Monday, May 12, 2008

Toondoo and Creating Comics


Since posting on this blog about Kerpoof, I have been directed to another comic making interactive online site. This one is called ToonDoo. You can make 1-3 page comics using numerous backgrounds and graphics. You can change the body position of the figures and facial expressions. There are lots of props and drawing tools to create your own backgrounds. You can save the comics and publish for everyone to see or you can publish privately. If you publish for anybody to see then anybody can comment. That was the only problem with this programme were the comments as they could be inappropriate for children. Some of the cartoons made by other people were a little dodgy as well.
The actual editing page is fine but the main home page changes all the time so you are never sure what is going to pop up. But it is still a worthwhile site to use with careful monitoring. Particularly for younger children I would set up the editing page for them, then there is no need for them to see the home page.
There is no download feature which is a shame as it would be great to download the comic and print it whole screen. But there are always ways around this, you can print out the page when it is in View mode, cut out the comic and glue on to other paper. Or you can take a screen capture (Windows: press the Print Screen button on your keyboard, open Paint, Press Ctrl V and then use the square selector tool to crop the area you need. Copy paste that piece into the Wordprocessor of your choice) Mac Users press Shift, Ctrl, Option and 4, click and drag around the comic, paste into your wordprocessor page.
Again this is another great interactive writing motivating tool.

1 comment:

Clive said...

Hi Jacqui,

If you're interested in creating comics online, also check out Pixton! Pixton's cutting-edge award-winning technology makes it easy to create comics online without having to draw. You can design every aspect of your character, move it into any pose and even turn it 360 degrees - all by simply clicking and dragging.

Make a traditional 3-panel comic or an epic story up to 12 rows long, and connect to a series. Comics can be emailed, embedded into blogs and remixed to add your own twist! Read comics in over 40 languages, with our automatic translation feature on foreign-language comics. Language filters, privacy settings, and flagging mechanisms all work together to preserve a safe online environment.

We also have Pixton for Schools, a version specifically for educators with premium features and offer a free trial to get you started.

We have teachers and students using both our free public website Pixton, and Pixton for Schools. Try them out and let us know what you think!

thanks,
Clive
Creator of Pixton - Interactive Web Comics