about US$20.00 in real money if I had to buy those points. Still, you can do a lot with 2000xp on Xtranormal so it was great to have even placed when I thought I'd be lucky to squeak in at tenth. You can see all the winners on Xtranormal's blog . GoAnimate SOH Graphic Competition Entry. I wasn't quite so fortunate with the Sydney Opera House's Graphic Contest. My entry was accepted into the first round alongside about 53 other entries. Unfortunately I don't know if I got enough...

Bat Star who appears in this short comedy sketch called, I'd like to buy a cape , was my first attempt at creating a Bat Storm character with GoAnimate's Lil' Peepz character creator. I actually made him around the same time as I made my Lil' Peepz, Bat Flash character (who appears in Lil' Bat Flash, End of the Road ), but didn't really have a project to use him in. Since then GoAnimate has added a whole bunch of Superhero costumes and I've made a better Lil' Peepz Bat Storm (pictured left). Which is why Bat Storm, Mark 1, is now called Bat Star. Up until very recently you couldn't add a cape to any GoAnimate Lil' Peepz or Comedy World character - This is why my Comedy world Bat Storm character does not have a cape. In one of my unreleased early previews for Bat Storm I had him in a clothes store very similar to this video (but using a Comedy World background) asking about buying a cape. However that's as far as I got and never expanded...

I think the fact that Captain Kirk had a bit of a reputation of being successful with the ladies was what prompted me to use the Star Trek theme on this animated music video for Tone Loc's song, Funky Cold Medina . Although I'm a huge fan of the song when it was released back in 1989 I uploaded it to GoAnimate intending to use it as a backing song to my GoAnimate Complaints Department Plus animation. However it just didn't seem to fit. In December of 2010 I decided it would be a great song to help feature Some of GoAnimate's new Musical Action packs including 'Lead Singer', 'Black Guitar' and 'Drummer' as well as the not so musical action pack, 'Romantic Male'. Those of you with a musical ear should listen out for all the different samples Tone used to create this awesome track. Funky Cold Medina was made at a time when mix artists were ripping samples from all kinds of songs without a care in the world for copying rights. One of t...

If you're a fan of GoAnimate's Lil' Peepz Superhero costumes and characters but are disappointed there is no Bat Cowl then I've made a video to show you how you can create your own Lil' Peepz Batman like character. I say 'Batman like' because there is no way you can put the Bat emblem on the bat suit chest. In my version the emblem is a lightening bolt, hence I'm calling him Bat Storm - a Lil' Peepz version of my Comedy World character, Bat Storm The video is quite long and not the most exciting 14 minutes of your life but you do get to see me make the character in real time, explaining some of my choices as I go. The character will cost you 270 Gobucks (or US$2.70) as most of the components are not free. If you have some extra gobucks to spend then I'd suggest purchasing the Fighting Action pack just to give him a few of those necessary superhero moves. If you want to get started on yours right away this link will take you to the Lil...

The I.T. Guy came about because, up to this point I really hadn't tried GoAnimate's new Lil' Peepz theme all that much, and I'd just come out of making the first part of Episode 1 to Bat Storm: Financial Crisis . I needed something small as a way of taking a break. I don't recall creating the I.T. Guy character, Bob, specifically to parody the Old Spice internet commercials that were well into their height of popularity at the time however he did suit the purpose. I was actually intending to create a series of Office style shorts that I could make quickly whenever the mood struck. In many organisations the I.T. person sometimes has this air of superiority because they know how to fix whatever it is you broke on your computer with just a few clicks. Chances are it's probably something you could've fixed yourself if you knew just a little bit more about computers. For that reason the I.T. person is always cooler than you and can get away with being a bit ...

GoAnimate made some major changes to their site mid way through 2010 creating something of a divide when they introduced Premium GoPlus+ accounts. i.e. paid accounts that give you access to more features. Unfortunately what this meant for free GoAnimate users, who now found themselves with a 'Basic' account, was that they lost a lot of things that they used to get for free. A major loss was the ability to mix themes - which now became a Goplus+ feature. Basic account holders also had their animation lengths limited to 2 minutes where as previously there had been no limit. Adding further insult to injury, in order to upgrade a basic account to Goplus+ users needed access to a credit card. With many younger users on site you can imagine the uproar as trying to convince your parents to pay for an upgrade with their credit card is not always the most easiest of tasks. At around the same time GoAnimate started to roll out its Lil' Peepz theme and Character Creator with mor...

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'...