Hello everyone, I'm currently doing my research on "eBusiness and face-to-face interaction with avatars". I have found Poser along with mimic plug-in and i presume it would a very useful tool. What i want to ask is if it possible to embed a poser model in a website that "interacts" with the user. lip-sync, facial expressions, etc. For example it woud prompt a user to enter some details and then it would read these details with the above feature. Has anyone dealt with Poser? Is it possible to do that in a website?

Poser animations can be saved as Flash, so yes for pre-scripted responses. For dynamically generated speech - no.

Can you give an example what do you mean by "pre-scripted"? For example Can i have a Poser model in a website giving the visitor a number of questions to answer? I would be very grateful if you will tell me that it can do sth like: Poser: Good Day Sir/Madam, can you please choose on of the following options? ..etc ...etc!

Attached Link: http://www.oddcast.com/home/

Yes exactly!!! But instead of an animated face i would like to put a real face. Is there any possibility to manage this with Poser or if not is there any tool available in the market?

Poser can save animations in Flash, as ha sbeen stated. Then it's up to you to create the webpage code to load them according to the scripted questions and answers you want to use. I've no idea how indepth you'd have to be into HTML or Java or Active Script to do such a thing though.

Attached Link: http://www.philc.net/

Thanks lululee, I'll email him. Do you guys now what are the advantages of exporting a model into VRML? Is it possible to embedded into a website as a VRML model? or should i export it as a flash animation?

I am not an expert on this. I did a project for an interactive TV grant a few years ago. We did everything in VRML. It was a nightmare because the user had to have the plugin and it was difficult to get them to stop and take the time to download it. With Flash, and the ability to load and unload movies so quickly, I think that is more viable. As I say, I am no expert in this but I do have a real interest in it. Keep me posted as to your findings. I believe it is the furure of the web. cheerio lululee

Take a look at this.... http://www.vanishingpoint.biz/modelviewer.asp?filename=spitfire&ProductName=Spitfire Jhoagland and I use Wirefusion technology for point of sale both at Vanishing Point, and I use it for interactive kiosk displays. To the best of my knowledge Vanishing Point was the first poser site to provide this facility to customers and I've never seen anyone else use it for poser stuff. It works in any java enabled browser, no plugins or spyware required. The only problem is the load times, but Java is always bad at that, but a small model will load moderately quickly. But I've found on kiosks after the 1st load, reloads are really quick. We've only used the most basic import and export features here. It is possible to make the models completly interactive, example press the handle and make a door open. Also if you converted V3 or another figure to .vrml then you may need to consider copyright issues. You'd also need to consider getting a license from Demicron (the makers of wirefusion) for any commerical useage. The freebie he cover disc versions you find in the UK allow free personal use only. They are firm but fair about this. Plus If memory serves .vrml V2 supports certain types of animation information, but again I'm not sure wether export from poser if this info is kept, or wether the animation would be a series of seperate .vrml files or a large single one. Al

Poser can also export to Viewpoint format, which is a real-time 3D format for the web. Your model and animation is still in 3D, so it can be a little less pre-scripted in terms of animation, camera views, etc. Still have the problem of generating the speech if you have dynamically generated text you want the avatar to speak, though. I have built some natural language conversational agent technology, and have considered tying it together with a 3D avatar like this, interacting through javascript. Too many other software dev projects to keep me busy though... -Jeremy

Jeremy, I tried this as well, a more seamless process and better editing faclities than wirefusion, plus I recall better quality 3d-rendering. Sadly theres a downside, watermarks on online demos, plugins and have you seen the cost of a license! Editing software is free and easy to use. al

I know the Viewpoint licensing structure has certainly been impractical for individuals and small companies. You might want to keep an eye on them during the course of this year. As you point out, the technology is quite good... -Jeremy

Im a little bit confused with all the answers. In simple words, which format is better to export it? VRML, Flash animation, or what? i hope with flash animation we can add some interactivity ...exactly what www.oddcast.com does

Sorry Stuff5! The quickest and cheapest way would be to use Poser and the free version of Mimc 2 from Computer arts maazgine to generate a series of .swf files (flash file) or an .avi then convert that to swf. For example 3 one saying hello, one saying a shakespear speech, one saying good bye Then write a simple web page with 3 buttons, saying hello, speech and goodbye. Each time a user a clicked the button the relavant animation would be played. This is exactaly what www.oddcast.com has done on their site. It would take 10 minutes to do this. Actually give an hour or two (just got back in after a 14hr day) and I'll post a simple demo showing this. url will follow later in this forum. al

take a shufty at this... http://www.creativedirections.org.uk/mrsparky/page1.html It shows quickly you can do stuff and ideas expressed here. Obviously this is NOT a finalised thing, just a very quick demo. This would taken less than an hour but I had to find some good free/shareware (none spyware) to convert avi to swf. If anyone knows of any please post a url. wildform used to have a free version flixcm (cover disc) but the registration page doesn't work any more. Al PS: Big thanks to patrick at creative directions for the loan of the server space.

Amazing mrsparky!!! Thats what i'm looking for. Could you please give me step by step the software that you used to that (poser - mimic - wildform)? I guess if i export them into flash.. let's say ill export 5-6 flash files and ill put them in a webpage ...ill do some scripts so as to be like a questionaire ..right? Thank you so much ..its really so helpful. How come did it take 1 hour? For me i guess it would take months. I found these programs but they are not free for avi -> swf: 1) http://www.shareup.com/Video_to_Flash_Converter-download-28516.html 2)http://www.softforall.com/Multimedia/Video/AVI_MPEG_Video_Converter07070226.htm When i have a program ill email it to you. Thank you! Regards, Nikos