When uploading a character there are four very important elements that you must consider. They are: 1 A face forward angle looking into the camera. 2 A neutral expression, so all sorts of messages can be recorded. 3 A large enough picture and face. 4 The correct file format (JPG or PNG).
We will elaborate on each of these below.
Face Forward
Because you want your character to talk to the person that is viewing your animation it is important that they face forward, directly into the camera so it appears they are talking to the viewer and not some distant unknown person. This is an example of a character looking into the camera:
FACE FORWARD GOOD!
This is an example of a character NOT looking into the camera:
FACING AWAY BAD!
Neutral Expression
A neutral expression with the mouth closed works best because you never know what kind of message you want to create. If your character has a big grin and you are creating a mellow or serious Beema it wont look good. In addition a closed mouth animates much better.
This is an example of a good neutral expression:
NEUTRAL GOOD!
Large Enough Picture and Face
When considering the picture you want to send there are two size considerations: 1 The size of the picture itself; 2 The size of the face in the picture.
Picture Size
In order to make a proper Beema Model we need a picture with a MINIMUM pixel resolution of 352x288. You can give us pictures much bigger than 352x288 but not smaller. For a more in depth discussion of Pixel Resolution go to, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_resolution.
Because your Beemas are video you do not need a Spatial Resolution of more than 72 dpi (aka ppi). For a more in depth discussion of Spatial Resolution go to, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_resolution.
Face In the Picture
You can get the right size picture but still not get an ideal model if the face is only a small percentage of the screen. If the face is a small percentage of the screen it will be hard to see the animation and you will lose the best of what the Beema system has to offer. The examples above where the models are looking at the camera are good examples of faces that fill the screen. Here is an example of a face that is too small a percentage of the screen.
FACE TOO SMALL BAD!
File Format
In order to make a Beema Model we need a picture in a JPG or PNG format. For an in depth discussion about the JPG format go to, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG, for PNG got to, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics.
We will not be able to convert photos from different file formats.