Animating made Easy

The Latest At GoAnimate!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Hi Everyone!
We have a lot of updates to fill you guys in on. We've been pretty busy here at GoAnimate lately!

Halloween Spooktacular Contest

First, we would like to congratulate the winners of the Halloween Spooktacular Contest. Thanks to all of you who entered. It was a big success and hopefully you guys had as much fun making your entries as we did watching all of them!

Grand Prize Winner -10 Custom Character Creator credits + $10 Amazon.com GC
The Distress Call by RoTV

Three First Place Winners -3 Custom Character Creator credits
Where am I? by cheekyboy

Halloween Night by DarkPhoenixXD

Halloween Spooks by Mojochi

New Update to the Character Creator

We have added new features to the Character Creator that will allow you to customize your characters even more! Now you can add a scar here, a bandaid there, wrinkle lines or even some blush or earrings! Check out the characters below with a few of the added new options!

New View Count Display

Some of you may have also noticed that now under your profile pictures it displays your view count. Pretty cool huh? Also, to make it easier for you guys to recognize who is part of the staff, instead of displaying a number under the profile picture, it will say Site Admin.

New Community Blog Comming Soon!

We will be starting a bi-weekly community blog post that will include user submitted content as well as stuff we think you guys will enjoy! So for example, our first post we would love for you guys to submit pictures how you are celebrating Halloween! You could send us pictures of your carved pumpkins, your cool costumes, decorated houses, etc...

Please send these to me at michelle@goanimate.com

New Custom Character Creator Released!!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:10:00 +0000

It's Here, It's Here! Our New Custom Character Creator Is Released!!

We know you guys have been waiting patiently for this feature for some time and the wait is over! Now you can custom create any character you want, the possibilities are endless! You can create yourself, your friends, family, celebrities, and make your own adventures with them come to life!

You can create a look-a-like of yourself and integrate it with our already existing themes and make animated tales of yourself and the crew of the USS Enterprise, battle it out with a Streetfighter, hang out with Willie Nelson, party with some celebrities, just to name a few examples!

To create a Custom Character just click on the Create tab to get started.

Then, just follow the arrows, to go thru selecting all your custom features. You can use the arrows to move things around and the other buttons will shrink, enlarge, rotate, and move say your eyes closer or further apart. You can customize all the facial features, clothing and colors on everything! Pretty cool huh?

Once you are happy with your character click the save button and it will be added to your personal list of characters. We also have pre-made ones to chose from. You can find those from the drop down menu at the start of the creation process.

You can also earn Character Creator credits by linking your GoAnimate account with your Face Book account and posting on your page! Please feel free to post in the forum if you have any questions or you can message support@goanimate.com

Now Let's GoAnimate!!

Announcing GoAnimate's Halloween Spooktacular Contest!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:14:00 +0000

GoAnimate's Halloween Spooktacular Contest!

It’s my favorite time of year again! It’s coming up on Halloween and it’s time to get spooky! I think the perfect way is with a good old fashioned Ghost Story. Time to gather around the campfire, turn off the lanterns and get ready to be afraid, very afraid! We want you guys to make your scariest, spookiest ghost stories come to life!

General Conditions:

The contest will be divided into two separate parts. The first part of the contest will be based on highest number of views. This period will start at 12:01 AM(EST) October 19th and ends at 11:59 PM(EST) October 25st 2009. You can start working on your animation now. We will reset the view counts to zero once the first part of the contest begins.

The ten highest viewed contest entries will then move on as “Finalists” to the second portion of the contest. They will then be judged by the GoAnimate staff. We will choose one Grand Prize winner and three first place winners. Once the results are in from both parts, we will announce the winners on October 28th.

Eligibility:

Each contest entry must be a Ghost Story. You can make it funny, mysterious, or just down right scary! It can be whatever your creative mind can come up with! However if you think your entry may be extremely frightening, you might want to add a warning. We wouldn’t want to give anyone a heart attack! Ha Ha!

1. Entries must be between 1:30 minutes – 2:00 minutes long. We don’t want super short ones, but don’t want to hassle with long load times either.

2. Animations without music and/or sound effects will not be considered.

3. The winning animations will be based on General Conditions listed above.

4. You can use any theme or combination of themes for your entry.

5. All entries must be tagged with “spooktacular” in order to be eligible. Make sure that you add the tag when you publish it, so that we will not Staff Pick it. Staff Picked animations will not be eligible.

