Innovation in College Media

I linked to this site almost a year ago when I first discovered it, but I thought it was worth looking at again: xtranormal.com. The site allows you to produce an animated movie based upon the text you type into a script. It allows for various camera angles, characters, and actions. And, as with most online software, it's free to sign up and use.

Here's a movie I produced in about 30 minutes:

How is this helpful for journalists? I can think of a couple of uses for this. Suppose you are covering a court case where cameras aren't allowed in the courtroom. You could produce a "dramatic reading" with xtranormal. And editorial writers/cartoonists can have a field day with animated commentary.

For a writer who's too shy to go on camera, this would be a fun way to "tape" a video of a story/column.

Who knows what other opportunities there are for a software like this. Experiment. Have some fun while doing journalism. Any other ideas?