So I've been reading that Curious Labs is merging with the Japanese company eFrontier (makers of Shade, etc.) I've been out to eFrontier's web site - http://www.e-frontier.co.jp/ - but I can't read Japanese. However, they do have a neat character - FeiFei Can anyone tell me (maybe one who can read Japanese) if this character is free (which I kinda doubt), or how much it costs? And if it costs, how much and where do you go to order it?

PS - they have a really cool mpeg by SamSung on their site featuring FeiFei. Kinda cool, worth checking out.

Attached Link: http://www.e-frontier.co.jp/digitalbeauty/feifei/kabegami/index.html

Oops, my bad. Just a wallpaper download. Looks like the character itself is proprietary.

She and some of the other characters are mostly used as Virtual Girlfriends and IDOL's. Some of them actually have their own MUSIC CD's (heh- New 2004 REN Store Item- "Vicky's Greatest Hits!", "Sara Sings the Britney-Madonna Songbook", ETC.) Succesful IDOL-Girlfriends make their "owners" lots of money, not as model meshes, but character "spokes-babes" for motorcycles, booze, cigarettes, etc. - plus "appearances" on TV SHOWS. (Anyone remember "MAX HEADROOM"?) In Japan they DO interviews on TV-- and it is VERY BIG among their Fan Groups.) BTW- I suspect that the best way e-frontier can get their money back from buying Poser is by using it to market their own virtual babes in a variety of multimedia formats- not from just putting babe's like FeiFei in Poser format- ONLY.

Well bummer. I was hoping she was a free download. 'Course, maybe she'll be the next eP6Fem ? [hopeful grin!] That is really cool that they have interviews and stuff like that on TV. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Poser now they've merged (or are going to merge) Curious and eFrontier. Hmm. Virtual Girlfriends and IDOLS. Wonder if it would catch on here in the US... Fei Fei is a great looking character, IMHO. That SamSung mpeg was very well done.

Attached Link: http://www.escapi.com/vr

Did you see the clip at the link? What dynamic hair can do! :)

Ananova (sp?) has been a "Virtual TV Newscaster" in the U.K. for over a year now. She was tweaked to have a certain multi-national Cosmopolitan look and speak in Canadian! (heh- actually British-Lite with an Americanized tone- but I actually haven't spent much time watching since I don't use RealAudio- Maybe someone who has watched her newscasts can comment better--) I am also sure you will find that Vicky meshes have already appeared in MANY porno videos and websites in the US and Europe.

I have a bunch of those DVDs - FeiFei, Yuki Terai, etc - and some of it is very good. Some is kind of OK but not more. The big problem is still animating faces all the way - creating the randomness and full facial movement in humans. Animation here is still mostly about moving the eyes and blinking, plus the occasional surprised look, etc. But then being a highly critical guy with a fairly well trained eye.... I guess many people who see this stuff (non 3D people) are very impressed. They don't even get close to the kind of FANTASTIC stuff in Shrek for instance - the best I've seen. Or even Toy Story for that matter, which is years older. And yes, there's quite a lot of Vicki (and a surprising amount of Posette or Eve) out there in porndom. And in Playboy amongst others. Such as Dark Justice. :] Fish

Shrek was great in that area for sure, but not many companies can afford to hire a team of programmers and muscular specialists(doctors in the case of Shrek). I think it's much easier to WOW people who have no idea about how these things are done. Even with all the special features on videos that show how 'they' did it, the general audience gets lost in the technical details. And while a lot of us can follow what they're doing, we just don't have the hardware and/or specialized software to follow suit. All we can do is keep at it and hope one day we get an opportunity to play with the big boys and the big toys.:)

Attached Link: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

I read the their whole site through bablefish!

oh well, I knew about Dark Justice... read an interview with the author.. he modelled her in 3dsmax, she has nothing to do with poser ( I was mistaken for a while too)

herr67 - Babelfish link - Thanks! Wow, this is like a whole new level I didn't know was out there. Looking at some of these sites of digital IDOLS I had no idea were so popular. This is cool! I agree some of the stuff they did in Shrek was just incredible. Faces and exressions were excellent. Then there was a scene where the donkeys fur is being blown by the wind - wow. The software and hardware to do that would be awesome to have. And here I am clicking on the "Windows Resources Are Low" warning button again...