6. NO CUSTOM CHARACTERS THAT WERE CREATED DURING THE BETA TEST CAN BE INCLUDED, as they and any animations they appear in will also be deleted. The CC will be released in a few days, if you want to add one then, it will be ok

Prizes
Grand Prize Winner - 10 Custom Character Creator Credits and a $10 Amazon Gift Card
Three First Place Winners - 3 Custom Character Creator Credits each

Yayy! It's Chat Time on GoAnimate With Meebo!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:03:00 +0000

Hello GoAnimators!

We have just introduced a new feature that you guys have been wanting for quite a while! It took us a bit, but we think we found a good one that will work well with the site. Meebo is easy to use and alot of fun. Now, you can chat with your fans and friends right on the GoAnimate site! If you only plan to use Meebo to chat with your GoAnimate friends then you will not even need to register for an account. The feature is fully integrated with the site.

Meebo lets their users gather their friends and form a single "Buddy" list where you guys can communicate in real time across different IM platforms, communities, and other social networks. Users can keep in touch with friends across dozens of IM platforms, including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, MySpace IM, Facebook Chat, and more. If you would like to import your friends list from other platforms, you will need to sign up for an account. For more information or support you can visit Meebo.

You will notice that there is now a Meebo Chat bar that sits at the bottom of the page. Below you will see what it will look like when you log into GoAnimate now.

To get started, you will need to become a Fan of the person/people that you wish to chat with. Then you can click Add Friend from their profile page. But it works both ways in order to start chatting. They will also need to Fan you and click to add you as a Friend in order for them to show up on your Meebo Friends list. Once you have your friends list set up, you will be able to see when they are online and available to chat.

Another pretty cool thing about Meebo is you can easily share content with each other while you chat. If you notice in my picture above, there is an arrow on the bottom left that points to a link to "Share Page". So, if you are talking to someone and want them to check out an animation or maybe a specific thread in the forum, click this link and drag it into your chat box.

Now if for some reason you wish to no longer be chat buddies with someone, you can simply go to their profile page and click Remove Friend. Hopefully, you guys will have lots of fun and put this new feature to good use!

Interactive Animation Showdown - Winners Announced!!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:06:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

A big thank you to all of you that participated in our Interactive Animation Showdown! The contest was a lot of fun and we got to see some very creative uses for our new Interactive Feature. We really did enjoy watching all of your contest entries and congratulations to all the winners! You guys really did an outstanding job!

So, without hesitation I present to you the Official Winners!

Grand Prize Winner - 2,000 Gobucks & $20 Amazon.com Gift Card

T-Roll's How to Lose Fans and Infuriating People by Coady

Three First Place Winners - 1,000 Gobucks

H I T M A N-The Interactive Game by vp1234567

Find the Red Dot Interactive animation entry by Stevie wonder

PLAY!!! Survival interactiveanimation by thebest creator

Congratulations again to all the winners and thank you to all of those that participated and made the contest a big success! Stay tuned for an announcement about our next contest and your next shot at GoAnimate fame and prizes! In the meantime, have fun animating! :-)

New Web Based Audio Recording/Editing Tool!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:09:00 +0000

Hi Everyone!

GoAnimate has been very active lately with the contest and we're getting some really great entries so far! Love to see all the creative uses for the new "Interactive" feature!

We wanted to tell you all about this really great site that we found http://aviary.com/tools/myna.
It is a web based application for audio recording and editing. You can also mix music tracks and add effects! There is no need to download anything or worry about installing a codec, like you would need to do with Audacity.

Here is a screenshot of what the audio studio looks like. It's very easy to use and the site has a great help section if you have any questions.

The site also has several other tools that you can use to create props and effects.

All of the different tools have great tutorial videos you can easily access from the main http://aviary.com page. We hope that you will find this site useful and in the meantime, Have Fun Animating!!

It's Time For a Showdown! You Could Win Big!!

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:40:00 +0000

Interactive Animation Showdown!!

Are you guys ready to get active? Or better yet, Interactive? Well now is the time! Create an animation using our new Interactive Speech Bubbles and you could be a winner!!

DATES -

The contest dates are 12:01 AM September 14, through 11:59 PM (EST) September 27. Any animations PUBLISHED before or after these dates will be considered ineligible. When the view counting period begins, all contest entries will have their views reset back to 0.

