Honestly, I recommend just leaning into Plotagon's bizarreness. Between the easy editing tools and colorful visuals, I also think it’s a cool creative tool for children, especially on mobile. Some clever, sincerely useful applications for the tool that I’ve heard include using it to make dynamic storyboards or creating corporate presentations more lively than a boring, traditional text slideshow.
So, what is Plotagon's use case? You definitely won't animate the next Oscar-winning short. Meanwhile, the Episode app offers little more than text and flat images, but its fan-made, choose-your-own adventure stories shine without the bizarre CGI distractions. Even Plotagon’s own videos, movies from the company’s own employees made using their own tools, plummet into the uncanny valley.Ĭompare that to Source Filmmaker, a more complicated 3D animation tool, but one capable of videos that appear much more legitimate. And it’s nearly impossible to tell which way your own movies will go. But at their worst, Plotagon movies could easily sit alongside the nightmarish, algorithm-driven CGI kids videos on YouTube. You can export your video with subtitles, a must if you’re not just recording your own voice.Īt their most harmless, Plotagon movies come across as generic, yet blandly pleasant, commercials for products that may or may not exist. The stilted canned animations add to the creepy feeling.Įven creepier is the text-to-speech voice, which speaks in an artificial accent that’s borderline incomprehensible at times. The very aesthetic feels like a scam or a fake meme somehow. So, what’s the catch? The finished films leave a lot to be desired.ĭespite the Plotagon's many customization options, the characters look like a bootleg take on a DreamWorks movie, or maybe a pop-up ad for a mobile game you’ve never heard of that rakes in a billion dollars per day.
The software has limitations, but I still found plenty of room for creative expression and satisfyingly fast, versatile storytelling. Anyone of any age and skill level should be able to wrap their head around it. Making movies with Plotagon is a breeze, like something out of a story-heavy, video game machinima editor. Once you’re done, export your cartoon as an HD video file right in the app.
Beyond talking, the characters can perform certain actions on each other, from kissing to slapping.įinally, tie your film together by adding some stock music and sound effects (happy music, applause noises) and writing title cards. You can alter the camera angle, and give the character an exaggerated emotional state like “scheming” or “super excited” to add more personality. Lips flap vaguely in sync with the dialogue. Add an establishing shot so audiences can orient themselves during a scene change, although these shots typically just feel like awkward pauses (and the last thing Plotagon movies need is more awkwardness).įor dialogue, you can either record your own voice or type and use the iffy text-to-speech feature to let the computer do the synthetic talking. Arrange where actors stand or sit in preset locations. Use a green screen to key in your own background image, a pretty advanced maneuver. Choose backgrounds, such as a restaurant or a computer room. Using Plotagon as a fun, expressive classroom activity sounds like one of its best possible applications. After that introductory period ends, Individual subscriptions start at $7 per month, with prices going up for businesses and down for educators.
Desktop users get a month-long free trial.
Plotagon is available as a Windows 10 desktop app, as well as a mobile app for Android and iOS. Still, any creative tool that makes a seemingly complicated task easy is at least worth a look, especially if you're an imaginative kid with filmmaking dreams or a hip executive looking for an unusual presentation tool. However, the end results are so awkward, stilted, and just plain bizarre that I have a hard time imagining many good uses for this that aren’t steeped in irony. This video editor-esque program lets you create custom animated CGI movies with a simple, but flexible, editor on desktop and mobile. The only thing weirder than Plotagon itself is the question of whether it’s good or bad.