That was brilliant! Animation is meant to move and flow, to express and evoke emotion, to explore creativity, and to evolve beyond still pictures. But when an animation limits itself to just standing, talking, non moving, and emotionless characters, it stops being an animation. It becomes creepy.

Yay! Well said

Bravo! GoAnimate is just writing. If you can write really well, it can be funny. But it’s not animation by a long shot.

Here’s a quote from the founder of GoAnimate in the comments section:

“Harry,

You have some very funny animations, nicely done.

I created GoAnimate because I was trying to make a cartoon and I couldn’t do it. I’m not an artist and it’d take me months to make a good looking cartoon. The idea behind GoAnimate is to make diy-animation more accessible to everyone and so in turn attract more people to learn how to draw and become real animators.

Think of us as a bicycle and making animation like yours as a motorcycle.

Thanks,

Alvin Hung

Founder // GoAnimate”

His intentions seem to be good, but his method is clearly wrong, and the fact that he’s not an artist worries me. Discuss. :-)

That video rings so true to me.

Someone needs to throw Happy Harry a wad of cash & let him make a feature. Or whatever the hell he wants to make because he’s awesome.

Harry posted this in the description for the video in regards to reaction its been getting:

“For the record I am indifferent to the software. I have no problem with people wanting to create animation with it for fun as long as those with loftier ambitions aren’t letting their skills stagnate. I spent a lot of time with 3D movie maker as a kid because I didn’t know how else I could create animation and I really wish I had discovered flash sooner. Brad Bird began his first animated film at 11 years old so you’re never too young to start!

So please remember that my animated counterpart is a caricature in more ways than one; I didn’t really jump on a horse when Skyrim was announced and I’m not about to go postal on someone who wants to use some gimmicky animation software, just consider the alternatives.”

Rubbish, sadly this program will probably catch on though, like how most webcomics have adapted Penney Arcades cheap, easy to draw look.

Geez a lot of elitest doomsday peeps in here. I think it’s great that little programs like these can introduce people to tools to make some funny stuff or help kids get into animation.

Nobody is saying that it’s better than real fluid animation or something. People obviously recognize quality animation when they see it. But a neat tool for everyone else to have some fun isn’t bad.

I’m sure Harry knows this too, he’s also just having some fun at Go Animate’s expense.

If people can begin animation with Flash and Go and move onto learning more proper animation then there’s nothing wrong with it. If they want to just stick with easy tweening stuff on layers and make entertaining cartoons on Youtube, then fine. You guys act as if these people will be using this to apply for jobs at Pixar or someplace.

Not everybody has the chops to be great artists and animation isn’t easy, but they’d still like to have outlets for some creativity however limited. I happen to love a web series called Broken Saints which has an awesome storyline and fantastic comic style illustration and that was done entirely in Flash. God forbid some creative people get recognized for their passion through simpler forms of animation. A lot of Japanese anime is low budget stuff, but I love it a hell of a lot better than the bulk of American stuff because despite how fancier and moving Animation standards of animation tend to be they’re just boring kids stuff most of the time. You know this to be true.

Gotta say that Democratizing Animation so that Everyone can Express Themselves is pretty much crap.

There’s just too many other ways that people can express themselves. There always have and always will be.

I’m never going to try to jump into an orchestra pit and start fiddling around. (Well okay, I might and you’ll hear about it if it happens…) But, there’s other ways I can express myself. Some are easy while other ways are harder.

In general, people should not think that just because they Love taking in someone else’s expression in some form that they, too, need to express themselves in that same way.
We don’t *need* to have the chance to make stuff that is like the stuff we take in.

The day that sculpture critics and sculptors are saying Democratize Sculpture! Free the Chislers! Rise Up, Ye Welders! That’ll be a day too far.

As it stands, if those who Can Do Something Do Want to Do It then let ‘em do it. Let ‘em sculpt.

If those who Can’t try and Do, let ‘em try but there’s little reason to wish for it to be common. Like I said, there’s other ways we can express ourselves…

I’m all for common. But, wanting to raise something up as an ART or an ARTFORM and then saying it should be Commonplace and as E-Z as an E-Z Bake Oven Cake….man…. That’s how come hobbywork and craftwork seems so manufactured instead of being expressive. And, too much Expression! is when expression just becomes noise.

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but…

http://bit.ly/g06GiK

It IS just another tool. I sympathize with the purists, but you sound just like you did 15 years ago about Flash. “Flash will never be popular because everything looks so flat”. We all know how that turned out.

I’ve read so many negative comments towards GoAnimate from so called animation ‘purists’ in support of Harry’s video that I’d be embarrassed to stand along side any of you and support what you do.

Any real animator would recognise GoAnimate as just another a tool and just another way to create an animation (and YES it IS animation). All those characters on GoAnimate were animated by talented animators so that people could use them to create their own stories, music videos, jokes, social commentary, series etc. etc.

Sure kids can use GoAnimate to create animations. Just like kids can pick up a pencil and draw animations frame by frame. It’s not about the tool, it’s about who uses the tool and how far they can push it to it’s potential.

Most of you bagging GoAnimate have barely spent any time with it to really know what it can do. Most of you don’t even realize you can use real voice actors and you can make the drag and drop characters seem less wooden if that’s what you want to do.

There are people on GoAnimate who spend months on their animations to create something entertaining and worth while. It’s not all quick, easy and poorly conceived. Look a little deeper and see what it’s really about.

You all eventually embraced Flash because you realized it could get your work done easier and quicker than you used to make it. GoAnimate is the same. In the right hands it can get an idea animated easier and quicker than you might otherwise. Sure you wouldn’t use it to make a feature film but to get down a quick idea that you never intended to take to a full drawn animation… you might use it for that.

I find it hard to believe so many professional animators could get so upset over something that’s essentially a toy. It’s just for fun & it gives people a way to share stories even if it is relatively primitive. You don’t see authors freaking out over MadLibs or architects ranting about Legos. It’s true that many people don’t value animators’ hard work and talent, but innocent tools like this are not the problem.

Without Go Animate Seth MacFarlane would not own a Gulfstream.