**REMEMBER, WHEN WORKING ON YOUR ANIMATION, TO SAVE YOUR ENTRY AS A DRAFT UNTIL THE CONTEST PERIOD HAS STARTED.**

RULES -

Each contest entry must include our new Interactive Speech bubbles. You can make it a game, a mystery; it can be whatever your creative mind can come up with!

1. Entries must contain a minimum of at least five Interactive Speech Bubbles used throughout the complete animation. However, there is no maximum number you can use, so the sky is the limit!

2. Animations without music and/or sound effects will not be considered.

3. The winning animations will be based on highest number of views. Views will only count during the contest period. Any views received after 11:59 PM (EST) September 27 will not be considered in the determination of the winners.

4. You can use any theme or combination of themes for your entry.

5. All entries must be tagged with "interactiveanimation" in order to be eligible, however only the first or main animation needs to be tagged. This is the one that will be used to keep track of view counts.

PRIZES -

~ One Grand Prize Winner will receive 2,000 Gobucks and a $20(USD) Amazon.com Virtual Gift Card

~ Three First Place Winners will each receive 1,000 Gobucks

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:22:00 +0000

Interactive Animations! New Speech Bubble Link Feature

noreply@blogger.com (RandomGirl) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Today we added a new feature to the studio: The Speech Bubble Link feature.

This is a great new addition and will have many different uses! Now, when you drag out a speech bubble and click to edit it, there will be a new button. The new button looks like a little blue and green globe.

When you click the globe button you will get a pop up and you can link to any other page on GoAnimate. You could link to one of your other animations, a user page, a forum thread, there are so many possibilities! When people click the link they will automatically be redirected to wherever you send them on the site.

This could really have a lot of fun uses!

For Example

You could link to other episodes of your series.
Link to your profile page (this could be very beneficial if your animation is embedded on another site).
You could make an animation with alternate endings and have users click to pick which they want to see.
Collaborating with other users on a story could be fun, just link to the next persons part.
Link to a forum post you want people to see.
Help promote your favorite animations.
You could make a game out of it and if the viewer picks the right links, it leads them to a win or lose screen.

We can't wait to see all the creative ways you guys will use this new feature! Please let us know what you think of it and what ideas you come up with. Have fun and enjoy!

New widget, GoBucks offers and FX behavior

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:52:00 +0000

Another week, another update on GoAnimate... and there's a lot this week!

New widget

Tired of embedding your and other people's animations on your site one by one. No problem! The GoAnimate widget is here. Just select a category and a theme (optional) and you will get a continuously updated flow of animations on your site. No maintenance required.

It comes in 2 different colors and the dimensions can be tweaked to fit anywhere on your site.

GoBucks Offers

As we are releasing more premium characters and content we thought we should also release more ways for everyone to earn GoBucks. Now when you go to the "add credit" page, you will see offers that allow you to earn GoBucks and that do not force you to spend money.

FX Behavior

Ever tried to use that widescreen effect and couple it with a zoom?! Just impossible?? Well, not anymore! Now special effects on GoAnimate are attached to the player screen instead of the stage inside the studio. This means that when you zoom inside a scene the FX will stay nicely in place as an overlay.

If you feel some of the current FX behaved better before, let us know and we will also make them available as props to give more flexibility. Try it out now!

We're looking forward to hearing your comments regarding these updates!

More updates

- You will now need to update your Flash Player to version 10.0.12 or better to use GoAnimate. This is needed to enable some of the new features we're releasing.

- News highlights on the FAQs and forum pages

- Following a large number of comments, Pamela does not touch her breast anymore... (Sorry guys)

- Bug fixes on the stick figure theme

New Special FX: Pan

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Today we have added a new special effect in the studio: The PAN effect. This effect should make it much easier to create camera movements in your scenes. It is meant to be used together with the zoom and cut effect to add dynamic effects in your scenes.

To use it, simply drag it to the starting location where you want the camera to focus. Then drag the effect to the destination where you want to camera to stop of the end of the scene. As you drag you will see that the starting position remains the same and you are only dragging the end position for the effect. After this you can fine-tune both starting and ending position the way you want.

When you add a scene, the Pan effect is copied to the next one, but the ending position is now your starting position. Neat, huh?! And... if you want to use a zoom or cut effect in that next scene instead, no problem, simply click on these effects and they will be copied to the right position.

