GoAnimate: the current insult to animators

If you are into animation, you might have already seen this clip by Harry Partridge: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Pjgs…


He seems pretty upset against of what it seems to be the most bullshit business ever created in the History of projects with the word "Go" on their names, after "GoXango".

GoAnimate is a pre-canned animation software, ready to use for everyone who want to "create" some sort of nicely looking show or something. Ideal for teenies to replace their highschool powerpoint presentations, or people looking how to pitch an idea quick and easy... and not -not in a million times- for introducing anyone to actual animation, like they hinted, statements that make me more qualified for doing a better job than their marketing department at targeting their actual niche, and would have saved them the energic reaction from Harry and the animation community.

The response from GoAnimate to Harry's video:

"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"



Some people goes around saying kudos for the well mannered, down to Earth reply the company is giving, accusing Harry of not being on such "proper level", but believe me: is really easy to be "better than that" when you have, yes, some level of education - which indeed you will have if you are the spokerperson of a company launching an application intended to make serious money- but mostly, is easy to be "better than that" when you are not emotionally invested. I challenge you to be "better than that" when somebody a). kills your dog b). beats your child or c). insults what you do for a living... as long as you actually love what you do for a living and are not there just for the pennies. Odds are, you won't.

There is a well known case back in my country about an intellectual who worked writting a column for one of the major newspapers in here. A smart, well educated gentleman, into poetry and stuff... who lost it and wrote the most insult-plagued rant letter ever written after drug dealers killed his son by mistake. You can not blame this man for losing it, you cannot ask him to be "better than that". You cannot tell Harry Partridge to be civil when this software was a kick in the balls for what he does for a living -yehhh, is not like they are killing their relatives, but he is not like ranting, ya'know? at least not beyond his usual violent themed stuff, bla bla, you get the point - so yes, GoAnimate might have been civil and polite on their answer, but their approach is as much bullshit as they are kind in order of not to piss anyone so they can keep their sales. On the best case scenario, their marketing approach is just making a huge mistake approaching people with the "introduction to actual animation" card. Is like Rock Band trying to approach people who look forward to actually learn to play the real instruments, or Call of Duty approaching people predisposed to enroll to the army. They are not doing that, are they? Probably because they understand the huge difference between playing to be a soldier/musician, and being one... and this is what GoAnimate doesn't seem to understand: the only animator there is the FamilyGuyStyle dude who made the army of props and movements, who might be either getting a juicy commission out of this or being ripped off out of all the comissions he is stopping getting since he is delivering his customizable skill for free, for everyone to use. He is the animator in here, not the average GoAnimate user.

So there you have, Kids: use this software to fool around with your friends or impress your Ecomomics teacher with that talking Carl Marx toon for your show&tell class, but don't expect to learn a shit out of actual animation with this.
GoAnimate: please, be honest, stop misleading people, fire your marketing department and rewrite your campaign.