Animation and Video Life

GoAnimate's Product Manager, Nicolas , created a series of Isometrix custom characters and props which I wanted to try out but really didn't have anything in mind in terms of a story line. Not to be deterred I decided to start putting together a scene with the available props in the hope that something would come to mind as I worked. The result was Blink which you can watch in the player below. Blink by etourist Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com . It's free and fun! This animation is probably a classic example of an idea that just evolved as I worked to find inspiration. As mentioned I started to piece together a background using the available Isometrix props. Nicolas had designed an orange picture frame for the theme which I decided to use on the wall of my background set. Trouble was I needed something to go inside it. Trying to feature as much of the Isometrix theme as possible I decided to use some head props inside the two photo frames I'd placed each sid...

Unlike my other previous Domo Animate animations, Tashanna and the City is not a short comedy sketch. Started way back at the end of May 2009 I always intended this to tell a more complete Tashanna story but with my usual light humored approach. I had the basic idea early. Tashanna is interested in fashion and style (what female 'tween' Weasel isn't?) and longs to be glamorous like her TV idol of all things stylish, Katie Teen. One day, after watching Katie's show, Tashanna hits upon the idea to go to the city to ask Katie how she can become glamorous? The scene was set. It sounded like a great idea so I started to animate. I never thought I'd need six months to get this story completed! Tashanna and the City by etourist Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com . It's free and fun! The title came about early and is inspired by the TV show Sex and the City which I used to watch. Had I not watched that show I would've probably come up with something diff...

It's been several months since episode 3 of my Men In Black series staring Barack Obama and AKON but finally the two MIB Agents are back and hot on the trail of wanna be Evil Genius, Rashy (the sock monkey) - or are they? If you haven't seen the previous episodes then I strongly urge you to take the time to watch them otherwise the current episode may not make a lot of sense. You can either click the links in the GoAnimate player below to view each episode on GoAnimate or, if you'd like to read my background notes, then click the following links, Episode 1 , Episode 2 and Episode 3 to take you to each animations corresponding blog post. MIB - Part 4 by etourist Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com . It's free and fun! As with previous episodes, when I started I had no idea where the story would end up. Episode 3 ended with Rashy about to set his special robot agent onto Bush and Cheney with Barack and AKON heading out to track Rashy down. I did know that I wante...

People seem to like Happy Bunny so much as GoAnimate's Complaints Desk Operator that he was the obvious choice for this years Christmas animation from yours truly. This outing I wanted to get back to a more universal humor and move away from some of the GoAnimate member centric humor of the previous episode, hence no members were parodied, sent up or poked fun of in the making of this animation. Except perhaps for myself. My goal was to try and use as much of GoAnimate's Christmas theme as possible whilst still trying to maintain the idea that this is a Complaints Desk and therefore people should be complaining. It was obvious to me that Happy Bunny would naturally be cynical about the whole Christmas Holiday season and not really appreciate any attempt to decorate his space with 'holiday cheer'. However he would also get a certain satisfaction out of undermining the Christmas spirit by spreading the cheer with 'False Hope'. This time around Street Fig...

Street Fighter's M. Bison is a mysterious boss and head of the crime syndicate and military organization Shadaloo. He is responsible for the murder of Chun Li's father and Guile's friend Charlie. Making him the ideal choice to train wanna-be evil geniuses from the GoAnimate cast of characters. Of course, having spent 400 GoBucks (US$4.00) just to obtain Bison for my latest GoAnimate Complaints Department installment, was also a factor in making sure I got my monies worth from the character. Evil Genius Training Camp by etourist Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com . It's free and fun! It was GoAnimate member Coady who planted the seed for this concept in an unrelated GoAnimate forum discussion called Great Tactics for getting fans although I suspect his comment "TET, do I feel an evil genius video coming back?" was referring to my original Evil Genius series for getting views. I remember a few years back reading a list of things an Evil Overlord sho...

Pencil is a 2D bitmap and vector based, free animation tool for MACs, Windows and Linux that I'd like to say is the perfect introduction to 2D, computer assisted animation but can't. It is a great tool. Clearly set out, easy enough to learn, versatile. In fact you can create an entire animation within Pencil, including audio tracks, and then export it all to a single movie file that you can upload anywhere. It will also export files as Flash/Shockwave movies (which is my interest in using it). However, the Windows version of Pencil is extremely buggy making it frustrating to use and sometimes down right impossible (forced software closures, lost work etc.). I suspect as a tool for creating animations, using bitmap images, Pencil is ideal. There's much less to go wrong. On top of that you could choose to edit all your frames in any bitmap editing software you choose then just import them into Pencil, add some sounds, export to a movie file and you're done. If that's...

It appears you can't keep a good (or even a bad) rabbit down. Not even death has stopped the return of GoAnimate's favorite complaints desk monitor, Happy Bunny. This time around the rise and rise of GoA member, Coady , is one of the main themes. Coady is so nice and so popular that other members just can't help but devote entire forum topics to We Love Coady !! Coady recently passed me on GoAnimate for most views of all time so this video is therapy whilst I try to recover (LOL). Of course the Complaints Department wouldn't be the same without Street Fighter's, Ken, complaining about having to pay real money for Bison. I've extended that theme with a special guest appearance by me complaining about all the money and go-points I had to spend just to make the video. Then there's the usual random references to things on the GoAnimate site like the regular complaints about no Sonic the Hedge Hog or Mario themes and more. Oh, and if you've never heard of T-...