R.I.P. Xtranormal State

State was a program, created by a company called Xtranormal, that permitted the user to very quickly and very simply create dialog-driven animations with simple movements and gestures using an array of pre-existing characters (my favourite set, called "Choo Choos",  was a bunch of anthropomorphic animal rockers). The company's slogan was, "If you can type, you can make movies", and that was almost literally true. It was easy to use if you simply wanted to have a talking head for your presentation, and fun to work with if you were doing conversational humour. I used it fairly extensively around 2008-2010 just to make something little things to amuse myself.

I was really shocked to read last week that Xtranormal folded up last summer. State phones home when you start it... you have to log in... and now that there's nowhere to log into, it won't start. So it's not bad enough there'll never be another version, I can't even run the one I have. That really, genuinely sucks. Even though I haven't used State in a long time, I had a lot of fun using it and the thought that I never will again is a real downer.

Below is what was probably the most ambitious project I ever undertook using Xtranormal's State animation program. Because there's no realistic way to get the program to identify different spoken voices as different characters, or even separate dialog from music, I actually had to sing the lyrics myself to make the mouth animations, and then resync them to the actual song. All the scenes were composited, along with the music, in Adobe Premiere Pro, way back in the summer of 2009. The song is Steal My Sunshine, by the "one hit wonder" Toronto band Len, and came out in the summer of 1999, a particularly contented period of my life and a year when the hits, as far as I was concerned, just didn't stop coming. I love this song, with its strange, unrelentingly idiomatic lyrics, and I loved making this little video for it.

In case you'd like to follow along, here are the lyrics...

Tim: Hey, Matt..
Matt: Yeah, Tim?
TIm: Hey you talked to Marc lately?
Matt: Uh... I haven't really talked to him, but, he looks pretty, uh, down.
Tim: He looks pretty, uh, down... Yeah, well... maybe we should cheer him up then.
Matt: What do you, uh, suppose we should do?
Tim: Well... does he like butter tarts?

I was lying on the grass on Sunday morning of last week
Indulging in my self-defeat
My mind was thugged all laced and bugged all twisted wrong and beat
A comfortable three feet deep
Now the fuzzy stare from not being there on a confusing morning weak
Impaired my tribal lunar-speak
And of course you can't become if you only say what you would have done
So I missed a million miles of fun

I know it's up for me
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE
Making sure I'm not in too deep
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE
Keeping versed and on my feet
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE

Tim: Chad... come here come here come here.
Chad: Wow... look at her!
Tim: I know!
Chad: Wow, I've never seen Sharon look so bad before.
Tim: I did once before, but this is pretty bad.
Chad: Yeah... what do you think she got up to last night?
(Tim laughs)
Tim: Well... I... Jared... I love you!

I was lying on the bench slide in the park across the street
L-a-t-e-r that week
My sticky paws were in to making straws out of big fat slurpy treats
An incredible eight foot heap
Now the funny glare to pay a gleaming tare in a staring under heat
Involved an under usual feet
And I'm not only among but I invite who I want to come
So I missed a million miles of fun

I know it's up for me
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE
Making sure I'm not in too deep
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE
Keeping versed and on my feet
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE

I know it's done for me
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE
Not as some and hard to see
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE
Keeping dumb and built to beat
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE

My Sunshine
IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE