Kickstarter

Update: We've now got the best $1 reward on Kickstarter!

Animating is fun and you can do it too.

Animajig breaks down the tasks of animation into simple, reusable, drag-and-drop assets that the user can select from our library, or create themselves. If they choose to create an asset, that asset instantly becomes part of the library that’s available to all users. This allows users from every skill level to create and share. Plus, it’s free. 

How It Works:
With Animajig, the basis of animation is characters. They are 2D skeletons (stick figures) that have a set of flexible actions and skins associated with them, and animations are built by adding these assets to a timeline; like a director, you just tell the character what to look like and what to do.

The magic happens when the user would like an asset that isn’t currently available—say an action like “wave goodbye” or a skin like “chicken suit.” With our simple and intuitive tools the user can create that asset, and every time a new asset is added to the library it is instantly available to the ENTIRE community.

The fundamental idea behind Animajig is that no one ever has to start from scratch. A user can always start with as much or as little as they’d like from what the community has built before them. We believe animation can be more than just something one person creates and many others consume; it can be something that people respond to, build from, be inspired by, and share.

What makes Animajig special is that being social isn’t something a user can do—it’s something that users are. The more people use Animajig to make animation, the better Animajig becomes for everyone. Community is actually part of the tool itself, which means that users with little of the classic animation skills can still see their ideas come to life, and professionals can save time and watch their creations take on new meaning and context. The possibilities are limitless.

There’s Sound Too:
Like any good animation program, Animajig offers sound support as well. Vocals can be recorded directly into the application. Vocals are run through a process that matches visemes (mouth positions) to the recording, meaning characters will automatically mouth along to your own voice.

Where We Are:
Over the past year, we’ve built a working version of Animajig: We’ve tested the philosophy. We just need to flesh out the libraries and advance the tools.

What we need to do for the release: 

• Refine the asset creation tools (they work, but lack refinement)
• Build the user accounts pages and message boards
• Canvas animation to video encoder (not complicated, but a fairly large project that needs to be done)
• Add streaming support for longer animations (we've established how, we just need to implement it)

1–2 months for the version 1.0 release!