Vyond (formerly known as GoAnimate until 2018; stylized as Go!Animate until 2013) is an American cloud-based animated video creation platform created by Alvin Hung in 2007 and developed by the San Mateo, California-based GoAnimate, Inc.
Vyond was founded as GoAnimate in 2007 by Alvin Hung, and the first version of GoAnimate went live in mid-2008.[1]
In May 2009, DomoAnimate was launched. This program allowed users to create GoAnimations based on the Domo shorts. On September 15, 2014, the DomoAnimate site closed down and was later redirected to the GoAnimate for Schools website.[citation needed]
In March 2011, GoAnimate - along with Stupeflix Video Maker and Xtranormal Movie Maker - became a founding partner of YouTube Create, a suite of apps available to content creators within YouTube, which was resulted in the increase of popularity.[2][3] This suite had more apps added later on and was ultimately retired in early 2013.[4][5][citation needed]
A U.S. office in San Francisco opened in June 2011.[citation needed] In late August 2011, GoAnimate for Schools was publicly launched. GoAnimate for Schools was a school-safe version of GoAnimate featuring dedicated privacy, security, content moderation and group management features. In October 2011, a custom set of “Election 2012” characters became popular.[6][7][8][9]
People using GoAnimate in a computer library.
On March1,2012(2012-03-01), GoAnimate launched the Business Friendly Theme, the first of the four Business Themes on the site. In April 2012, the first business-oriented subscription plans were publicly launched. These included 1080p download, logo removal & replacement, and new business-oriented visual themes. These plans led to increased popularity and exposure for GoAnimate.[10][11]
By July 2013, over ten million videos had been created using the GoAnimate platform.[12]
On September16,2013(2013-09-16), GoAnimate changed its logo, removing the exclamation mark. That same day, the site relaunched with a new user interface, plus the removal of GoBucks and GoPoints.[13]
Logo for Go!Animate used from November 1, 2007 to September 15, 2013Logo for GoAnimate used from September 16, 2013 to May 5, 2018.
At the end of 2013, the "paper cutout" assets of explainer video pioneer Common Craft were integrated into GoAnimate as a new visual theme.[14] In April 2014, multi-seat business subscription plans were launched, including full-featured administrative tools along with group collaboration and review. Around the same time, GoAnimate also released their next Business theme, that being Whiteboard Animation, and a publishing integration with e-learning courseware authoring platform Lectora.[15]
By the end of 2014, GoAnimate's library contained over 10,000 assets, including a new set of Supreme Court justices and settings.[16] In 2015, the Taiwan office was opened,[17] making it GoAnimate's third location (after Hong Kong and San Francisco).[18]
As of May 2015, GoAnimate announced future expansion plans included going public, but there had been no decision on the listing venue.[19] During the summer of 2015, social network features such as favorites, comments and messages were removed so that GoAnimate could focus more on businesses and marketing.[citation needed]
A comparison of the older GoAnimate character made in Comedy World (left) and a current Vyond character made in Contemporary (right)
On October 19, 2015, it was announced that GoAnimate would migrate from Adobe Flash and go towards HTML5 animation, which can allow mobile device compatibility. The older, less technological-adaptable themes (or non-business themes) such as Lil' Peepz, Comedy World, Anime, Stick Figure, and Cartoon Classics were retired as they were incompatible with HTML5.[20] GoAnimate for Schools, however, retained Adobe Flash and the non-business themes until July 26, 2016.[citation needed] After Flash Player's removal, people managed to bring the "non-business" themes back using Requestly.
On November 25, 2015, GoAnimate replaced their free plan, which had limited features,[21] with a trial plan that lasts 14 days. After the subscription expires, the ability to create or edit videos is locked until a paid plan is subscribed to.[citation needed][22] By the end of 2015, the company had over 50 employees.[23]
On May 6, 2018, the GoAnimate platform was renamed Vyond after the company had revealed its launching to occur at an exhibition in San Diego a day later. The developer of Vyond remains as "GoAnimate, Inc.".[24]
On May 6, 2019, Vyond announced the retirement of the legacy video maker in December 2019, due to support for Adobe Flash ending on December 31, 2020. All user accounts defaulted to Vyond Studio on August 14, 2019.[25]
On May 3, 2023, Vyond announced Vyond Go, an artificial intelligence-based feature in the video maker that generates videos based on user-provided prompts, similar to ChatGPT.[26] The first public beta was released on June 28, 2023, and is accessible to all users but it can only be used 3 times every 24 hours.[27]
In September 2023, Vyond announced that the Oddcast voices will retire a month later.[28]
Product
Vyond provides its users with a library containing tens of thousands of pre-animated assets, which can be controlled through a drag & drop interface. Asset types include characters, actions, templates, props, text boxes, music tracks, and sound effects. Users can also upload their own assets, such as audio files, image files, or video files. There is also a drag & drop composition tool, which users can employ to create pans and zooms.
Spoken dialogue and narration can be recorded directly into the platform or imported as an audio file. Characters can automatically lip-sync the dialogue that is assigned to them. Alternatively, audio can be set as voiceover narration. Users can download their finished videos as MP4 files, GIFs, or video presentations.
Another version of Vyond was also available, simply called GoAnimate for Schools. On April 10, 2018, Vyond announced that GoAnimate for Schools would be shutting down on June 30, 2019. On that same day, GoAnimate removed its 14-day free trial to the schools site. Subscription purchases and renewals on Goanimate4schools.com were later removed on May 6, 2018, with product support and service officially terminating on June 30, 2019.[29][30]
Vyond also provides Vyond Go, an artificial intelligence based feature that automatically generates videos from prompts by users.[31]
Usage
A 2014 Journal of Management Education article described GoAnimate as "the leading software for individuals, organizations and educational users to develop and disseminate animated video".[32] As of March 2024, Vyond has over 20,000 customers, including 65% of Fortune 500 companies.[33]
Vyond is commonly used by businesses for marketing and corporate education.[34][35] GoAnimate for Schools was previously promoted as a way to make lessons more interesting through animation, or for students to bring their stories to life.[36]
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