Create and Share Animations with Animasher

To the Creative Commons devotees of the world, an animation engine bids you its first hello today. Animasher is its name, and quick-and-easy animation is its game. Or something a bit less ridiculous sounding. The hipper the better, too. This startup comes out of Stockholm, Sweden, perhaps the epicenter of European cool.

On its face, Animasher looks very much a playful character. Its color and iconography is as casual as can be. The interface, while somewhat slow to respond at times, is quite polished, too, so despite the amateurish tinge exemplified by most videos published to the site thus far, it makes for a comprehensively pleasant experience. (a similar service, called GoAnimate, received a commendable review from Mashable as well.)

Speaking of videos already uploaded to the site, it may be in your favor to ignore the ‘Watch’ portion of the service for the time being, as a number of videos rate poor to terrible in message and delivery. Test the waters if you wish, but the warning has been given. ‘Create’ is where you wish to venture instead.

There you’ll find a menu of images of celebrity faces and miscellaneous figures. The kind of material you’d normally expect from something of Animasher’s making. If you don’t find what you want, you’re welcome to upload, but I would recommend dabbling in the already-available. Experimentation is the idea. Bring your own toys to the mix if you like the sandbox. The animation editor works intuitively, so you won’t have to labor hard to paint your masterpiece. Just drag and drop images. Tune into the right track. Add some extra personal pizazz in the way of text bubbles, etc., and you’re ready to share your creation with the world.

Remember, this is a Creative Commons-specific venue. Larry Lessig, founder of CC, makes clear that this type of licensing is all about sharing. Post cumbersome copyright, if you will. Animasher says that end credits are automatically generated to give viewers a way to easily find out who produced the items and music that went into the videos. A nice touch? Seems honorable enough.