That's about it really. It's now up to you to let us know what you think of this effect and if it is a good complement to the existing zoom and cut ones. Enjoy! :o)

Stick Figures, Renaming Movie States and Published Date

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:14:00 +0000

It's time for another update already! Here is what has been changed on the site today.

Stick Figure Theme
You asked for more actions... Here you go! We updated the theme to include more fighting actions both hand-to-hand combat and using firearms. We also added so more generic actions like lying down, kneeling down, different walks and swinging stuff. You may also realize the stick figures now have super powers and can wear new headgear that will surely remind you of a popular cartoon series... we let you guess what it is.

KA... ME... HA... ME.... HHHHHHAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Renaming Movie States
It's always a bit tricky to rename something on a site already launched for a while, but we thought this relabeling was worth it and hopefully will help new users better understand the different states available to save your movies.

Now on the save movie screen in the animation studio, you can choose to save your animation as draft (the old private no sharing state) or to publish the animation. Once you publish the animation you can choose to publish it as public (the old public state) so that anyone can watch it or as private (the old private sharing on state) so that only people you give the URL to can watch it. In private state you can also share the animation on social networks.

We hope the change won't be too confusing at first. You will see that on your user page the labels for your movies have been updated as well.

Published Date
As we made this change, we also introduced the concept of a published date. From now on after you turn your animation to public, we will record the published date and this date will not change in the future. This means that even though you edit a published movie, that date will remain the same and the movie will not show in the latest list. This will help making sure that the movies on the watch page are all "fresh"!

Basically, if you want to republish your movie with a new date, the only way to do so is to make a copy of that movie, which means losing all the stats of the movie.

As usual, let us know your comments regarding these changes.

New Forum Categories

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:51:00 +0000

Hi everyone! We're happy to see that the GoAnimate community is growing steadily - and in tandem, that the forums are receiving more traffic than ever before! It's wonderful to see everyone sharing their ideas, animations, random jokes and comments. Because everyone has something to share, we decided to modify the forums, so that threads would be located in the appropriate places. Please read the following descriptions of the forum categories, and please make sure that you start threads in the appropriate category!

About GoAnimate

In this category, discuss tips and tricks to improve animations. Here you can also talk about other GoAnimate topics.

Animation in General

In this category, you can promote your latest work, thank your friends, discuss your favorite cartoons and animated films.

Errors and Bugs

This is the forum to address errors and bugs, or if you cannot figure out how to access a certain feature.

Suggestions

In this category, you can tell us how we can make GoAnimate better. It can be new characters, new actions, new features, new themes, etc.

Open Forum

This is the category for chatterbugs! If you want to chat about anything (and everything) that doesn't fit in any of the categories above, feel free to speak your mind here.

Threads that are not located in the appropriate categories will be moved - this is to ensure that you are finding relevant threads for what you are interested in.

Stay tuned for further updates to the forum as we have exciting plans in the works !

As always send us your thoughts and suggestions.

What's New: July 16th, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Two "what's new" posts in one day! Pretty cool, huh?! ... Okay... Okay... I know, I'm cheating. I could have put all these together in one... :oS

Anyway... Here's what's new!

Sharers Highlighted on Animation Pages
The first update is an addition to the animation page. In the right column, there is now a new block showing who has been sharing that particular animation. That's a way for you as a sharer to get more exposure. Not only do you get extra GoPoints when you share, but you also get a spot on the animation page showing your helped promote that animation.

Note that your picture will be added there only if views are generated from your sharing. This means that if you send an email to your friends or share the animation on Facebook, your picture will only appear after one of your friends watched the movie.

"Best from Rising Stars"
Getting your work noticed on any website is hard. Here, you may spend hours working on an animation and then get no views at all. Is that fair?! Well, after discussing with both newer and older users on the site, we felt that it was important to try and do our bit to give newer users more exposure.

That's why we added this new section under the "Watch" Page of the site. Now, if you select "Best for Rising Stars", you will see promising animations created by users who may not be that well known yet on the site. This is a way for everyone to discover new talent on the site more easily. We hope that this will help in getting your work noticed faster.

As usual, pleast let us know your comments on these updates.

What's new: Sound Synchronization

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:28:00 +0000

We have just released a small feature in the studio to help synchronizing sounds with scenes more easily. Now, when you click on a sound on your timeline you have an option to start listening to that sound from a specific location along the timeline. What can it be used for? Let's use an example of how this can be used...

