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November 24, 2007

Insert Your 3D Avatar Into Movie Clips. All The Cool Kids Do It.

Michael Arrington

41 comments »


Get your own at Gizmoz.com

If you like putting yourself into movie clips with JibJab, you’ll like this new product from Gizmoz, too.

Unlike JibJab, which takes a still 2D image and moves only the mouth up and down, Gizmoz has developed proprietary technology to create a 3D facial image and includes various expression changes as well as lip syncing.

Their basic product, which allows users to create talking avatars, launched in May 2006.

Users can now take their avatar image and insert it into a number of video clips. More clips will be added over time, and Gizmoz is also in the process of licensing video from Hollywood movies and other professional content. Founder Eyal Gever actually showed me a clip over a year ago that had my face on a James Bond clip from Casino Royale. I felt pretty cool that day.

Gizmoz, which raised $6.3 million from Benchmark, is headquartered in Israel.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 24th, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Gizmoz Your face their movie–Widgets Lab

    November 24th, 2007 at 8:34 pm

  2. Should IZEA Advertisements Be Accepted On TechCrunch? (Updated)

    March 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Comments

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  1. Troll

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:10 pm

    show a clip!

    i checked out the site, and that little clip they have on their homepage - looks stupid

  2. Troll

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    spoke too soon, lol - they’re IS a clip.
    I was thinking of a youtube style clip/player.

    but the film still looks stupid

  3. Jesse

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

    I was just thinking how pathetic my life is that I sit around and hit refresh on TC all day. This company is just depressing. Be a STAR!

  4. Adam Benayoun

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    Looks awesome.

  5. Minaz Hoodani

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    Where can we view that Casino Royale clip??

  6. Tom

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

    Eh, I’m not impressed. I’m it was cool for like the first 5 second, but that’s it? That’s all it does?

  7. Frank

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    Express myself AND have fun doing it?! Oh, where has this tool been all my life? Usually expressing myself is such a burdenous chore!

  8. sign of breast cancer

    November 24th, 2007 at 3:49 pm

    Reminds me of the superdudes concept in the late 90s, which was later purchased by eUniverse/Intermix prior to them buying… Myspace!

  9. Gupaye

    November 24th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

    Don’t feel bad Jesse, I’m just like you!

  10. Gupaye

    November 24th, 2007 at 4:47 pm

    although it sounds like you refresh at a MUCH faster rate than I do :P

  11. Michael Wales

    November 24th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

    Dumbest ideas ever…

  12. Jon

    November 24th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    That’s it. I hate “web 2.0″.

    3.0 anyone?

  13. Coffee Man

    November 24th, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    Last I heard the word cool isn’t cool anymore Mike!

    You’re showing your age there big guy.

    If you’re going to stay up with the Facebook crowd, you’d better
    learn the venacular!

    Then again if your readership are mostly tech geeks, they wouldn’t know that anyway.

    Go Fonzie!

  14. Falling motivation

    November 24th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    I have bad feeling about techcrunch’s motivation… I’m reading it… It looks like Mike is getting too old for Web 2.0 startups. I don’t understand why good things fade away soo fast.

    If any startups bores you. Go find Rocky Balboa startup. I like to read web 2.0 startup without using VC.

  15. paisano

    November 24th, 2007 at 6:06 pm

    My kids love that gizmoz website. Another one they love is the mushygushy.com website which is like gizmoz merged with jibjab.

  16. WTF

    November 24th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

    I agree with @2.

    oh man.

    “I felt pretty cool that day.”

    oh man… oh man…. F@@@CK…. You start to sound like Michael Jordan’s retirement. This sounds like mike wants to retire techcrunch, go fishing, live second class apartment, and grow old. Why give up life just like that?!?!?!

    What’s with you!?!?
    There is no reason to grow gray hair, wrinks, feeling old. 2007 isn’t over yet! Plus, Good apps is coming up next year. I guess.

  17. EH

    November 24th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

    Lighten up you freaks, it’s a holiday weekend.

  18. Michael Arrington

    November 24th, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    yeah, you guys need to chill out, yo.

  19. LC

    November 24th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

    You people are silly; from a technology perspective this is pretty frickin hot, the applications immeasurable - show some imagination.

