CrazyTalk8

[Callum Meriman]

As an option to spending US$6000 per head....

• Rez a plywood cylinder
• flatten it on the Z axis
• Apply a RL photo
• Take to inventory
• Attach to Chin.
• Rotate until the photo is in front of the person's head.

This sort of thing:

[Ethan Paslong]

1 hour ago, Callum Meriman said:

As an option to spending US$6000 per head....

• Rez a plywood cylinder
• flatten it on the Z axis
• Apply a RL photo
• Take to inventory
• Attach to Chin.
• Rotate until the photo is in front of the person's head.

This sort of thing:

ooh with that one we might be able to get in at Charles's birthdayparty today!

[Resi Pfeffer]

.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Resi Pfeffer
double post

[Resi Pfeffer]

7 hours ago, Bertie2013 said:

So let's say we give the Application Operators (the people who would convert  2D photos to 3D animated faces) 20 minutes to do their stuff per face. Then the faces would be batched to another group of operators who would take the faces and import them into Blender (in order to fit on SL avis) within another 10 minutes__ expending 30 minutes per face. Therefore it is conceivable to receive 16 photorealistic avi heads per day using the talents of 2 Application Operators. To keep the production costs reasonably low, these operators cannot be US or Canada based. In Guadalajara Mexico, the going rate of compensation for experienced Computer Scientists is around 20.000 Pesos/month, i.e. $33.30 US /day. Therefore, 16 face could be generated within $66.66 (deploying 2 Operators), resulting in $4.17 per photorealistic head. Am I missing some other factor folks?

Your idea and business model would have a bigger chance to come to life, if you just would try to make a few steps by yourself. Take some shots of your face and make a mesh head out of it. If you cant do the whole work by yourself, write a request in the "wanted" section of the forum, and dont forget to offer more than 100 LD for a mesh head creation. 
All you did until now, was just to juggle with numbers and assumptions. Im out.

[Syo Emerald]

9 hours ago, Bertie2013 said:

For all you know that suave avatar you befriend on SL could in actuality be login while serving time in a prison. (Yes, access to PC is now a part of inmate rehab program).

And how do you plan to eliminate that problem in your SL sim? The problem of getting catfished is as old as internet dating exists. And I think as a single sim owner in Second Life you will have an even harder time to combat it.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

8 hours ago, Bertie2013 said:

For those of you who just might be interested (or curious) please watch this link to see how close CrazyTalk8 performs a 3D rendition of a mug shot in 19.38 minutes: 

Am I missing some other factor folks?

A screen shot of the wire frame of the geometry of a finished face would help us evaluate this a whole lot more than a promo video. Most 3D software tends to produce items with more geometry than SL can really handle. Do it wrong and a gathering of your face dolls will be so laggy no one can do anything.

Doing it right will take much much longer than 30 minutes. Your underpaid sweatshop workers would find ways to streamline the process, they'd have to given your time demands, but it will sacrifice quality. How much longer depends on what your software outputs. That's why those of us with a grasp of how mesh works in SL would need to see a screen shot of the geometry to make an estimate.

If you do manage to do it ok enough, my guess is that most of your customers will be people seeing it as a source of cheap heads. Join for a month to get the head then leave.

You've also completely ignored the avatars' bodies. You'll still need to provide body skins which match the tones of the face. Will you help them create shapes similar to their RL bodies? Have you tried doing that with the sliders? Some things just aren't possible, will those body types be banned from your sim? What will your policy be on mesh bodies? Most of them are designed to be some form of air-brushed perfection after all.

All of those are just issues with static presentations and leave out things like mannerisms, bearing, the way they kiss and touch, and the problem of members only being able to meet those who are online and on the restricted sim at the same time they are - open to all clubs have enough problems getting a crowd as it is. You could get around that with a wall of photos, but if you're going down that route, wouldn't it just be easier to have a wall of RL photos instead?

[Bertie2013]

@Callum Meriman " More like 8-12 weeks each (so about US$7,000-ish per head as a guide)."