Imagine...

Imagine you found a soundtrack on the web featuring a cool dialogue and you want to turn that into an animation. You upload the sound to GoAnimate, add it to the timeline and then start putting the scenes together. The problem is, you have to go to preview the movie all the time to make sure your scenes actually fit the sound track you have added.

Not anymore! Let's say the timing of your animation is right for scene 1 and 2. But for scene 3 you want to make sure the scene lasts long enough for the character to finish his sentence. Now you can click on the sound at the point that corresponds to the end of scene 2 and start playing the sound from there.

As the sound plays a green marker will show. Wait until the character finished speaking and then press "stop sound". You now have a marker on your timeline showing how long it takes for the character to finish his sentence and thus how long your scene should be. You can adjust its duration to match the sound.

And you can repeat this for the next scenes without having to preview your animation multiple times. Handy, no? You have ideas on how to build upon this new feature? You have discovered other ways to use it to help you animate? Let us know in the comments below or on the forum!

Note (we're working on solving these two bugs):
Known bug 1: There is some delay playing the sound for long sounds because of streaming.
Known bug 2: This feature works well if you keep the sound in your timeline at its original duration. If you extend the sound to make it loop, the looping will not play when you select the "play sound" option.

Ben10 - A New Animation Platform Created by GoAnimate!

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:04:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

We here at GoAnimate are really proud and excited to introduce to you our newest animation platform - the Toon Creator on Cartoon Network's online headquarters! With the Toon Creator, you can animate characters from Ben 10: Alien Force, a popular and fascinating series on Cartoon Network.

Ben10 Cast of Characters:
Ben Tennyson is a fifteen-year-old boy who has the power to morph into ten different kinds of aliens. His cousin, Gwen Tennyson, has the power to manipulate energy to create blasts, shields and grapple holds. Their friend, Kevin Levin, was once their enemy and now drives an amazing sports car, can absorb and take on the qualities of all materials around him (concrete and steel, in particular), and has a small crush on Gwen...

We want to invite you to test out the Toon Creator...but please keep a few things in mind:

The site is still in beta, so there might still be bugs that need to be sorted out.
Moderation will take longer than normal.
Your GoAnimate account will not work on the Cartoon Network Headquarters site - you will have to create a new Cartoon Network account (don't worry, it's free!).

To get crackin' on your own Ben10 animations, simply visit tooncreator.cartoonnetworkhq.com , create an account, and begin animating your own Ben10 adventures!

Check out some of the animations I've made ... the possibilities are endless with this platform :) !

Toon Creator: Meet Ben 10! by laurelcando

Toon Creator: Meeting Gwen Tennyson by laurelcando

Toon Creator: Kevin 11 or Kevin Levin? by laurelcando

As always we appreciate your thoughts and comments. Try out this new site and let us know what you think!

Video Tutorial: The zoom FX power unleashed

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:29:00 +0000

After receiving a lot of questions regarding his own animations, Mojochi decided to create a tutorial to share his techniques. The zoom FX in the GoAnimate studio is one of the key tools he is using, and the below animation includes all the tips you need to know about this very powerful feature in the GoAnimate studio.

GoAnimate.com: The Advanced Zoom Tutorial by Mojochi

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

Thanks a lot to Mojochi for preparing this very cool tutorial. More than teaching other users about the zoom FX it also highlights how cool GoAnimate can be to create tutorials for anything.

BACKSTORY CONTEST WINNERS

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Here at GoAnimate we have been busy with lots of projects - including determining the winners of the Backstory Contest! Thanks to everyone who participated.

The four Grand Prize Winners were chosen by a panel of judges from CBS and GoAnimate, and the four First Prize Winners were determined by the most number of shared views. The Grand Prize winners will also be featured on TrekMovie.com !

Please have a look at the winning animations, and please stay tuned for upcoming contests (you too can have a shot at prizes and internet fame!).

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS

Best Nurse Chapel Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Star Trek: "Lady with the lamp" by Walker88

Best Mara Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Mara's Past by Uchiha7

Best Gorn Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Star Trek : Gorn Origins by PaulToon

Best Combination Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Love Federation Style by jdiggs

FIRST PRIZE WINNERS

Nurse Chapel Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Nurse Chapel Testimonial by RoTV

Mara Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Mara, Mara, Mara by RangerRoy

Gorn Backstory

GoAnimate.com: The Gorn Identity by Ludvig II

Combination Backstory

GoAnimate.com: Star Trek-Backstories by IndianOutlaw

Once again, thanks to everyone who participated...this was a really fun contest and we are excited to continue them all summer long! As always if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch.

