Screenshot-> Screencast-> Animated Work of Art-> ?

Written on 14th May 2009                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

I remember the times when start-ups would simply launch. I don’t think Yahoo sent out a press release when they first started collecting hyperlink in their dorm room, did they? These days launching a start-up seems to become THE defining moment in the history of the start-up.

It all started with a simple logo, attached to an email, with a press release.
Then we started seeing companies who recorded a ‘Screencast’ of their web service in action. Usually narrated by the lead developer. It was more informative and interesting than a screenshot or logo, but it could be longwinded and the quality of the movie and sounds wasn’t always up to par.

Now there is a new trend: beautiful, artistic, hip, high quality, animated small movies.

The slightly humorous movie that explains it all.
This is an example of such a work of art by tipSpot (Invite Code):

TipSpot introduction – Making sure you stay in the loop from TipSpot on Vimeo.

The company who sent me this is still in private beta and I can’t help but wonder how much time and money went into making this movie. They say you never get another chance to make a first impression and that must be the reasoning behind going all out in your introduction movie. But when I first saw the beautiful Google Chrome movies I couldn’t help thinking “Yes this looks great, but can’t you just make the software work?”.

Of course it does work. I did end up watching the whole movie embedded here and I doubt I would’ve read a press release if they would’ve sent me one. Absorbing a message wrapped up in nicely designed moving images is easier than reading plain text.

I wonder what is next. How long will it take before the first start-up launches with a Hollywood produced, 15 minute long, movie. Recorded IMAX style, with a $40 million budget, starring Megan Fox and Adrien Brody?

animation, art, launch, Press, screencast, tipspot

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Meet Emily, life-like animations no longer a futuristic phenomenon

Written on 20th August 2008                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Emily is a gorgeous woman whose life is dedicated to acting. She welcomes people to websites, does commercials, and helps users to navigate through new online tools. Best of all, she never complains. She always works, even outside office hours. Yeah, those life-like animations is everything a start-up could ask for. Everybody prefers charming Emily instead of the boring presentations by geeky founders.

Emily has been developed by Image Metrics, and “will set a new precedent for photo-realistic characters in video games and films” (and web sites, I assume).

The researchers at Californian-based Image Metrics made Emily by breaking down the facial movements in a video of an employee. They then broke the facial movements down into dozens of smaller movements, each of which was given a ‘control system’. The goal of this process is replicate human imperfections and the timing we tend to have when telling something. “Ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real,” Mike Starkenburg, chief operating officer of Image Metrics, said to the Times.

It takes one hell of a processor to generate these computer images. But maybe in a few years, every start-ups has its own virtual life-like character that guides new users through sites and tools.

[Via Spotlight Effect (Dutch)]

animation, Emily, ImageMetrics

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