Chatterbox
by Tony Reveaux
Even as its forms diversify and multiply in our lives, we are becoming more intimate, involved, and submerged in media. In a conversation about the ubiquity of media in our lives, a colleague remarked, "If the animated characters that reflect our imaginative and interpretive selves were any more active, they would be talking back to us."
Don't look now, but they already are.
Animazoo to You Too
AnimaLive - a joint venture between Animazoo UK Ltd and Digital Interactive Booths - has been created to deliver unique live events and installations. Animazoo's motion capture systems have been employed by game developers, movie studios, animators and in the biomechanics arena for over twenty years.
In ChatterBox, 3D artists can create the character of your choice - a familiar branded identity, or a new character to host an event or venue. Running on updated 3D rendering systems, their motion capture systems will bring to life the on-screen cartoon which can be controlled entirely by a single operator.
Right here in Emeryville, MotionWerx (Roger Nelson's Rubik cube of a business) is providing distribution and support for the Animazoo products and technologies in the US and Canada.
ChatterBox
Says Nelson, "Ali Kord, the founder of Animazoo in the UK and the engineer genius behind all of these great technologies, is a good friend. To find customers and applications for their motion-capture technologies, I am leveraging my knowledge of Immersive Entertainment, Serious Games, and Synthetic Characters. ChatterBox gives me the opportunity to return to the amusement industry that I exited when I left Laser Tag."
According to Nelson, the applications for ChatterBox are varied and almost limitless: birthday party entertainment, a one-to-one interaction with a child's favorite character, a virtual information desk, a shopping center or night club greeter, a museum docent, and even entertainment while waiting in line to get on to an amusement park ride.
"ChatterBox," says Nelson, "takes us one step closer to fantasy interactions in online worlds. Our systems already often provide the motions for Second Life avatars. Our customers are learning that children may say something to a character that they would never say to an adult."
Mascots by Mocap
Finkey, the Finnish Ice Hockey mascot, was once a traditional mascot. Now he's completely digital and appears 'live' in 3D on promotional ads, public messages, injury-time big-screen clips, and half-time short features. Using Animalive technology, he appears in full 3D and interacts with the crowd from the stadium screens. AnimaLive technology enabled the mascot to be used real-time on the giant stadium screen or pre-recorded ready to be recalled at the touch of a PC key.
In the Middle East, Modhesh, Dubai's mascot, is seen everywhere during Dubai's long Summer Surprises Festival. AnimaLive technology brought the mascot to life on TV. The first live-animation produced in the Gulf States was the simulcast of various presenters helping the audience speak and play games with Modhesh from eight sites across Dubai.
Radiotelevisione Italiana, known as RAI, is the Italian public-service broadcaster. 'Treddi' is the themed character for RAI's graphic 3D portal on the network. Treddi was powered by AnimaLive technology to animate in real time, with lip-syncing and facial expressions. He interacted live with his audience on the phone using animated props, including a mobile phone and a watering can.
A Team of One
Said Nelson, "ChatterBox is a step in the evolution of systems that first appeared 20 years ago. Since the early 90s, Animazoo has been at the forefront of developments in the motion-capture arena, and owns a host of patents (both issued and pending). Our aim has always been to simplify mocap technology."
RAI's Treddi is a working example of that trend in development. The operator of the mocap system was aided by a technician controlling the expressions and props. Today, ChatterBox can be operated entirely by a solo operator of the mocap system.
The legacy left by Treddi is the immediacy of real-time projects. Treddi had always had a second system running in parallel, just in case there was a component failure. During the airing of the show, which was daily after 3pm for three hours, there could have been as many as ten people in the studio running Treddi: director, sound, light, props, voice, mocap guys, and assistants. Today all the same AnimaLive technology can be employed with only a single operator.
There's a Gremlin in the Werx
Nelson is now setting up a Gremlin AnimaLive system in his MotionWerx studio in Emeryville. "Any of our characters, like the Gremlin," he said, "are driven by actors in real time to interact with guests. We use motion-capture to animate the upper torso, head, arms, and hands. The characters are designed with cartoony expressive faces that can be triggered by the operator to convey their reaction and add amusement to the conversation. The system is simple to operate, and the primary skill necessary is the enjoyment of interacting with audiences as a character."
With system development advancing so rapidly, where does Nelson see it going in the next couple of years? "As virtual world technologies spread, their inhabitants will want to animate their avatars with life-like (and eventually real-time) motions and emotions. The animated characters (in feature films, video games, and Immersive Environments) will continue to improve in their ability to reflect all of the subtle cues and nuance that are the basis of expression. Eventually, synthetic characters won't need an actor to drive them; they'll know how to react on their own." Posted on Mar 03, 2009 - 02:20 PM
by Tony Reveaux
Even as its forms diversify and multiply in our lives, we are becoming more intimate, involved, and submerged in media. In a conversation about the ubiquity of media in our lives, a colleague remarked, "If the animated characters that reflect our imaginative and interpretive selves were any more active, they would be talking back to us."
