Not everyone knows that we’re working on dedicated animation forum. Not a forum within AI Zone, but a separate forum, a separte tab. Therefore, I did some research and googled on ‘talking characters for website”. I combined it with earlier findings. I did not include animated characters for specific virtual worlds, they should be usable on the web, requirement of Flash is allowed.

Animated Characters for websites:
Alter Ego’s: http://www.alteregos.com/
Cantoche: http://www.cantoche.com/
Caramal: http://www.charamel.de/
Code Baby: http://www.codebaby.com
Haptek (people putty): http://www.haptek.com/
Lip Sync: http://www.ilipsync.net/
Media Semantics: http://www.mediasemantics.com
Noahx: http://www.noahx.com/
Pata: http://thebotfactory.com/
Saffas: http://www.saffas-voice.co.uk/order-animation.php
Small Biz Online: http://www.smallbizonline.co.uk/talking_flash_characters.php
Site Pal: http://www.sitepal.com
Speech Agents: http://www.speechagents.com/
VCom3D: http://www.vcom3d.com/index.php?id=home

Video characters (recorded video, lipsync audio):
Ava Guide:
http://www.avaguide.net

Video characters (recorded video and audio):
Laser Stream Video: http://laserstreamvideo.com/
VSP Wolrldwide productionshttp://www.vspworldwide.com/
Yaoti: http://www.yaoti.com/en/

Gaming
Adobe After effects: http://www.adobe.com/uk/designcenter/aftereffects/articles/aftcs3it_puppettool.html
Poser: http://poser.smithmicro.com/poser.html
LifeMode Interactive: http://www.lifemi.com/

Tools:
GizMoz: http://www.gizmoz.com/newsite/presite/home.jsp
Yahoo Avatars http://avatars.yahoo.com/ (you need to be logged in)
Crazy Talk: http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/

Professional animators:
Visage Technologies: http://www.visagetechnologies.com

Animated characters for usage in live events (actaully out of scope of this posting):
Vox Proxy http://www.voxproxy.com/ (seems to be very outdated. hey, suitable for Windows XP!)
Sim Graphics: http://www.simg.com/index.html

<b>Overviews:</b>
http://www.supershareware.com/animated-talking-characters-free/ (need to spend more time on this)

Funny, not usefull for chatbots, but just funny:
404 toons: http://www.404toons.com/

Other stuff I found, seem to be outdated:
http://www.datacreek.net/media/dcc/characters.html
http://virtual.software.informer.com/download-virtual-talking-characters-for-websites/
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Do you have any additions? That will certainly help!

I am researching Animated, Talking,
Video Characters for Websites at:

http://www.newsAI.com
http://www.newsai.com/TV.php

NOTE TO ADMINISTRATORS.
Feel free to delete this reply if it is not allowed.
I could not reply to the announcment by Erwin.
So I started a new thread under the same title.

I was also not able to post a reply, and I’m an admin, so don’t feel bad, 8pla. I see no need to delete this thread.

In the announcement, Erwin asked, “Do you have any additions?” and then said, “That will certainly help!”  My additions are in the research and development stage, but they are active.  I just had a RAM chip die on me, which is very rare, but I bought it used from eBay. 

So, I decided to max out the RAM on my Core 2 Duo, which is 8GB for my model.  Next, I’ll upgrade the operating system to 64bit, and it will be a nice machine for rendering 3D models, video and audio for Animated, Talking, Video Character research for Websites.

It is possible to do this with less RAM, but the process takes longer, especially for rendering video.  Then we have HTML 5 on the horizon which is bound to be a game changer.  So, basically I am doing upgrades to hardware and operatings systems.  Then I’ll have to install and configure the latest tools.  This all takes time, before I can have some new Animated, Talking, Video Characters ready.

@8pla: sorry for the inconvenience, didn’t realize an announcement doesn’t allow the option to reply. Weird :-s

@dave: i’ve never deleted a posting from Tom before. why would i?

The thought never crossed my mind. I was just trying to be reassuring, is all.

Thanks for this post Erwin - you got a good Google ranking on the search term ‘animated characters’ it now, so I suppose you’ll get a lot of other ‘n00bs’ registering to ask questions :D

Does anyone have any idea what package this may have been created in?

(we have now ascertained it was created with http://www.xtranormal.com/ =) )

I happen to know it was made with very little budget or skill (please excuse me for saying that) - I’m assuming there may be some Flash plugin that would create something like this.  Having grand thoughts of tying it up with a chatbot maybe… for now, just learning!

Hello, radioCustomer, and welcome to the forums.

I’ve checked out the video in the link you’ve provided, and while I don’t know with any degree of certanty which application was used to create the video, I’ve seen videos of similar type and quality that were created with Daz Studio. I have no experience with Flash, so I’m not certain whether there’s a 3D plugin capable of creating movies of this type, but I think it’s worth looking into, at the very least.

By the way, I’d like to suggest that it may be worth considering using your name to display, rather than a user-name. We’re a rather friendly group here, but we also like to know who we’re dealing with. You may also want to upload a picture of yourself, and add some info to your bio, as well. None of these suggestions are absolutely required, but it WILL make it easier for you to mesh with the community here in a much more satisfying fashion. Just some friendly advice, is all.

http://www.xtranormal.com/

Extra Normal has been getting a lot of media exposure lately. Several movies featuring their animated ChatBots have gone viral in recent months.

zindering,... Any clue which technology they’ve used?

Thank you both!  Andrew - you are a star, that’s it for sure.  And Dave… let me explain my hidden presence.

I’ve done it delberately - Googlebots are very quick off the mark, and if this chap happens to see the backlinks to his video and realises I was the one who made the post, all hell will break loose - he’s a very messed up ‘internet personality’, with some very big real life issues.  That’s why I was so surprised to see what he’d produced, and I realised he didn’t just break out 3DS one day.

My project, if ever I get round to it, will be an animated tour guide, who can give maps / pictures / accommodation availability / video / recommendations / event listings using XML feeds from various travel websites.  Just waiting to get the two years off work I’ll need to get anywhere with it =)

I am going to edit the post above, check Google and make sure it hasn’t already got the link, then I will re-appear as me the next time I’m here

@radioCustomer: the best way to participate in the forum is simply being open and honest. Even if you think something was build without skill, you can still say respectsfully ‘that it’s a good start’, or that ‘there are a few things to improve’ (and please feel free to list those. In that way, you demonstrate you are the professional, and you can easily use your real name, bio and picture.

http://www.characterhosting.com another one…

Animation schools:
http://www.animationmentor.com

Copied this quote from Dave from another thread, I’d like to research them in the future.

Dave Morton - Feb 18, 2011:

I also enjoy creating 3D artwork, but I use several different applications. I have Blender, but don’t use it much. I mainly use Bryce, Daz Studio, Terragen and Carrara, with any post-work done in Paint Shop Pro. I’m not terrific at it, but I do ok; and the artwork I create pleases me, which is all anyone can ask for.

Ok, done hijacking the thread.