go animate review: make professional animated videos

We’ve always been attracted to motion and sound.

Just like when you give babies a colorful toy that does not move or make a sound, they would probably enjoy it at first but soon become bored with it.

But a toy that moves and produces sound will hold their attention for much longer. Right?

Now, when it comes to promoting your products or services, you’d want to try different marketing methods.

Have you thought about creating animated videos? It’s probably one of the most creative ways to increase your visibility.

Animated videos can definitely liven up your presentations, produce interesting tutorials/training, and get your message across more effectively without your audience falling asleep.

Remember, people respond better to visual information. About 65% of us are visual learners.

It used to be a costly process though; you either had to commission a video complete with live actors or you had a group of cartoonists produce an animated video by hand.

Both used to take a lot of time and involved more expense than most can afford; then computers came into the picture.

Technology has this habit of advancing in leaps and bounds while we sleep – making animated videos through GoAnimate may be one such leap.

What is GoAnimate?

To simply it for you, GoAnimate is an online animated video editor – a powerful one. You can easily create your own animated videos without any complicated set up. All you need is an internet connection. Here’s a sneak peek of the video editor:

Who can use GoAnimate?

• Anybody who needs to make an animated video can use GoAnimate regardless of their artistic skill, and even if they are not that good with computers.

• GoAnimate.com has made creating animated videos as easy as playing a simple video game; virtually no skills required, just a concept for an animated video and a message or story to tell.

• Teachers and instructors can now easily use GoAnimate.com to create interesting instructional animated videos.

• Companies can make effective advertising videos within minutes of a concept getting finalized.

• Ordinary people can create cool resumes. Business presentations can be made using animated infographics, both for its color and attention-grabbing qualities – graphs moving, changing color to emphasize certain points, etc.

Take a look at the video I just created for my VA business:

Don’t you just love it?! 😉

Ok, now here come the PROs and CONS:

Pros

• Easy to use. The storyline is yours, of course, but most of the rest of the work is done by GoAnimate; all that is required are simple clicks and drags and anyone can make professional animated videos.
• Get started right away It’s a web-based service and that means, you don’t need to install anything.
• Affordable. It starts at $39 a month!
• Huge library of characters. They have a huge library of characters and settings to fit almost every setting and story line. What’s more, you can create your own character with just a few clicks. Here are some examples:
  
• Ability to change settings. Settings templates too can be changed to portray different places from outdoors to offices. You can also change the poses and expressions of your character like you can make it look mad, happy, excited, sad, etc. There is a large selection of elements which can be added to settings, such as plants, furniture, phones, cars and the like.
• Ability to add motions. There is a collection of motions available for the characters and elements you choose to include in your animated video. When you add sound, lip-synch is automatic, when the phone rings, it vibrates in an exaggerated motion, etc.
• Ability to import. It allows the user to import images, music, voice, screen captures or video clips. There are also a lot of audio and video effects and enhancements to choose from.
• Easy publishing. Once complete, the video is kept at GoAnimate.com for you to download and perhaps embed in your site on in social media. As with the video creation process, publishing is a breeze requiring one simple click.

Cons

There’s not much NOT to like in this editor. But of course, nothing is perfect so here are some things I don’t really like:

• Extra charge for transferring commercial rights to a client or third- party. If you’re creating animated videos for someone else, you will have to pay extra for $79USD per videos for commercial rights.
• Unrealistic Voiceover (text-to-speech feature). I love how they have this feature but I wish they had more realistic ‘voices’ on their text-to-speech feature. However, the guys in GoAnimate advise people not to use this feature for your finished deliverables. It’s much better to record a voiceover from your computer’s built-in microphone, or perhaps work with one of their partners to do professional voiceovers for you.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

It’s definitely a powerful tool especially for marketing folks and teachers. It’s a creative way (and effective) to get your message across more effectively!

How much does this service cost?

The basic package is called ‘GOPUBLISH’. For only $39 a month or $299 a year, one user gets up to 720p HD download/export resolution, the right to produce unlimited videos which you’re allowed to export to YouTube and other sites, unlimited hosting/playback, unlimited downloads/exports, the ability to import images and flash, and access to all the features and libraries of GoAnimate.

For a slightly higher fee of $79 a month or $599 a year, the mid-level package called the ‘GOPREMIUM’ allows one user the same privileges provided under the basic package plus: video resolution is upgraded to Blu-Ray level 1080p Full HD, the right to transfer commercial rights of completed videos, the ability to add clickable links and to remove or replace the watermark.

For multiple users, there is ‘GOTEAM’ package which starts out at $250 a month or $2000 a year for three users. It has all the features of the ‘GOPREMIUM’ package, plus group management and project collaboration. Escalating volume discounts are provided for additional user licenses.