Steve DiPaola will discuss several aspects of creating internet-based virtual characters -- from the technical, social and design aspects that went into creating OnLive! Traveler avatars, worlds and paradigms, to how new virtual character systems are revolutionizing communication and UI aspects of commercial-based web site design. The presentation draws on Steve's experiences as former Director of Design for Onlive! Traveler, one of the premiere voice-enabled 3D virtual world systems, and as Creative Director of Saatchi and Saatchi's Darwin Digital, which has developed bot-based virtual character web sites for such clients as Hewlett-Packard.
http://www.darwindigital.com/steve

The talk will occur in Onlive! Traveler at http://ok.actlab.utexas.edu/utopia/entrance.olv.

Steve DiPaola, Creative Director, co-heads the San Francisco office of the strategic digital communication company, Darwin Digital. Backed by the advertising giant Saatchi and Saatchi, Darwin works both independently and with Saatchi on the mandate to explore strategic applications of emerging technologies. Before Darwin, as lead architect and director of the Design Group at OnLive! Technologies, Steve led a team of 3D artists, architects, UI designers and musicians in designing and developing 3D virtual community software, worlds and avatars. Before that he was a member of the Advanced Technology Group at the entertainment company, Electronic Arts, where he spearheaded a group working on SGI-based 3D animation. From 1984 to 1992 he was a senior member of the computer animation research group at the New York Institute of Technology where he specialized in 3D character animation R&D, producing animation for film, TV and his own Fine Art. His main area of expertise at NYIT was in 3D Facial Animation, and he has several published papers and book excerpts on the subject. His current email address is woods@crl.com .
http://www.crl.com/~woods