Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Our diocese of The Episcopal Church has a lovely Web site. I visited it today, and was surprised to see at the top of the home page the headline, "Bishop Ohl makes brief YouTube appearance". Just below was an embedded video player, which I started.
What ensued was a clever animated movie, set in a typical talk show set (with the familiar 2-piece guest sofa, host desk, and a picture window onto a big city scene). The host, a buxom and rather enthusiastic girl, was interviewing our Bishop, Wallis Ohl. The topic was a new electronic newsletter just instituted by the diocese, and how church members and other interested parties could sign up to receive it. The bishop didn't look much like Wallis, but it was not a bad caricature. (There's a link to it below.)
My first thought was, how could they spend the money for such an animated work. Our public relations gal could have interviewed the bishop while any number of us could have shot the movie.
But it turns out that this whole thing was made by a free online animated movie generating service, Xtranormal Movie Maker (aka Xtranormal text-to-movie).
I've only looked into it a little, but as I understand it, you first choose a "set" and avatars for the characters (one or two). Then you submit a text script with all the dialog plus stage directions, which I guess to be like "Bishop blows kisses to audience", "Bishop nods his head", "Host turns toward camera". "Host turns toward Bishop", "Bishop raises hands" (as if to encourage audience to respond), and, evidently, "Bishop stares at host's cleavage."
From that, the system generates the entire movie.
I need to find out a lot more, but I was so excited I wanted to mention it here right away. I'll find out who masterminded the project and talk to them about it.
The speech is synthesized, evidently by the same kind of synthesizer we always hear Stephen Hawking speaking through, or the NOAA weather radio announcements.
Here is a link to the example I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaeEZhL6PE&feature=player_embedded
Of course equally wondrous is the dialog itself.
Best regards,
Doug
What ensued was a clever animated movie, set in a typical talk show set (with the familiar 2-piece guest sofa, host desk, and a picture window onto a big city scene). The host, a buxom and rather enthusiastic girl, was interviewing our Bishop, Wallis Ohl. The topic was a new electronic newsletter just instituted by the diocese, and how church members and other interested parties could sign up to receive it. The bishop didn't look much like Wallis, but it was not a bad caricature. (There's a link to it below.)
My first thought was, how could they spend the money for such an animated work. Our public relations gal could have interviewed the bishop while any number of us could have shot the movie.
But it turns out that this whole thing was made by a free online animated movie generating service, Xtranormal Movie Maker (aka Xtranormal text-to-movie).
I've only looked into it a little, but as I understand it, you first choose a "set" and avatars for the characters (one or two). Then you submit a text script with all the dialog plus stage directions, which I guess to be like "Bishop blows kisses to audience", "Bishop nods his head", "Host turns toward camera". "Host turns toward Bishop", "Bishop raises hands" (as if to encourage audience to respond), and, evidently, "Bishop stares at host's cleavage."
From that, the system generates the entire movie.
I need to find out a lot more, but I was so excited I wanted to mention it here right away. I'll find out who masterminded the project and talk to them about it.
The speech is synthesized, evidently by the same kind of synthesizer we always hear Stephen Hawking speaking through, or the NOAA weather radio announcements.
Here is a link to the example I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaeEZhL6PE&feature=player_embedded
Of course equally wondrous is the dialog itself.
Best regards,
Doug