Hey GoAnimate ! GoCompose!

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:58:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

GoAnimate was recently introduced to an amazing new website that allows you to easily create your own music.

HOW COOL IS THAT!

The site is called MusicShake, and has a very clever platform where you can easily compose songs from pre-existing samples and loops - plus you can record your own voice and other parts! Then you can pay to download your own songs as mp3's, or share on any number of social networks.

MusicShake is offering GoAnimate users 300 Shake Cash which will give 3 free MP3 downloads!

Simply go to MusicShake's Sign Up Page and use the promotional code "MUSICSHAKEPROMO3" to receive 300 Shake Cash!

Then use the music you compose in the animations you create!

...and if you have any questions or comments let us know!

GoAnimate Labs: New Community Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Update: Check our poll on the right side of the blog and let us know which set of characters you would like to see as an official GoAnimate theme.

This post is to let everyone know about a new user account we have created on GoAnimate. The account is called GoAnimate Labs and we will use it to post characters and content we are working on but are not sure are popular enough to change into a full theme or are a bit experimental. You can watch the animations there to know how to search for these in the community.

Use the characters, play around with them and send us your feedback. If you really like a set of characters, we will work on them further to develop full themes.

Below are the first three sets we have worked on. Each character has only a pretty limited set of actions, just to see if the community likes them. Enjoy!

Bamboo and Luna in Water Valley by GoAnimate Labs

SUSU & GIGI by GoAnimate Labs

Cubic pet by GoAnimate Labs

THE BACKSTORY CONTEST - NOW THROUGH JUNE 17

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:02:00 +0000

Today we have announced the addition of three awesome new characters to the Star Trek roster - Nurse Chapel, Mara, and a Gorn. They are all essential to the backstory of the Star Trek saga - and to honor their arrival, in addition to keeping in theme with the film, we have for you...

THE BACKSTORY CONTEST!

Now through June 17 you may participate in another fantastic GoAnimate contest! Check out the dates and rules below!

Dates
The contest dates are 12:01 AM June 3, through 11:59 PM June 17 (EST Time). Any animations made before or after these dates are ineligible. Up until 11:59 AM June 22 users will have the opportunity to continue to share their and other users' animations.

Rules
Each contest submission must tell the backstory of either Nurse Chapel, Gorn, or Mara. How did they first come to interact with the members of the Enterprise? Why did Nurse Chapel choose to work aboard the Enterprise? What is Gorn's home planet like? Why did Mara choose to marry Kang?

Entries may feature the backstory of Nurse Chapel, Gorn, Mara, or a combination of the three. These three characters will be made available for the duration of the contest, after which point they will be made premium characters available for GoPoints.
Four Grand Prizes will be given for the best Nurse Chapel backstory, the best Gornbackstory, the best Mara backstory, and the best combination backstory.
1. The Four Grand Prizes will be selected by a panel of judges from the staffs of CBS and GoAnimate.
Four First Prizes will be given - one for each of the categories mentioned in (2).
1. The Four First Prizes will be given to the Most Shared Animations (animations shared on outside networks).
Animations must be at least one minute long.
Animations without music and/or sound effects will not be considered.
Animations may feature characters from all licensed channels.
Entries must be tagged with "backstorycontest" in order to be eligible.

Prizes

Four (4) Grand Prize Winners will receive copies of Star Trek UNO, Star Trek SceneIt, and a Blu-Ray Star Trek DVD
Four (4) First Prize Winners will receive a choice of Star Trek Scrabble OR All About Star Trek Trivia

Winners Announcement
Winners will be announced Tuesday, June 23 on both GoAnimate and TREKMOVIE.COM (yes, that's what I said!).

And for your viewing enjoyment, please check out this animation featuring the new characters and contest!

GoAnimate.com: The Backstory Contest on GoAnimate! by Laurel

What's New: Star Trek & It's Happy Bunny

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:32:00 +0000

What a busy week! Another update coming your way...

Star Trek
We had announced it in our newsletter, and the update finally came today! Star Trek reinforcements have arrived. You can now create a full-fledged battle between the USS Enterprise crew and Klingons! And Dr. Mc Coy will certainly complain a lot less now that Nurse Chapel joined in to help him... although... knowing him...

