Alvin Hung, the founder of GoAnimate. He founded GoAnimate in 2007.
Vyond (formerly known as GoAnimate (September 16, 2013 - May 6, 2018) stylized as Go!Animate (2007? - September 16, 2013) is a cloud-based platform for creating and distributing animated videos with drag and drop assets. It allows users to develop both narrative videos, in which characters can speak with lip-syncing and move around, and video presentations, in which a voice-over narrator speaks over images and props, which may also move around.
The service was provided on a freemium basis to consumers and has multiple subscription levels available for businesses. GoAnimate provided users with drag-and-drop tools that the company's website indicates could be used to access thousands of character models, backdrops, and other assets to create scenario-based videos - like political videos depicted during the 2012 presidential campaign. The platform offers Text-To-Speech character voices with customizable environments. Scholars and students also used the product to combine audio files from historical moments with animated re-creations.
GoAnimate has since been rebranded as Vyond, a change that took place on May 5, 2018. Despite the rebranding, the company running the Vyond service hasn't changed its name from GoAnimate, Inc.
History
Go!Animate was founded in late 2006[1] by Alvin Hung. It was created due to Alvin Hung's wife wanting a animation to be created for her, but since Hung couldn't draw, he decided to create Go!Animate to solve this issue.
- "Traditionally, animation is controlled by an elite group of people. A group of people who have the talent to draw and to handle complicated software. We want to democratize animation and empower the average user to express his ideas using animations.
Actually, the real reason is just because my wife was bugging me... She wanted me to "make" her something and I thought I could easily whip up a nice animation to appease her. Well, I couldn't because I don't draw well and Flash is difficult to use. GoAnimate was founded to solve this very mundane problem... :P"
- — "Why GoAnimate?", 2008[2]Before being founded, Development likely started sometime during 2002, as Go!Animate's Translation Files (Such as go.mo) contain references to that year.
It remains unknown if this is the case, but based on data from an website found sometime in 2018/2019[3], it was once known as "Anifire" from December 2006 up until mid-2007.
On September 20th, 2007, the GoAnimate website's first capture on the Wayback Machine appeared.[4] The page only had a few lines on it about how it was coming soon, with an unarchived image of the Go!Animate logo being captioned with "Go!Animate loves you."
In early 2008, an app of it was released on Facebook, however the Go!Animate website itself was still in a private beta.
On July 2008 at San Diego Comic-Con[5], the website was launched fully, and Alvin Hung was interviewed about the website.
On May 21st, 2009, DomoAnimate, a new website with the "Powered by Go!Animate" line, went live as a part of the Domo Nation website.[6]
One month later on June 30th, 2009, Go!Animate opened the Cartoon Network Toon Creator, which was another "Powered by Go!Animate" website, as a public beta.[7]
A event would be announced on December 7th, 2009 named "GoAnimate's Jingle Bell Blowout Contest", in which 2 people could win a Nintendo DS.[8] The challenge for the event was to create an animations for 2 Story Ideas, although one idea could be used, with the deadline for the video being December 24th at 12:01 AM (EST). The contest winner is unknown.
In 2012, e-Marketer predicted that video would be the fastest-growing online ad format in 2012, with spending to increase nearly 55 percent over 2011. Business2community.com reports that the popularity of video as a medium to communicate information results from its ability to effectively tell stories, spread messages and encourage action. It notes that bloggers who may not be skilled writers are turning to video as well.
On September 16, 2013, GoAnimate changed its logo, removing the exclamation mark. The site relaunched with a new look, new features, and the removal of GoBucks and GoPoints. The video creator was renovated in October 2013, and the character creator was revamped in late November 2013. This was also the year the grounded video trend started to rise drastically.
On January 1, 2015, GoAnimate relaunched with a new layout and the removal of the GoPlus subscription.
On November 25, 2015, GoAnimate replaced their free plan with a trial plan that lasts for two weeks. After the trial expires, the ability to create or edit videos is locked until a paid plan is subscribed to.
In 2016, an HTML5 based video-player would be released, with themes unrelated to business (two themes were the exception) being removed.
GoAnimate claimed it was only compatible with business themes, but likely due to the mixed opinions of the GoAnimate Team regarding non-business themes, the reason it wasn't compatible with them was due to how many Grounded Videos were appearing on YouTube.
