GoAnimate.com: MHMS Media Center Adventures!

GoAnimate.com: MHMS Media Center Adventures! by gwyneth

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

OK, so i'm getting better at GoAnimate!...and it really is a WAY cool, user friendly animation studio! (that will probably be blocked by my county next week...just as i do any prof dev on it it gets blocked...cause that seems to be the kiss of death for anything cool - like Twitter or Flickr - i share it with other teachers or media specialists and blammo!...blocked! /rant)

ANYWAY...i also just created my own character! this feature was just released LAST WEEK...you can now make a comic version of yourself to use in your videos....the first one is FREE... (& yeah it's a younger cartoon version of yours truly with rad glasses!) if you've ever made a Mii Character it's a lot like that..here's a helpful blog posting, the official blog, and some video tutorials to help! i got so jazzed about this site i made a Go! Animate Introduction wikipage for this product....using LOTS of screenshots!

i'm still learning this....'cause i don't get why my character doesn't have some of the same actions as the stock characters have and i don't think you can edit it later so make your choices carefully! thank goodness i chose a black suit...black goes with everything and has no season..whew! if only i could upload a coach purse or a Tiffany key or pearl necklace to go with my outfit...but i digress! LOL


so have fun & play with Go!Animate but be warned...before you use this with kids..check it out, there are areas that have some questionable content (because users can upload their own graphics) ....so, for elem techie teachers & Media Specialists to use with their students there's a MORE kid friendly version of GoAnimate called Domo Animate where there are preset backgrounds, characters and where kids can't upload created backgrounds or content (that could be inappropriate or copyright grey)....check it out!

However, for Media Specialists making animations for special events, programs, or products i suggest using regular GoAnimate.com where you can Photoshop, iPhoto or Comic Life backdrops using your own graphics & digital pics!

but first, a few things i've learned about GoAnimate:

• Go!Animate works with Flickr to import photos for use as backdrops but it seems to only take the LARGE size and not the ORIGINAL...you really need to upload the largest & best resolution possible...i made that mistake of the quick upload and had to go delete all my backgrounds & upload better ones. what can i say? i'm a resolution snob.

• you can change the duration of the scenes...the default is 2 seconds..you can override it to 4 seconds...but i find that with two speech bubbles per scene having it be 5-6 seconds is more comfortable. slide the scene to the right in the toolbar to increase time
• you can edit when the speech bubbles appear and go away....to adjust the timing click on the right hand speech bubble then click EDIT.
  
• you can add special effects, but they sort of overwhelm a scene so i'll use them sparingly
• some characters have certain special movements or abilities and others don't.... i haven't quite understood why but it makes a difference.
• you can edit the sound, adding different tracks of music (up to 4) or you can choose one track to just loop for all scenes.
• here's the link again to my Go!Animate Introduction Wikipage
  

you can edit your animation at any time and the updates will show up on your embeded vids...no need to re-post them! (this is great for me because i'm constantly wanting to tweak and change as i learn how to do more!) and the music they supply has a lot of options to suit most every mood! if only i could find ninja's and better clothes for my character. some of the options at Go!Animate cost points (like Plurk karma) get points by sharing your vids or referring friends. "You can use your GoPoints to acquire special premium characters and props on the platform."

Special Offer for Media Specialists & Teachers:
So i contacted the owner of Go!Animate telling him about my plan to feature it at AASL and asking if there would ever be a school version and i was pleasantly surprised when he wrote back!

Hey Gwyneth,

Thanks for presenting GoAnimate at the national AASL. This is really exciting! We've put in a lot of work into our applications and it's great to see people enjoying them. I have given you more free credits for the Character Creator so that you can experiment more. Let us know if you ever run out.

Have fun at the AASL and email us know if there is anything we can do to help make your presentation better. About school use, we'll be launching a School Portal that is catered for educational use very soon. It will contain only child safe content and it will have features built specifically for teacher/student interactions. Let us know if you're interested in reviewing some of our designs.

Please tell the librarians that if they email us and mention your name, we will give each person 10 free credits for creating characters!

Let's GoAnimate,

Alvin :)

Alvin Hung Goanimate.com Animation Software @ Yahoo! Video

What do you think? Please feel free to comment on this product & share your creations!