Talking Avatars

[taylordavid]

Hello, Besides Codebaby has anyone used another similar product to create talking avatars in a course.
Thanks
Dave

[beeneeb]

Hi Dave,

There are several different products mentioned here:

Using Avatars in elearning

[lambert17]

Dave, I just started experimenting with Character Builder from Media Semantics, Media Semantics - the virtual people platform, and have been impressed so far. They have both a desktop version and a hosted version at a good price.

[rsawchuk]

Hi Dave,

I too have just developed some e-learning lessons using Character Builder. You can see the examples here and here.

Media Semantics has just released their latest version with several enhancements and wizards to do different applications. Their animations can be saved as a .swf file and incorporated in Articulate products.

Russ

[logicmoveslearning]

Hello Dave,

Check this link, Avatar integrated with Articulate course:

Cambridge Health and Safety

Thanks
Manoj

[GerryWaz]

Hi!

Purely curosity question. What are the advantages that do you see using talking avatars?

For me only (and not an editorial comment) , I find them boring--like watching videos of talking heads. A picture of a speaker or "actor doing something in a poise" is often just as effective or more so.

Or maybe I've just never seen them used effectively . . .

Just trying to understand and open my "old" mind. Thanks!

[brianosmi]

We have sometimes used an avatar to give the course a more friendly feel. In this case we are likely to introduce the avatar at the beginning of the course and then use the avatar ( walking onto the slide, full body, etc.) to call out or bring attention to different aspects of the course when appropriate. We generally steer clear from the avatar having a constant presence on each screen and only use it where it makes sense and is beneficial. It's a fine balance between using one effectively and having it be a distraction from the actual content of the course.

I agree that just having a talking head (whether animated or video, etc.) isn't very useful and I find it sometimes distracting and annoying.

[GerryWaz]

Thanks, Brian!

Got an example of this "friendly feel"?

As a contrast, I've always like what this course cited in the forums did by using photo cutouts of the instructor mixed with a couple movies of him. Very effective.

[chat54]

Dear All

I have been using Iclone 4 and Crazytalk for some time now, saving the output to avi and then converting to either MP4 or FLV, indeed one of the avatars has a loyal following amongst our female colleagues who hang on his every word! If only in real life!!!

Chat54

[ElleLinklater]

Hi, I have used crazytalk. This works great!