Don't look now, but they already are.
Animazoo to You Too
AnimaLive - a joint venture between Animazoo UK Ltd and Digital Interactive Booths - has been created to deliver unique live events and installations. Animazoo's motion capture systems have been employed by game developers, movie studios, animators and in the biomechanics arena for over twenty years.
In ChatterBox, 3D artists can create the character of your choice - a familiar branded identity, or a new character to host an event or venue. Running on updated 3D rendering systems, their motion capture systems will bring to life the on-screen cartoon which can be controlled entirely by a single operator.
Right here in Emeryville, MotionWerx (Roger Nelson's Rubik cube of a business) is providing distribution and support for the Animazoo products and technologies in the US and Canada.
ChatterBox
Says Nelson, "Ali Kord, the founder of Animazoo in the UK and the engineer genius behind all of these great technologies, is a good friend. To find customers and applications for their motion-capture technologies, I am leveraging my knowledge of Immersive Entertainment, Serious Games, and Synthetic Characters. ChatterBox gives me the opportunity to return to the amusement industry that I exited when I left Laser Tag."
According to Nelson, the applications for ChatterBox are varied and almost limitless: birthday party entertainment, a one-to-one interaction with a child's favorite character, a virtual information desk, a shopping center or night club greeter, a museum docent, and even entertainment while waiting in line to get on to an amusement park ride.
"ChatterBox," says Nelson, "takes us one step closer to fantasy interactions in online worlds. Our systems already often provide the motions for Second Life avatars. Our customers are learning that children may say something to a character that they would never say to an adult."
Mascots by Mocap
Finkey, the Finnish Ice Hockey mascot, was once a traditional mascot. Now he's completely digital and appears 'live' in 3D on promotional ads, public messages, injury-time big-screen clips, and half-time short features. Using Animalive technology, he appears in full 3D and interacts with the crowd from the stadium screens. AnimaLive technology enabled the mascot to be used real-time on the giant stadium screen or pre-recorded ready to be recalled at the touch of a PC key.
In the Middle East, Modhesh, Dubai's mascot, is seen everywhere during Dubai's long Summer Surprises Festival. AnimaLive technology brought the mascot to life on TV. The first live-animation produced in the Gulf States was the simulcast of various presenters helping the audience speak and play games with Modhesh from eight sites across Dubai.
Radiotelevisione Italiana, known as RAI, is the Italian public-service broadcaster. 'Treddi' is the themed character for RAI's graphic 3D portal on the network. Treddi was powered by AnimaLive technology to animate in real time, with lip-syncing and facial expressions. He interacted live with his audience on the phone using animated props, including a mobile phone and a watering can.
A Team of One
Said Nelson, "ChatterBox is a step in the evolution of systems that first appeared 20 years ago. Since the early 90s, Animazoo has been at the forefront of developments in the motion-capture arena, and owns a host of patents (both issued and pending). Our aim has always been to simplify mocap technology."
RAI's Treddi is a working example of that trend in development. The operator of the mocap system was aided by a technician controlling the expressions and props. Today, ChatterBox can be operated entirely by a solo operator of the mocap system.
The legacy left by Treddi is the immediacy of real-time projects. Treddi had always had a second system running in parallel, just in case there was a component failure. During the airing of the show, which was daily after 3pm for three hours, there could have been as many as ten people in the studio running Treddi: director, sound, light, props, voice, mocap guys, and assistants. Today all the same AnimaLive technology can be employed with only a single operator.
There's a Gremlin in the Werx
Nelson is now setting up a Gremlin AnimaLive system in his MotionWerx studio in Emeryville. "Any of our characters, like the Gremlin," he said, "are driven by actors in real time to interact with guests. We use motion-capture to animate the upper torso, head, arms, and hands. The characters are designed with cartoony expressive faces that can be triggered by the operator to convey their reaction and add amusement to the conversation. The system is simple to operate, and the primary skill necessary is the enjoyment of interacting with audiences as a character."
With system development advancing so rapidly, where does Nelson see it going in the next couple of years? "As virtual world technologies spread, their inhabitants will want to animate their avatars with life-like (and eventually real-time) motions and emotions. The animated characters (in feature films, video games, and Immersive Environments) will continue to improve in their ability to reflect all of the subtle cues and nuance that are the basis of expression. Eventually, synthetic characters won't need an actor to drive them; they'll know how to react on their own." Posted on Mar 03, 2009 - 02:20 PM