CT8 automates the process of face-fitting to  1/2 hour per head and Mexicans charge US$33 per day. It's a global economy these days love....

[Resi Pfeffer]

3 minutes ago, Bertie2013 said:

CT8 automates the process of face-fitting to  1/2 hour per head and Mexicans charge US$33 per day. It's a global economy these days love....

Just keep repeating your assumptions and the ignoring of what all the others have told you already. That will bring you very far, for sure. ^^
Good luck, nonetheless.

[Bertie2013]

@Bitsy Buccaneer:

What you say is very true, if we stay affixed on the MMO paradigm. However, the goal of a Dating SIM that is to mimic the environment set by Zoosk, Match, eHarmony etc, the paradigm will be different: 1) Join the SIM to look for a date. 2) Replicate your facial and general body features into a CLASSIC 3D avatar. 3) Participate in the SIM's activities AND being just yourself (i.e. project your own charisma) to look for a date. 4) During the SIM organized meet-ups there will be no surprises shown between you and your selected date. Life will have a happy-ending thereafter. ?

[Bertie2013]

@Syo Emerald: "And how do you plan to eliminate that problem in your SL sim?" 

Simple enough. Shady MMO players have limited resources and are invariably looking for ways to scam other players. A stiff recurring Membership Fee will limit the SIM visitors EXCLUSIVELY to people having good well-paying jobs and the willingness to spend on their dates. Amen! SIM organised meet-ups will additionally eliminate "jail-birds" and "married-but-looking" etc.

[Resi Pfeffer]

19 minutes ago, Bertie2013 said:

CT8 automates the process of face-fitting to  1/2 hour per head and Mexicans charge US$33 per day. It's a global economy these days love....

I bet, all the mesh head creators like catwa or lelutka are banging their RL heads onto the wall, once they read your posts... How much they time they have wasted...

State of the art mesh head: 5K Lindens
Knowledge about CT8 and mexicans: priceless 

[Bertie2013]

@Resi Pfeffer: "State of the art mesh head: 5K Lindens
Knowledge about CT8 and mexicans: priceless "

What you say is very true, but attuned to the MMO game playing participants on SL. 

I'm shifting the paradigm to mass-produceable face-fitted heads on CLASSIC avi bodies on the Dating SIM. That's all. I seriously doubt if Plain-Janes or aged grannies/grandpas  would ever want to use mass produced photorealism on their avis for playing on SL MMO Sims. (However, they could use someone else's photo for this and still be able to attract attention.)

[Phorumities]

5 minutes ago, Bertie2013 said:

@Resi Pfeffer: "State of the art mesh head: 5K Lindens
Knowledge about CT8 and mexicans: priceless "

What you say is very true, but attuned to the MMO game playing participants on SL. 

I'm shifting the paradigm to mass-produceable face-fitted heads on CLASSIC avi bodies on the Dating SIM. That's all. I seriously doubt if Plain-Janes or aged grannies/grandpas  would ever want to use mass produced photorealism on their avis for playing on SL MMO Sims. (However, they could use someone else's photo for this and still be able to attract attention.)

ewww classic bodies? Your whole plan is doomed right there. Anyone who is anyone has a mesh body. They arent gonna give up their mesh bodies for classic just to be on your exclusive sim.

I have a much better idea. Just give everyone that joins a t shirt to wear with their RL face printed on it.

?

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Bertie2013 said:

A stiff recurring Membership Fee will limit the SIM visitors EXCLUSIVELY to people having good well-paying jobs and the willingness to spend on their dates.

While US $5 might be a "stiff" fee in some countries, it is most definitely not in many other countries.  Heck, in the US, it is the rough cost of a large latte at Starbucks and many people buy those every day - sometimes even multiples a day.

 

1 hour ago, Bertie2013 said:

SIM organised meet-ups will additionally eliminate "jail-birds" and "married-but-looking" etc.

How so?  No matter where one lives, even single people have RL jobs and other RL obligations that limit when then can be in SL.  How are you going to know if those limitations are due to true RL obligations vs 'that just happens to be the time frame that the spouse is gone from the house"?

