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Since discovering the site in October, local father Damien Whitman has gotten pretty snazzy with these JibJab.com face substitution things.
The popular online videos allow users to substitute the faces of characters in animations with their own personal photos, and send out the personalized videos via email. Whitman has substituted faces of friends and family into videos such as “Fun Polka Dance,” “Rockstar Shred,” and “New York Cabaret.”
“I like it because I like putting the faces of people I know on the faces of the characters in the animation,” said Whitman. “I like seeing them do the dances and sometimes sing in the ones where the JibJab thing makes the mouths move too, because I know them and it’s funny to see them do those things.”
He added, “I think it’s a nice thing to watch.”
Many friends and relatives of the Whitman family have found themselves featured in one or two of Whitman’s JibJab creations. Earlier this year, Whitman’s son Collin had his face featured in “The Boys Are Back In Town,” alongside the faces of Whitman’s cousins, Jack, David and Brian.
“Dad really hit his stride with ‘Boys,’” remarked Collin, who has also appeared in “Day at the Races,” “My Heart Will Go On,” and “Silly Prospector Dance.” “That’s when he really started to get creative. Testing the limits of what’s possible in the medium of JibJab face substitution things.”
Whitman’s more recent work seems to have become somewhat experimental. Such pieces include “Happy Birthday Rock Show,” in which Whitman substituted pictures of birds of prey instead of faces, and “Jazzy Dance,” a video featuring a screenshot of the text “Language is Violence” as the face of a 1940s night club dancer.
But Whitman insists that he has no lofty aims in his work with the JibJab face substitution video things.
“I’m just having a good time,” remarked Whitman. “I like putting my own pictures in the faces and then I like emailing them out to people I know. You’d be surprised how much fun you can have by just putting some new faces on little dancing guys.”
“Oh, man, this one’s great,” said Whitman, watching a JibJab video sent to him from a co-worker featuring his own face on a Leprechaun jumping on a pogo stick. “Look at me go!”
