It could be argued that one of the biggest hurdles in the way of creating compelling shared online experiences is the fact that digital avatars look nothing like the people controlling them. A Pasadena, CA-based company called
Big Stage Entertainment is trying to change that, and its solution is to enable anyone to quickly create a realistic 3-D version of themselves, which can then be used online in a variety of applications.
Using Big Stage Entertainment's proprietary technology, users can create their own free, animated 3-D avatar (the company is calling them "@ctors"). Just snap a few quick pictures of yourself on your digital camera and upload them; to create and view @ctors in action, you'll need to install the Big Stage Media Player (on your PC -- no Mac version, yet). You can then customize your avatar's look (read: hair, glasses, clothing), and then project them onto your social network sites, into video clips -- pretty much anywhere you like.
Of course, don't expect your own personalized
Marcus Phoenix -- high-quality facial models take many man-hours of work. Still, for the applications involved, it's pretty cool stuff: it's easy to get your model online and in action (the results are not unlike those in games like '
Rainbow Six Vegas,' which employed similar technology). Check out the video above, and then go reinvent your digital self. To paraphrase
Michael Jackson, it all starts with the man in the mirror. [From:
Big Stage Entertainment]
