Beema, a 3D animation studio that has been working in the corporate space for the last decade, has released a new platform in beta that allows users to generate 3D speaking avatars with only a phone call.
During signup, users enter their phone numbers and carrier information, which is tied to their account. From then on Beema makes things easy – you simply call their free 800 number which prompts you to leave a voice message. A few minutes after leaving the message, Beema sends you a SMS text and email containing a link to your rendered video, which you can distribute as you see fit.
For the time being users are limited to Beema’s avatars, which consists of hundreds of possible choices that range from 3D wizards to Orson Welles. In the future users will be able to upload their own images, and the company hopes to introduce copryrighted characters as an option (for a small fee).
Beema isn’t going to win any awards for originality – there are a number of avatar sites that have very similar features, including Vidiator and Oddcast’s Voki platform. But the site does win points for its simplicity, forgoing Flash (which is standard for most avatars) for the standard 3GP video format, which gives users much more freedom with their videos (and also works on the iPhone). On the other hand, there’s no easy way to embed a video – there is no widget available, so you’ll have to upload your video to YouTube yourself.
First. Good post. Funny video.
Nice idea. Don’t know if there is something out there like this already (haven’t checked it out), but it’s a nice little feature for people.
Steve
Sounds like crazytalk from http://www.reallusion.com/ it looks like it in fact. I know that reallusion also sells white label corp solutions to do just that for SMS and 3GP delivery, perhaps they are using that although its about 2yrs old now.
Looks like they’ve got 400 faces in there which is definitely better then 40.
Thanks Colleen, I didn’t realize I was only browsing the “What’s New” section. There are way more than 40 avatars (I updated the post).
Cool another avatar startup. I am enjoying this new bust of interactive models coming up in the internet. If car lovers need their own 3D graphic to show their wild side why not check my startup company too
http://www.ezridez.com
I am not spamming here. Just see it maybe it might interest you as its more like a car graphic widget
lol, that’s pretty cool…
I want
Dude, Shabir. Yes, you are spamming. Go read:
RRW’s post: How to Comment About Your Company on Blog Posts, Without Being Spammy.
Lots of folks need help
And I need help closing tags…
I closed your tags Frank
And Shabir, if you have to say “I am not spamming”… you’re probably spamming.
what’s up with asking for : Mother’s Maiden Name (?) in step to of sign up
How much money is wrapped up in people who want avatars to be SO IMPORTANT?
Thanks for the great post ;D
Cool idea. In future this will be very popular.
Another non-business story on Techcrunch. I wish you would include a monetization question with every new company review you post:
How does this make money?
And have a policy of not accepting advertising as an answer unless there is a contextually relevant model.
And yes, that was comment spam.
This is a good example of how 3D-like technologies can give a “human-like” flavor to media and communication.
Different type of businesses are possible with the use of avatars, 3D and rendering technologies. B2C messaging is for sure an interesting application.
We at H-care are on the enterprise side of this trend, with the Human Digital Assistant giving multichannel customer assistance and real-time 3D rendering on thousands of concurrent channels.
All the best to Beema!
Phil, The maiden name let’s you recover a password if you forget it.
Extremely cool and easy to use. I can think of many more uses for this technology other than avatars, etc. And yes, I’ve seen similar products on other sites; but Beema got it right. It’s a lot sharper and cleaner than Vidiator (and the others). Nice job!
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How great are Beema’s avatars! I can think of a 1000 funny messages I would like to create with this idea but I can also see business uses that would be innovative. Can’t wait to learn more.