To create my storytelling artifact, I chose to use GoAnimate. I chose to use this Web 2.0 tool because is possible to create high quality animations with characters that can move, talk, and interact with other characters. The tool also came highly recommended by several other students who have used it in the past. This tool is very easy to use and even far easier to learn how to use and navigate. I was pleasantly surprised because of how easy it was to create a short video. Overall, GoAnimate is a great storytelling tool.

      There are few steps in creating a short animation using the GoAnimate web tool. First, I started with a storyboard. There are some animal characters that are not available, so scripts that require a small mouse to travel to outer space and, you might have to change that mighty mouse into a heroic hippo. After I had my story line, I selected my setting from the hundreds of pre-made backgrounds that GoAnimate has to offer. Then, I picked my characters. This was fun because you can pick from several premade characters or create your own just like you would create a Mii on a Wii game system.

      After dropping them carefully onto your set, I taught my characters how to talk by using the text to voice feature. I simply selected the character, went to the “voice” tab, typed my character’s dialogue and clicked “Add Voice.” The drawback to this method is that the dialogue that is created is sometimes choppy and robot sounding, but there is an alternative way to get your characters talking: simply record your own voice. My sisters and I did most of the voices for my artifact, and surprisingly it was easy to do. First, I clicked the character, went to the “voice” tab, selected mic recording, hit the record button and began speaking into my computers microphone. After I finished recording, I could change the pitch of the dialogue and the volume. When I was done tweaking, I simply clicked “Add Voice,” and the GoAnimate automatically processes, download, and then uploads your dialogue to the character.