Animation and Video Life

GoAnimate introduced a beta feature called Text To Speech which allows your characters to speak with natural but still obviously computer generated voices. A Light Situation was not my first animation to use this feature (That claim to fame goes to The Bikini Proposal ) however it is the first to use it without the speech balloons. The animation its self is simply a random idea of Mr Wilson being 'beamed up' into the light fittings and plays out with a number of slightly surreal ideas. It was inspired by some of the alien props and characters on GoAnimate's site of which the beam up yellow light is one. Just seemed funny to beam someone up into the light fittings and then go from there. As you can hear the voices aren't that great and lack proper expression. The system also struggles to pronounce less familiar words. Which is why I suspect the feature is still in beta testing after three months of it being introduced.

My original Batman parodies, The Dork Knight and Dorkman Begins , were both Staff picks on GoAnimate and proved popular. Just like Warner Brothers, when you're onto a good thing... you make another sequel. Dorkman Returns not only references at least four different Batman films with its humor but also references my two previous Dorkman animations. Perhaps when you start referencing your own work it's time to stop? I think this animation started out rather strong, contains some good humor but kind of fades at the end. Importantly it ends with Bruce's struggle to be cool still unresolved - paving the way for more stories should I wish to try another episode. Watch for my custom items including; Dorkman Symbol, Joker face, Bat cowl and cape, new Bat Cowl, Scarecrow and clown masks. There's even a cameo by Super Kent .

After having created a Rashy cartoon in The Boss of Everything I thought it was only right that Super Rica got some of the spot light. The whole theme of Super Rica and Rashy cartoons seems to focus on the tricks Rashy plays on his other family members, in particular Super Rica. In the first official GoAnimate episode of Super Rica and Rashy, Rica gets the rough end of a saw whilst Dad get's locked in Mom's magic, escape trunk. See the episode below. I took this idea further with Rashy locking Super Rica in the escape trunk and... well watch my animation below to see the result. (You'll note that I don't do voices for my animations simply because I don't rate myself as a very good voice actor. Plus I could never do Mom's voice).

Super Rica and Rashy created by Paul Dini and Misty Lee are hugely popular on GoAnimate despite their creators only posting three animations thus far (at the time of writing this). That aside, their cartoons really showcase just how good a GoAnimate cartoon can be. Naturally I had to try my own Super Rica and Rashy story and came up with a story based around the naughtier of the two monkeys, Rashy. Rashy gets into so much trouble it only seems natural that he'd get annoyed with being sent to his room as much as he is. Hence he longs to be the boss of everything. In actual fact this animation didn't start out as a Super Rica and Rashy cartoon. I'd originally planned to use GoAnimate's, Classic Cartoons, little boy, Matt (pictured right), and have more of a Dennis the Menace theme going but it occurred to me that my ideas suited Rashy down to a tee. One thing that I really like about this particular Rashy cartoon is the image of Rashy sitting behind the Bosses desk giv...

Super Kent is the man of steel , not that anyone believes him. That aside Kent steels himself one morning to confront the boss and tell him the truth. He is Superman ! I really like the premise of my original Super Kent animation and wanted to do another story that left no doubt that Kent is actually Superman but can't convince anyone else of that fact. One of the nice things about using GoAnimate  (now Vyond) is the range of characters you can adapt for your own purposes. Super Kent Returns features Dad (guy in the donut shop) from cartoon great, Paul Dini's Super Rica and Rashy theme on GoAnimate. Kent's Superman suit is a full character custom prop by yours truly.

All great superheroes have an origin story. Not to be out done even the not so great superheroes like Dorkman have origin stories too. This is how young Master Wayne began his quest to become cool again after he was unwittingly 'outed' as a Nerd one day in class. The second of my Batman parodies, like The Dork Knight before it, this origin story makes a few references to the movie it is sending up, Batman Begins . This animation includes a few more custom props and backgrounds that I created including a the full character prop of Scarecrow and the Tumbler .

What would happen if Clarke Kent decided to 'come out' and tell everyone that he is actually Superman only to have no one believe him? That's the premise of Super Kent , the mild mannered reporter who's tired of being the klutz around the office. This Superman parody references some of the jokes in my previous effort, The Dork Knight , including the idea of underage superheroes using tricycles and the bus to get around. All the images are from GoAnimate  (now Vyond) with exception to the custom, Spiderman head that I created myself.

It's not easy being a Superhero when the criminals don't respect you and you're still in school. We join young Master Bruce as he attempts to disperse his own vigilante brand of justice as the caped crusader. Succeeding mainly in cementing his reputation as a Dork, the Dork Knight. GoAnimate (now Vyond) is an exceptionally fun site for amateur animators that just want to get straight in and tell their stories without the hassle of actually having to create characters and animating them. I discovered the site in August of 2008 and soon hooked back into the animation bug that has always been with me, on and off, ever since I became interested in cartoons as a child. I began by creating parodies of popular superheroes, the first being Batman otherwise known as The Dark Knight . GoAnimate has a great Nerdy looking character called Eddy whom is the star of my Dark Knight parody. It only took a couple of my own bad custom props, a cape and a cowl, to turn him into The Do...

Chapter 1, Part 1 I've never understood the need to shop but then I'm non-materialistic. I've been trying to transfer as much of my life into the machine as I can just to be free of everything but the essentials. Rachael, on the other hand, lived for shopping. Maybe it was a 'girl' thing? Her body slumped forward over her computer. Face masked by a virtual headset and blood that had leaked from her ears. She'd been shopping in a virtual mall, just like real life only it wasn't. The mall existed inside the machine. The machine could give you anything you wanted for a price. It was good like that. The apartment looked run down. Old boxes, left over from home delivered take away food, filled nearly every surface. Rachael was still in her nightdress when she died. Not all that unusual. Many people spent their whole lives within the machine, unplugging only to eat and perform other necessary functions. The machine had realized the dream of wor...