It's Happy Bunny
A skeleton bunny!? Is it already Halloween? Well, no, not really, but we just could not resist adding this really cool looking bunny to our cast of characters. And now we also added two perfect victims for It's Happy Bunny to play tricks on... you may recognize them from our slideshows.

Enjoy the updates and as usual let us know your comments.

Celebrate Graduation with It's Happy Bunny and GoAnimate

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Now I know what you are all thinking...

How can I tell my son/daughter/niece/nephew/friend/boyfriend/girlfriend congratulations on graduating? How can we spread the word about the graduation party in a clever way? How can we make a great display of all of those embarrassing baby photos?

Look no further! This graduation season, turn to GoAnimate for some great ways to add a bit of animated flavor to your well wishes...with It's Happy Bunny!

We've created for you a graduation eMessage, a "Save the Date" graduation party eVite, and a graduation-themed slideshow, all with the help of It's Happy Bunny!

Check out the examples below for what is possible.

Congrats, Grad! - A Perfectly Sarcastic eMessage!
GoAnimate.com: Congrats, Grad! by Laurel

Save the Date! - and Save Paper! Send eVites and Stay Green!
GoAnimate.com: Save the Date! by Laurel

Animated Photo Slideshow - A Great Way to Share Pictures of the Graduate!
GoAnimate.com: Laurel's Graduation Slideshow by Laurel

As always let us know your thoughts and comments. We hope that you find these useful for your upcoming celebration!

What's New: Stats and referred friends

noreply@blogger.com (Nicolas) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:03:00 +0000

It's been a while since we posted a "what's new" blog post. Not that nothing has happened on GoAnimate as you must have noticed. It's more than a lot has happened and we haven't had much time posting to the blog. Anyway. That's bad! And we intend to correct that.

So, what's new today?!

Stats
We just updated the user page and now on the top of the right column there, you will see a little table. This table tells you on a daily basis how many GoPoints, views, recommends and comments you got. We also provide a little sum for the last 7 days. This should allow everyone to have a clearer idea about how their movies perform. We also added a special column called "Sharing GoPoints". These are the GoPoints you get from your referred friends. Whenever you invite someone to GoAnimate, they are added to your referred friends list. When these friends get views on their movies you get bonus GoPoints. Sweet!

That's my own stats... :o( Don't you laugh!!!

But who are your referred friends you may ask...

Referred Friends
Scroll down your user page a bit and below your activity feed you will see a new block that displays all your referred friends. If you see no box, this means that the friends you invited did not register to GoAnimate yet or that they haven't confirmed their accounts. To invite more friends, you can use the Earn GoPoints button on your user page and send invitation to your contacts on Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Windows Live or AOL.

Once you have referred friends, make sure you watch their movies and give them advice on how to become more popular on the platform. This will help you gain more and more GoPoints.

That's it for today. Busy week ahead of us... expect more in the next few days! :o)

AND THE WINNERS ARE!

noreply@blogger.com (LC) — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:41:00 +0000

You've mixed, you've mashed. You've spent hours toiling away at your mashup animations, brainstorming and buzzing and sharing until your typing fingers bled!

Well ok maybe that didn't happen, but this was one crazy contest we just had! Based on the total number of views, we have determined the three Grand Prize winners, and the five First Prize winners! Congratulations not only to these winners but to everyone who participated. What makes this job great is the generosity of spirit and undying enthusiasm of the GoAnimate community, and contests are so indicative of that.

Stay tuned as we roll out more contests all summer long! Your chance at internet fame and glory (and cool prizes!) await you...

But first, let's give the winners their time to shine!

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS
GoAnimate.com: I Command You To Be My Woman by Coady

GoAnimate.com: Bein' Green by Mojochi

GoAnimate.com: L-O-V-E Mash Up by RandomGirl

FIRST PRIZE WINNERS
GoAnimate.com: Oh! Bama! by bigdawg

GoAnimate.com: Tainted Love by Ryco

GoAnimate.com: Mash-up Madness by Retlaw

GoAnimate.com: Space Trek V - Shore Leave(mashupmadness) by IndianOutlaw

GoAnimate.com: GoAnimate Pinball Count by Ludvig II

Congratulations again to the winners, and thanks to everyone who participated!

Stay tuned for more great contests on GoAnimate.com!