In the Coming Race Wars

OK, I admit it: I've been obsessing since discovering Xtranormal. I don't know where I was when this free tool was announced back in the first quarter of the year, but the thing has potential. There's something about the deadpan delivery of a flat, computer voice that makes the dialog more fun. This is a great little tool, and I'm not being paid to say this. I'm amazed by the ease of the technology. It's like they say in their tagline: "If you can type, you can make movies." You have to drag some pauses into the dialog and find body expressions (and you may have to misspell some words to make them semi-coherent and audible), but if I can do it...

I think Flash designers are the next skilled pros who might find themselves automated out of a job, going the way of the encyclopedia salesman, travel agent - and most of the rest of us. With some refining, banners will be made with this thing. And this is how storyboards will be created soon; point and click, with the client coming to us armed with her frame-by-frame idea for a commercial. "And here's where my daughter walks into the scene and announces, 'You've tried the rest...'"

My latest juvenile creation: John and Chuck addressing some current stupidity in these Untied States of America, on this First day of October, in the Year of Our Lord, Two-Thousand and Nine. (At Nine O'Clock in the evening.)



Crossposted to Radio Free Babylon.