Plotagon Is An Easy To Use Program For Making Animated Movies
There was a game called The Movies ten yeas ago. Picture The Sims, but this was purely about being a movie studio tycoon. You manage all of your simulated actors, make successful movies, expand your studios and so on. People zeroed in on the movie making aspect of the game and started making their own movies. There was also the expansion, The Movies: Stunts & Effects. You could tell stories with these movies, and even now there are some pretty good ones online.
Other platforms were created for people to tell their stories, and The Sims and its various versions have been used as well. These days, there are quite a few programs out there to make animated movies. One of the better ones is called Plotagon. What's interesting is that Plotagon doesn't just advertise the idea that you can make a movie. There is also the educational aspect of this program.
They sell the idea to teachers that this can be used to teach lessons to students. Animation can be an effective vehicle in teaching the young. They also boast the fact that Plotagon can be used to spread an anti hate, anti violence, anti bullying lesson. I think this is true, and it's actually a clever marketing plan.
The positives are that you can create your own characters. They can be male or female, and because of the way the program works, you can even create transgender characters. You have various clothes, long hair, short hair, makeup, glasses and hats and various voice levels. You can make an animated version of yourself if you want.
For your movies, you get some pretty nice scene selections. Some of the things you start out with include the interior of your home, some office space, a cafe, a restaurant and some street scenes. It's enough to make several episodes before you need new scenes. They have those too, for a reasonable fee. Hospital, jail, school, a grocery store and some political settings are among your options.
There are definitely limitations. You can only have two characters in a scene at a time. I don't really think it's necessary to crowd the scene with too many characters, but being able to manage three or four characters in a scene would be nice. You also can't have a character walk across the screen or dance. It would also be nice if, in a PG way, characters could lay in bed and close their eyes since we do have beds and couches.
You do have various facial expressions that cover much, but not all, of the emotional spectrum pretty well, and that helps provide more realism to your characters. There are some actions two characters can engage in, such as high fives, a pat on the shoulder, a hug and three different kisses. One kiss is the rejected kiss. It might be nice to have a longer kiss for characters who are in love. I totally understand not wanting to go in an adult direction here, but a longer kiss isn't pushing things too far and still presents a tasteful program.
As I mention, there are voices provided for your characters. You actually get to hear your dialogue spoken out by the characters you create. This is another of the attractive features provided by the program. It's a bit robotic, but not bad. Sometimes words aren't spoken clearly enough, but an observant writer can change the phrasing or spelling in a way that gets better results. If you have voice actors, you can even provide your own voices.
I've been wanting to find a platform that would easily allow me to create an animated series. After seeing somebody else do two series with good results, I decided to jump in and give this a try. I have been enjoying the process so far. There are lots of options out there, but Plotagon is as easy as they come. You can easily create characters and be writing your script in no time. You can also go back and adjust your character's look or wardrobe before producing that episode. If you are looking to have some fun with animation, Plotagon might be worth your time.
You can find their website right here: https://plotagon.com/
