| Five Sites for Making Animated Movies |
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| Written by jharmon | |
| Tuesday, 27 July 2010 11:34 | |
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Do you think you've got what it takes to make your own animated movies, but don't want to spend the money buying a bunch of animation and film equipment to find out? If so, there are multiple sites on the Web where you can test your animating skills for free or cheap.
Xtranormal
Xtranormal promotes itself with the logo, “If you can type, you can make movies.” And that’s pretty much the truth. Xtranormal has very easy-to-use controls, and once you get the hang of things you can make short animated videos in a matter of minutes. The animated characters are cute, looking like Lego characters. The backgrounds and available characters are somewhat limited, but not extremely so. The robotic voices can be funny, but for more realistic voices you’ll need to download any Xtranormal videos you make and edit in your own voices. Making videos on Xtranormal is free, but to be able to publish the videos and share them with others does cost a little money, though not much. Check out the video below for an introduction to Xtranormal. Go!Animate
One of the most fun things about using Go!Animate to make animation films is that the animations look like they could have been drawn by the same people who do the Family Guy television cartoon. Go!Animate is pretty easy to use, though it’s not a completely free service. There are premium services with Go!Animate that cost various prices, so check with the site to decide what how much you want to do and how much you are willing to pay. The site does accept Paypal, so that’s a plus. Also, you can add voices and other sounds to Go!Animate movies either by phone or through your computer. In my opinion, Go!Animate has some of the best-looking and least-generic looking animations available. The video below explores some of the basics of Go!Animate. Digital Films
Digital Films is another site which offers you the chance to make your own animated movies. The characters and backgrounds are somewhat generic and look somewhat like drawn cartoons, but the colors are vibrant and really pop off the screen. Unfortunately you can’t have the characters talking to one another except through speech balloons, that is unless you add your own sounds. One of the best features of Digital Films, however, is that fact that it’s completely free to use. Below is a an example video of what can be done with Digital Films’ animation tools. FluxTime Studio
FluxTime Studio markets itself as an easy animation tool for children and for education purposes, but anyone can use it as it’s pretty easy and even fun to use. Basic use of the site is free, but there are different levels of membership and they cost money. However, their is a clip-of-the-month contest and if you win you get a free membership. Check out the video below for a very basic tutorial of FluxTime Studio. toufee.com
This is a website that allows users to create Flash videos from available artwork. It probably works best if you already have your own artwork, but toufee does have some art available. You can include text and some basic music, but most other sounds you will have to incorporate yourself. If you are interested in making Flash films, toufee offers an easy and cheap option. Toufee does have a fee to use, but there is a 14-day trial that’s free if you wish to test it out. See the video below for basics on making Flash videos with toufee. Video related links 10 Funny and Cute Puppy Videos
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 July 2010 11:53 |
