Welcome to CharacterPaks!
The One-Sentence Explanation
CharacterPaks are Flash libraries containing animated characters, backgrounds and foreground objects that you can use to quickly create animations for web or video delivery.
The More Elaborate Paragraph Explanation
Okay, so you have an idea for an animation. You want to have a cartoon character talk about the merits of your new product. Or you want to send an animated birthday greeting to an old friend. Sadly, you can't draw or animate. Or perhaps you can, but the old friend isn't really worth the effort involved in doing a whole animation, plus his birthday is tomorrow, and you don't have time. Enter CharacterPaks! Using Flash, just import your sound file, choose your character, put in some basic lip synching, and you're good to go!
Okay, it's not quite as easy as that, but it is a lot easier than doing it all from scratch.
Latest CharacterPak News
Dec. 12, 2007 - Okay, once a year we like to update the news section! C'mon, I've been busy... We've released some new software at: http://www.theconverted.ca . It's a tool for converting your flash files into XAML. Very cool, if you're into that sort of thing.
Sept. 1, 2007 - The flash game we built for the Government of Canada is finally up an running! Check out 'Buffet Busters' if you want to learn how not to get sick in a school cafeteria.
March 15. 2007 - We just completed an animated game for a local business, but no link to it yet...
Dec5 , 2006 - The latest in CharacterPak technology is finally up! CharacterPaks Politics is live and ready to animate with, just in time for the mid-term elections! Uh... Just in time for the 2008 Presidential Elections!
Nov. 25, 2006 - Flash in the Can, Winnipeg! Robin and I just spoke at Flash in the Can, a great time to be sure, especially as the backup computer that Robin brough actually worked.
Nov. 1 , 2006 - A new game project up at the Huffington Post Contagious Festival! It's llike an editorial cartoon, except it uses a game instead of a cartoon (going back to my editorial cartooning days, I guess). It doesn't really have much (okay, any) animation, but I thought I'd post it here anyways.
http://frolicmedia.cf.huffingtonpost.com
Oct. 15 , 2006 - I've just posted a new game/animation made with a soon-to-be-released CharacterPak. The game is called 'The Rebus Puzzle' and it uses the 'CharacterPak -Kids' . It's aimed at kids about ages 9~13. It combines the game play with character-based animation, but I'm not overjoyed with the result. You can try it at:
http://games.frolicmedia.com/rebus/
Sept. 6, 2006 - Just posted an animation built with CharacterPaks to the Huffington Post Contagious Festival. If I win, I'm totally buying a case of beer. Of course, if I lose, I'm also buying a case of beer, I'll just have to ration it a bit longer. Here's a link to the animation. The beauty of it is that you can go look at it without having to feel obligated to vote for anything.
http://frolic.cf.huffingtonpost.com/