GoAnimate

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About

GoAnimate! is a web-based animation software created by Alvin Hung. It is used to make quick and efficient animations, often by businesses and schools. It is well-known online for its homogenized and somewhat low-quality appearance, and has gained an ironic fanbase.

History

GoAnimate was first created in 2007 by a Colombia major in programming and economics named Alvin Hung^[1]. He founded the site with the goal of making it easy to create short videos for business use.^[1]^[2] One of the main selling points is the interface, which uses simple actions like drag-and-drop and menu choices in order to create the video from a library of pre-made assets and movements. This ease of use makes it simple for beginners like students or people who are not trained in animation. The tool quickly gained a large fanbase due to its quick and efficient method of creating animations and relatively low cost. In 2014, GoAnimate created an option for schools, allowing schools to work with GoAnimate for a monthly fee. In 2015, GoAnimate shortened the trial option, making it only 14 days.^[2]

In August of 2015, it was announced that the website would move to being HTML5 based, and would cut a number of its usable themes in the process by January 2016.^[3] This included the website's most famous themes Comedy World and Lil' Peepz. This development was met with an extremely negative response from the fanbase, who expressed their displeasure in their videos. Some of these videos depicted site founder Alvin Hung getting either abused or portrayed in various unflattering ways.

Feeling that this was the end of their video-making, the fanbase was ready to move on to other animation programs, such as Plotagon. However, when it was discovered that the Comedy World and Lil' Peepz themes were still able to be used in the version of GoAnimate made for schools^[4], the fanbase took to using that version instead until HTML5 was applied to that version without the non-business themes being upgraded for it as well. With the various beloved themes like Comedy World no longer accessible under normal means on the website, this will likely mean that use of the software for "X Gets Grounded" videos (see below) will probably drop considerably.

Features Of GoAnimate

One of the main selling points is the interface, which uses simple actions like drag-and-drop and menu choices in order to create the video from a library of pre-made assets and movements. This ease of use makes it simple for beginners like students or people who are not trained in animation.

There are two levels of pre-made films: first are the animated shorts of the Quick Video Maker, which contains a selection of pre-made films which only require dialogue and voice recording. The second level, which is called the Full Featured Video Maker, has the ability to create scenarios from scratch from their asset library.^[3] Video downloads are tagged with a GoAnimate watermark in the lower left hand corner unless the user has a paid plan. GoAnimate also has a system for students and schools with increased privacy and access controls.

Reception

While GoAnimate has a thriving fanbase of subscribers who use the software to make animated video series that they then release online. Some of the more notable users include Paul Dini, whose show Super Rica and Rashy was animated using GoAnimate and TheGoAnimateGuy67, who has made 74 videos using the tool and posted them on YouTube to his over 20,000 subscribers. In addition, posts and mentions of the videos are frequent on Tumblr^[5], which includes a blog dedicated to screencaps from the many videos^[6], as well as on YouTube, where there are over 431,000 videos tagged with the term.^[7]

The software also has a large cadre of vocal critics. Some examples of those who dislike GoAnimate include Harry Partridge and OneyNG, who are both web animators who criticize the format for its homogenous look and lack of creativity in the videos below.

X Gets Grounded

X Gets Grounded refers to a series of videos made using GoAnimate, where someone gets caught doing bad or illegal things and gets grounded by his/her parents for it. The most notable series of Grounded Videos features Caillou, Dora, and many other characters from other children's cartoons, and first began appearing on YouTube in 2011, with the video "Brian Gets in Trouble at School." As of November 4th, 2014, there are about 232,000 results for "gets grounded" on YouTube.^[8]