GoAnimate

GoAnimate is one of the XtraNormal alternatives I found and my review is very positve.  When you sign up for GoAnimate you are given a brief tutorial that will help you understand the basics of the program.  You have have 2 options at sign up, Free and Pro.  There are some major advantages to going with the fee based program and one is a direct upload to YouTube and another is more actor and background options.  This is similar to how XtraNormal used to be.  The other actors and scene backgrounds are well done and offer more colors and details than the standard ones.  GoAnimate backgrounds and caracters are fully customizable and you can really add personalitation to each.  That is one thing that really seperates GoAnimate from Xtranormal, the level of customization and I was really impressed with how easy it was to fully customize.  You are able to change voices, expressions, movements, photos, backgroung colors, etc.  I also like the way each actors movements, voice, etc was entered into 1 scene.  Camera angles seemed to be more consistant here than in XtraNormal, however that could be opprator ( me ) error.  The editing or working version is very similar to MovieMaker so I felt very comfortable with editing and if needed moving scenes.  One thing that I don't like is how long it takes to load a video, even if embeded.  You are not able to download these videos using realplayer which is a slight bummer for me where bandwith in my school is killer slow.  Using this as for students may not work, especially if the whole class is using the site.  GoAnimate is a great site and I will continue to use them when I can.  The costs associated with upgrades is minimal and I do like the extras that XtraNormal doesn't offer.  I feel like I could actually make a full on customized cartoon using GoAnimate and that if I was creating this for a YouTube style show this is the easiest and fastest way to do that.  GoAnimate does have an option for schools.  A single teacher account gets unlimited access to all GoAnimate4Schools features; the teacher can also post animations to GoAnimate4Schools public gallery.  Student’s accounts have access to following features:  Make animation up to 2 minutes long, Upload own music, Text-to-voice and voice recording.  This is a great value and if I have enough intrest than I will take GoAnimate  up on this generous offer. 

Here is my sample GoAnimate Movie

GoAnimate.com: whose on first by mrrileysblog

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