Company:Nawmal

From HandWiki
Technologies Nawmal Inc.
Type3D animation website
Founded2004; 22 years ago (2004)
HeadquartersMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Websitehttp://www.nawmal.com

Nawmal, formerly known as Xtranormal, is a web and desktop do-it-yourself animation software. It is produced by Technologies Nawmal Inc., formerly Nawmal Ltd., a Canadian digital entertainment company based in Montreal, Canada. Nawmal turns words from a script into an animated movie using text-to-speech and animation technologies.[1]

History

Logo of Xtranormal

Nawmal's predecessor, Xtranormal, was launched after four years of software development.[2] It was established as a storyboarding tool for writers and film directors. The original intent was to allow users to create videos by choosing from a menu of pre-designed characters and sets, and scripting their own dialogue.[1][2][3][4]

Xtranormal's State platform allowed casual users to create their own animated videos, and could be downloaded for free and run offline. At some point, State was replaced with a newer version of the animation software called Xtranormal Desktop (or, XD). Like State, XD was free to download from the Xtranormal website, but is no longer available after Xtranormal's shutdown.[4] Xtranormal also released a web-based animation software tool called Movie Maker (alternately known as "Text-To-Movie"). Movie Maker offers users a more limited subset of functionality in exchange for the convenience of a web browser. Xtranormal videos could at one time be created through an interface directly on the YouTube website.[3]


In January 2013, Xtranormal's CEO at the time told Forbes magazine that Xtranormal had a viable web subscription model, including the Tellagami app, but they believed that the real opportunity for growth was now in mobile.[5] On June 28, 2013, the company announced that they would be discontinuing their current subscriptions, points plans and existing services as of July 31, 2013.[6] They encouraged users to use up existing points and to publish and download created movies before that date.[6]

Xtranormal's online services were taken down shortly after, with the content of their website replaced by a holding page showing the company's logo, a set of media player control buttons, and the word "pause",[7] but in early October, the placeholder was gone, thus their site was shut down altogether. Its official YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages had also been deleted.{{citation needed|date=March 2015} ore called "The College Shop" in November 2013, but that disappeared as the following event took place.[citation needed] In July 2014, it was announced that the assets of Xtranormal had been acquired by Nawmal Ltd.[8] As of 2016, Xtranormal's new parent company, Nawmal Ltd. has split Xtranormal into 2 different animators named after the company itself, both just like Xtranormal, except one being for professional use and one being for education.[9]


Legacy

Xtranormal bear characters

Some user-created videos reached more than a million views on YouTube.[1][3][10][11] According to NPR, Xtranormal's most successful videos featured a conversation between "a wise guy who is the voice of reason" and "a tone deaf, argumentative adversary".[12] A popular subgenre of content involved career professionals satirizing their workplaces[1][13] or students satirizing their college majors.[14]

In 2010, the short film Sleeping with Charlie Kaufman by director J Roland Kelly, animated entirely with Nawmal, premiered at the Little Rock Film Festival and was shown at The Rome International Film Festival in Rome, Georgia. Xtranormal videos once formed a recurring feature on the late night FNC talk show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, and were featured as part of a GEICO advertising campaign.[15] The Micros series of shorts about the world of online poker has been the most popular Xtranormal web-series on YouTube.[16] Some videos created on Nawmal have appeared on shows such as The Colbert Report, The Kroll Show and Howard 100.

A viral November 2010 cartoon by real estate manager Omid Malekan criticizing quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve was referenced by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in his memoir.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Stein, Jeannine (2011-04-24). "Using video to fight workplace stress". http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/24/health/la-he-xtranormal-20110424. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Albrecht, Chris (October 8, 2008), Xtranormal Launches Text-to-Movie Making, gigaom, http://gigaom.com/video/xtranormal-launches-text-to-movie-making/ .
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Newman, Jared (March 24, 2011), "Make Your Own Cartoons and Slideshows on YouTube", Time, https://techland.time.com/2011/03/24/make-your-own-cartoons-and-slideshows-on-youtube/ .
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Grotta, Sally Wiener; Grotta, Daniel (April 2, 2010), "Make Bobbleheaded Animations Easily With Freebie Xtranormal State", PC World, http://www.pcworld.com/article/192187  .
  5. ↑ Wing Kosner, Anthony (January 30, 2013), "Tellagami Makes Fast, Fun User Generated Video Content For The Mobile Generation", Forbes Tech, https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/01/30/tellagami-makes-fast-fun-user-generated-video-content-for-the-mobile-generation/ .
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Important Message From Xtranormal". Xtranormal Blog. June 28, 2013. http://blog.xtranormal.com/index.php/important-message-from-xtranormal/. 
  7. ↑ "Storytelling | Xtranormal". 2013-08-01. http://www.xtranormal.com/. 
  8. ↑ "Xtranormal". Nawmal Ltd.. 31 July 2014. http://xtranormal.com/. 
  9. ↑ "Home". http://www.nawmal.com/. 
  10. ↑ Humphries, Matthew (July 2, 2010), Best Buy suspends employee for making funny iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo video, Geek.com, http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/best-buy-suspends-employee-for-making-funny-iphone-4-vs-htc-evo-video-2010072/, retrieved December 10, 2010 .
  11. ↑ Siegler, MG (July 1, 2010), Best Buy Trying To Fire Employee Over Those Hilarious EVO Versus iPhone Videos, TechCrunch, https://techcrunch.com/2010/07/01/best-buy-iphone-4-evo-4g/ .
  12. ↑ Kurwa, Nishat (2011-01-05). "Behind Rise Of Xtranormal, A Hilarious DIY Deadpan". https://www.npr.org/2011/01/05/132653525/behind-rise-of-xtranormal-a-hilarious-diy-deadpan. 
  13. ↑ Edwards, Jim (2011-01-19). "Xtranormal, Where Office Dissenters Skewer Their Bosses and Clients". https://www.cbsnews.com/news/xtranormal-where-office-dissenters-skewer-their-bosses-and-clients/. 
  14. ↑ Charbonneau, Léo (2011-01-20). "So you want to do a PhD in the humanities?". https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/margin-notes/so-you-want-to-do-a-phd-in-the-humanities/. 
  15. ↑ Hart, Hugh (October 26, 2010), "Video: Robo-Talking Superhero Ad Uses Text-to-Voice Trick", Wired, https://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/10/geico-superhero/ .
  16. ↑ Hustvedt, Mark (June 3, 2011), "The Micros: Nerds Web Series Flops a Boat", Tubefilter News, http://www.tubefilter.com/2011/06/03/the-micros-poker-nerds-web-series-flops-a-boat/ .
  17. ↑ Weigel, David (2010-11-22). "The Man Behind the Quantitative Easing Cartoon Speaks!". https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/11/the-man-behind-the-quantitative-easing-cartoon-speaks.html. 
  18. ↑ Malekan, Omid (2018-10-01). "I Created 'The Bernank' on YouTube. And I Was Mostly Wrong.". https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/business/dealbook/bernank-financial-crisis.html. 



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