On May 6, 2018, GoAnimate rebranded into "Vyond." However, the developer of the site still remains as "GoAnimate Inc."
In 2019, an HTMl5 based video-maker was released. Likewise with the video-player, it was only compatible with the Business Themes.
On July 16, 2019, Vyond announced that they were planning to shut down the so-called Legacy Video Maker, the original Flash-based video maker used since 2007. Vyond cited the end-of-life of Adobe Flash Player as the reason for removal. This would ultimately prevent users from making animations with the non-business themes.
On December 19 of 16 2019, the Legacy Video Maker was disabled for all users. This is cited as the last step for Vyond in disassociating themselves from the GoAnimate brand.
Criticism
On September 15, 2014, DomoAnimate, the site powered by the discontinued "make your own website" option of GoAnimate, shut down as a result of the site deteriorating moderation wise. Users are now redirected to GoAnimate4Schools when they search for DomoAnimate. That same day, GoAnimate removed private messaging and commenting abilities to basic users. This update received negative reactions from users & subscribers, who feared that GoAnimate might shut down because most of the site has been powered by basic users and GoPlus users.
On November 18, 2014, GoAnimate discontinued their older forums, and their Help Center's Community Forums went live. GoAnimate also confirmed that they were discontinuing the ability to sign up for a free account in early December and that they would be adding a free trial option. That has been confirmed, however, the date pushed back to November 26, 2014. They also announced that they would be eliminating all basic accounts by November 25, 2015. In January 2015, GoAnimate removed the option of upgrading to the GoPlus subscription, due to lack of popularity during the fall of 2014, and the growing subscription base. Alvin Hung was responsible for removing low-class subscriptions in favor of business-friendly subscriptions, causing complaints.
In July 2015, the remaining social media features were removed, sparking major criticism from the user base, causing some users to move to YouTube with others quitting Goanimate completely. This was the point it became clear that Goanimate was turning into a business site.
By October-November 2015, Oddcast voices were removed due to the licenses expiring, in 2016, the VoiceForge voices were removed also due to the licenses expiring, and in 2017, the Eric and Jennifer text-to-speech voices were removed. In 2013, GoAnimate removed its GoCoins and GoBucks currencies.
Product
GoAnimate provides its users with a library containing tens of thousands of pre-animated assets, which can be controlled through a simple drag & drop interface. Asset types include characters, actions, templates, props, text boxes, music tracks, and sound effects. Users can also upload their own assets, such as audio files, image files or video files.
There is also a drag & drop composition tool, which users can employ to create pans and zooms.
Spoken dialogue and narration can be recorded directly into the platform or imported as an audio file. Characters can automatically lip-sync dialogue that is assigned to them. Alternatively, audio can be set as voiceover narration. Users can download their finished videos as MP4 files, GIFs or video presentations. They can also export them directly to a variety of video-hosting sites including YouTube, Wistia, and Vidyard.
A version for schools was also available, called GoAnimate for Schools. It was shut down on June 30, 2019 due to Adobe Flash Player initially retiring in 2020.
Grounded videos
On YouTube, a subculture of videos that utilize Vyond has emerged in 2011. These videos are colloquially known as "Grounded videos". These videos characterize said characters as "troublemakers" that are usually on the receiving end of disproportionate punishments for various issues, generally grounded for several or hundreds of years, from some form of the authority figure. These are created with the intent of comedic effect because the Vyond text parser fails to recognize larger numbers or reading onomatopoeic sounds as typed.
Gallery
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090328140524/https://www.gaebler.com/Interview-with-GoAnimate.com-Founder-Alvin-Hung.htm
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20080607040645/http://blog.goanimate.com:80/2008/05/test.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070612122047/http://www.anifire.com/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070920233317/http://goanimate.com/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20080922135256/http://blog.goanimate.com:80/2008/07/goanimate-official-launch-at-comic-con.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20091203074209/http://blog.goanimate.com/2009/05/create-domo-kun-animations-powered-by.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20091203081933/http://blog.goanimate.com/2009/06/ben10-new-animation-platform-created-by.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20091213014532/http://blog.goanimate.com/2009/12/goanimates-jingle-bell-blowout-contest.html