  20. Allen Stern

    November 24th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

    i want to see mike in thriller or beat it :-P

  21. Ethan Herdrick

    November 24th, 2007 at 8:52 pm

    Somewhat reminiscent of Fuzzwich: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....oon-maker/

  22. ZiZi

    November 24th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

    lamest idea eva! Yo Yo! biatches in da hood foolz.

  23. Steve Ballmer

    November 24th, 2007 at 9:41 pm

    Cute but really stupid!

    http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

  24. JakeM

    November 24th, 2007 at 10:06 pm

    Really, really, REALLY retarded :(

  25. miniMe

    November 24th, 2007 at 11:37 pm

    i liked it, sure its dumb by nature but hey i wasn’t expecting to find the cure for cancer when i hit play.
    had a good laugh for a minute there :)

  26. Nina Hartley's New Biz

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:38 am

    That is really weak. I hope that they change up the offerings and make it easier to adjust the settings.

  27. Security

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:46 am

    This is impressive, the technology actually has face recognition, so there is no need to photoshop the face out of a photograph.

    It is recognized and embedded

  28. Gale

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:44 am

    Guys, this is simply helarious!!! Try the Bubble Boy clip…. it’s brilient

  29. Blake

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:06 am

    Good idea, but poor execution - that visual ’style’ is only suitable for humor content. If you have content with a serous context or, for that matter, sexy content, this integration method does not work - the integrity of the content is not maintained. There is actually a lot of activity in this space (replacing people in video with consumers easily) and Gizmoz is the company that is launching soonest. There’s at least two other companies preparing to launch similar technology as well as at least 3 others that I know are working in this area…
    #19 sounds like they get it… if this technology is implemented with the right quality, it changes filmed entertainment and advertising significantly.

  30. Roy Klieger

    November 25th, 2007 at 9:51 am

    Michael, thanks again for the coverage.
    For all you readers, there was something wrong with one of the links in the post so here’s the correct link to “Be a Star” pages. http://www.gizmoz.com/widget/movies/new

    Enjoy!

    Roy Klieger
    Gizmoz

  31. Matteo Fabiano

    November 25th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    I recently met the Gizmoz founder and saw a live demo. This technology applications are real and easily monetizeable: customized mobile ringtones, branded widgets, personalized virtual goods. A few key distribution partnerships is what this product needs. The guys a Gizmoz and Benchmark know what they are doing.

  32. Peter Acorn

    November 25th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    Oh Yez. I have created 3 AVs so far, and each one of them has resulted in my colleagues falling all over themselves with laughter when I send them for review. If you want to make people laugh, this works! Peter.

  33. MikeO

    November 25th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

    I thought it was a fun little program perfect for little sites like mineFantasy Waterfall

  34. Jacqueline Greson

    November 25th, 2007 at 2:10 pm

    omg, so lame… check out fix8.com, much cooler user of 3D avatars to make your own videos…

  35. David Green

    November 25th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

    #34: fix8 is very nice indeed but it does require you to download a client (100 mg) and work on windows (DX9) - it is quite different to a tool which is web oriented and not system dependent. both have their weak and strong points but hardly comparable.

  36. file2fone

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

    Cool idea but talking avatar has not get that much popularity even more than one year of the launching.

  37. Future Predictor

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:22 am

    A small step in the right direction, but need a lot more. The expression should be detected from your own face with a camera, and then if you are going to put an image of yourself and animate it, then, well, why don’t you just use a webcam. Hence, whats the point ….

    The real use of expressions applied to avatars is when they are used for avatars that don’t necessarily look like you. A whole body virtual avatar is what we need, and of course a virtual world as well. We are far away from both as mature products, so these are just progress … keep it up and listen to criticisms if you want to succeed.

  38. Szityo

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:24 am

    Gizmoz guys, Wow this is so much fun! it took me a sec to upload my photo and boom i am dancing in this crazy funny clip! look:
    http://www.gizmoz.com/widget/3397574_be_a_star

    Its so creative, wow. It will be huge because it is so much fun! just keep on adding cool videos. (and let me see myself in the movies that i want to appear in)

  39. Lateefx

    November 27th, 2007 at 6:17 am

    This product is so cool.

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