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Product Overview
Media Semantics
is your complete source for ready-to-animate Flash characters and supporting technologies.
The Character Builder™ is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that
lets non-animators create animated presentations involving characters and optional
supporting visuals. The Character Builder can render content directly to the popular Macromedia Flash™ SWF format,
as well as video.
Normally located on a web server, the optional Character Server™ can
generate character animation on-the-fly for delivery to any Flash client. The Server
also includes an AIML natural language engine for use in applications in which users converse
with characters. The Server is a separate product from the Builder, and is intended primarily for
developers.
The Character Builder comes with royalty-free, ready-to-animate Stock Characters.
Additional characters and add-ons are available from the characters page, and custom
characters can also be ordered from the service desk.
Characters are based on an open artwork format that accommodates a wide range
of bitmap and vector-based character styles.
Both the Character Builder and the Character Server support high-quality Text-to-Speech (TTS)
engines as an alternative to recorded audio, however broadcast-use licensing for TTS can be difficult and costly.
Optional Speech Packs are high-quality TTS engines that address this problem by specifically permitting
the commercial redistribution of the resulting audio within a Media Semantics-generated
media file.
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Features at a Glance
Builder IDE (Integrated Development Environment) provides visual editing tools
for specifying character animation, voice, and supporting media elements
Integrated media tools provide lip-syncing, TTS (Text-to-Speech), and audio processing functionality
Render-to-Flash feature lets non-animators create web greeters and eLearning
content for delivery via the ubiquitous Macromedia Flash and Flash Lite players
Render-to-Video feature provides raw video output for use in
traditional multimedia and mobile applications
Optional Server provides dynamic Flash SWF generation, server-side TTS,
and an AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) natural language engine
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High-Level Character Animation
Media Semantics offers some of the best technology on
the market for creating applications involving animated characters.
The Character Builder uses a non-linear animation engine to create fluid animation from
high-level commands such as Look, Point, and Say. Actions are independent: for example
any eye or mouth action can be used with any hand action, to allow for a wide range
of expression from a limited number of actions.
The approach lets authors work
independently from animators, and significantly lowers the cost of producing
content involving character animation.
The Builder includes the ability to "lip-sync" audio files, so that a character’s lips and gestures are
synchronized with its voice. Text-to-speech voice is typically used during development, but
is increasingly an option for deployment, with the advent of high-quality speech engines.
Characters are created using pre-rendered 3D art or vector-based art, and can take advantage of
a variety of compression, masking, and tweening techniques. A separate Character Builder Extensibility Kit
includes additional tutorials and source files for creating custom characters.
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Visual Authoring backed by XML
The Character Builder uses a rich set of XML primitives to describe character behavior and
supporting visuals. The markup language resembles HTML, but
includes objects such as Stage
and Slideshow, that reveal a high-level underlying application model.
Content authors normally use the Builder's Outline, Design, and Script views to
specify content in a visual manner. For example, the Builder's Script View lets authors specify actions
by selecting icons from pull-down menus. The resulting script can then be recorded in-place, or printed
out for use by a voice artist.
Developers also appreciate the powerful underlying XML tag set, for use in creating
database-generated content and end-user messaging solutions.
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Streaming Web Delivery
The Builder generates Flash files that take full advantage of streaming:
they begin playing almost immediately, and then continue to play as they download.
Because character actions are interleaved with audio, the resulting streams can be
very small. In many cases a presentation can begin playing within the first 10 kilobytes of
download.
A simple API allows the surrounding web page or application to start, stop, and select
among different presentations - the character smoothly reacts to these commands and maintains
automatic actions, such as blinking or mouse-tracking, even when a presentation is stopped.
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Rich Supporting Media
Builder-generated Flash files can be placed directly on a web page, or embedded
within a traditional Flash or Director application. The files
can also be embedded in a growing number of eLearning packages that support the insertion
of Flash movies, including Adobe Captivate and Articulate Presenter.
A project can consist of a character and one or more presentations. An external
container, such as an HTML page or a Flash application,
can select among the authored presentations using a simple API.
Projects can also include supporting visuals - text, images, buttons,
movies, and more. Supporting media can be controlled
by a character, and synchronized with the character's voice and animation.
For example a character can "point" at an image on a slide, then move it, or hide it.
Similarly a character can glance at an embedded movie, watch it for a few seconds,
then stop the movie, turn to the user to comment, then restart the movie.
The Builder can be used to create attractive slides and scenes, using
features such as rich text, vector and raster graphics, and embedded Flash movies.
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Dynamic Flash Generation
The Character Server can generate a Flash SWF stream on demand from an XML string.
The XML string is typically assembled using a server-side script mechanism, such as ASP or PHP,
in response to a request from a web client. The XML string can include information from the request,
from a database, or from a web service. The resulting SWF stream is then returned
to the web client as the web response, where it can be consumed just like
any other Flash SWF file.
The Server can render anything that can be rendered by the Builder, including
slides and supporting visuals.
If audio files are not specified, then the Server
will invoke a SAPI-compliant, server-based Text-To-Speech engine, and compress the output for inclusion directly in
the Flash file.
The Server can be used by developers to create a wide range
of character-based applications, including applications in which end-users can
assemble their own character messages through a web-based interface.
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Integrated AIML Engine
The Character Server's natural language capabilities allow
users to ask questions using typed English input, and receive
answers spoken in real-time by a cartoon or realistic character.
The Server
includes an implementation of the popular AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language)
standard. By supporting AIML, the Character Server lets developers take advantage of a
broad base of publicly-available "chat" rules. Conversation rules can also include
character action tags, such as speech and animation tags.
The Character Server combines AIML, Dynamic Flash Generation, and Text-to-Speech into a single product,
to provide a complete platform for "virtual assistant" and "learning agent" applications.
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