No, I'm honestly not suggesting a return to those horrible stilted avatars reading the news headlines, but I do like the idea of using some animation to bring a reader into a story - particularly if the story is the latest in a long running saga and a handy recap of the tale-to-date would be useful.
I made my first cartoon using Xtranormal today; I know it's a site usually used for making training and presentation tools, but I was interested in whether it might work for journalists.
It took me about an hour and I had a lot of fun doing it. As the clip embedded here explains, I chose an avatar (there's everything from corporate to robot avatars available but I fancied having blue hair) and gave it a voice (she's really plummy unfortunately) then started adding animations.
The script is translated to audio, and it does sound stilted, although when I played around with some of the words and punctuation it improved. I think if I'd spent more time on it I could have got it to flow better.
So I know it's not Toy Story but it does the job, and I was more interested in seeing how efficiently it worked, and how long it took to put together, than the style and content.
Anyway, it made me think: why shouldn't we incorporate more animation in our websites? I don't mean some 'toon cat informing us of a moider in a local suburb, I'm thinking more about the options to introduce some fun back into what we do, and what we provide for our audience.
I'd love to see reporters being given time to make multimedia content - soundslides, cartoon, blogging, timelines, wordclouds - to compliment the words they have to churn out every day.
So, this is my first cartoon, made for free on a free site which offers paying customers more characters, audio, sets and other options.
I made my first cartoon using Xtranormal today; I know it's a site usually used for making training and presentation tools, but I was interested in whether it might work for journalists.
It took me about an hour and I had a lot of fun doing it. As the clip embedded here explains, I chose an avatar (there's everything from corporate to robot avatars available but I fancied having blue hair) and gave it a voice (she's really plummy unfortunately) then started adding animations.
The script is translated to audio, and it does sound stilted, although when I played around with some of the words and punctuation it improved. I think if I'd spent more time on it I could have got it to flow better.
So I know it's not Toy Story but it does the job, and I was more interested in seeing how efficiently it worked, and how long it took to put together, than the style and content.
Anyway, it made me think: why shouldn't we incorporate more animation in our websites? I don't mean some 'toon cat informing us of a moider in a local suburb, I'm thinking more about the options to introduce some fun back into what we do, and what we provide for our audience.
I'd love to see reporters being given time to make multimedia content - soundslides, cartoon, blogging, timelines, wordclouds - to compliment the words they have to churn out every day.
So, this is my first cartoon, made for free on a free site which offers paying customers more characters, audio, sets and other options.
4 comments:
Hi Al, will be using your cartoon as an example during my sessions in New York during the week :-)
Fabulous!
I'd never have thought of doing something like but I can see the potential for engaging an online readership, especially younger users who probably don't buy print but use YouTube every day.
I can definitely see this being used to satirical effect - as it has in these two gems I've come across in the last week:
First of all, the social media expert:
http://bit.ly/FJMk9
And second, a biting look at working as a modern photographer:
http://bit.ly/E6uxa
What I would secretly love to see is using it for a courtroom re-enactment - but suspect that might be a step too far ;)
Hi chaps, isn't it a great site? I was delighted to find that even a numpty like me could use it without a problem.
Mark, I'd be really interested to see how it goes down with your Noo Yoikers!
I'm looking forward to hearing about the NY trip generally - it sounds as though it will be great.
Louise, the younger generation thing is a really good point - I was thinking our music bloggers might have some fun with it as well.
And I love the links Jo :) Tell you what, you do a court case on the Argus website and tell us all how it goes...
Post a Comment