The graphic designers and developers at Haptek, the
company that brought you Virtual Friend, have
done it again. This time they have rolled out a character-creation tool that
enables you to quickly and easily create your own three-dimensional
interactive characters that you can plug right into your web site. You can
even wrap your own photo onto a character after you create it. It's amazing
and a lot of fun to play with, too.
The system offers a very simple interface that
includes catalogs of faces and features and accessories. You point and click
to build the character of your own choosing. It's very detailed enabling you
to change the color of lip liner or eye liner or even eye shadow and blush.
You can make the character bald or any hair color or style you like. You can
change the shape of the character's head, or add distinguishing
characteristics from a band-aid to a tattoo. The combinations are limitless as
was proven by my two-year old son who spent 30 minutes experimenting with the
faces.
Of course, I found it even more fascinating
that I could superimpose my own face onto the character, and then record my
own audio message or script. Within seconds, you can see yourself, in
character, lip synching to your audio message, and you can then export the
animation to your web page for further use.
Haptek lends their creative skills and
imagination to many multimedia projects including the online game of Stuart
Little among others. They have an incredible ability to bring life to the
computer screen with richly detailed, highly rendered, 3D interactive
animations. If you have ever wanted to add "character" to your own
web site, now you can. You don't have to be an artist or a developer. You just
need to be able to point and click and smile. At $39.95, this is a bargain.
Even if you never use it on a web site, you'll have a ball playing with it --
if you can get your two-year old to give you a turn!
