Narrative Tools

So, I have actually been wanting to play around with Xtranormal since I first saw a video illustrated from there about a year ago. I didn't look too much into the other narrative tools because I had been excited about using this one.

For starters, I really liked the interface the website provided. It took a minute at first to understand what all the different buttons did and how the actions worked, but after that it was very intuitive, especially if you watch tv and movies.

The script editor was very simple and with the use of some well placed punctuation it is actually very easy to make the "actors" talk a bit less robotically. I didn't mess around at all with the animations but did make some adjustments to the camera angle, which actually make much more of an emphasis than I would have expected.

The script writing using a narrative tool rather than a presentational tool seems to allow a much more authentic voice. At least in the case of Xtranormal I was able to write a short little script which seems funny and believable with very little effort.

The final encouraging thought regarding using this particular tool is that while you can make a very simple narrative, with the right amount of time, effort, and planning you could actually produce something very indepth.