 

I think you are quite naive about how some folks on the internet operate.

 

[Janet Voxel]

This thread is

[MirandaBowers]

1 hour ago, Bertie2013 said:

A stiff recurring Membership Fee will limit the SIM visitors EXCLUSIVELY to people having good well-paying jobs and the willingness to spend on their dates. Amen! SIM organised meet-ups will additionally eliminate "jail-birds" and "married-but-looking" etc.

By what standard would those two components be measured? The worth of a dollar fluctuates greatly depending on who you're talking to, so how would a fair universal standard be set?

 

 

[Momo Addams]

As silly as this idea sounds to me, just to humor it and for fun:

Op, you could maybe eliminate the whole RL replica avi thing and have just a stylized blank sort of Avi or a "uniform" one that everyone uses (maybe fashioned similar like those all body costumes that just make you a textureless single color) and instead request people have a RL picture of themselves handy or in their profile, like maybe in a pick or in the 1st life tab.

The argument would still be that, due to it being the digital world, just like a "RL avi" could be faked, a RL picture can be too; so even in this the issue still stands. at any point, unless you knew that person personally in RL you couldn't really ever know if their imagery or their "RL" self is really them and you would just have to assume that if they are willing to pay a fee they are being genuine. 

However, in a setting like SL, where the "meet up" is real time, people would be forced to just sporadically chat with each other going this method if all you did was throw them into a big room. If all avis were the same, a member could only know differences based on the others around them's names or snoop profiles (which could be utilized much like a dating sites little quick get-to-know profiles with their image by them), and then members would decide to engage in personal conversation from there.

I'd imagine people, even with a subscription to your bizness may make all sorts of alts for this to troll or what have you.

But people could also do all of this method on their own without a central "find a date" zone, let alone one they have to have a subscription fee to. This actually probably very much different from what you keep referring to as the "MMO" thing, but it's less of a headache.

Edited November 14, 2018 by momomoonusagi

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

17 hours ago, Bertie2013 said:

@Bitsy Buccaneer:

What you say is very true, if we stay affixed on the MMO paradigm. However, the goal of a Dating SIM that is to mimic the environment set by Zoosk, Match, eHarmony etc, the paradigm will be different: 1) Join the SIM to look for a date. 2) Replicate your facial and general body features into a CLASSIC 3D avatar. 3) Participate in the SIM's activities AND being just yourself (i.e. project your own charisma) to look for a date. 4) During the SIM organized meet-ups there will be no surprises shown between you and your selected date. Life will have a happy-ending thereafter. ?

Please tell me you are 18 and don't have much experience with life yet.

And are we talking about mesh heads or system heads?

[Syo Emerald]

21 hours ago, Bertie2013 said:

@Syo Emerald: "And how do you plan to eliminate that problem in your SL sim?" 

Simple enough. Shady MMO players have limited resources and are invariably looking for ways to scam other players. A stiff recurring Membership Fee will limit the SIM visitors EXCLUSIVELY to people having good well-paying jobs and the willingness to spend on their dates. Amen! SIM organised meet-ups will additionally eliminate "jail-birds" and "married-but-looking" etc.

Your outlook on MMO players is interesting. How do you know those who play online games don't have the financial ability to do this? (One of those "shady" MMO players here, paying a fortune of around 12 Euro each month for soon-to-be 12 years in a row to the most popular MMORPG for PC in the western world).

Paying a monthly fee of 5$ or 10$ doesn't require a "well-paying job" in many parts of the world. Thats what some people easily spend at a trip to Starbucks. Of course, it could keep some trolls away, who are in for a quick joke... but the people who are serious about catfishing others? No way. And even if it was true, that you'll need a "good well-paid job"...that doesn't gurantee you a bunch of good people, who are not going to lie about their identity or real life circumstances. Just consider the effort some married folks put into having a lover and making sure they and their partners don't know. Faked business trips are just the tip of the iceberg. And thats not even touching on the topic of identity theft...or people with a criminal intent.

I'm pretty sure I could make an alt, join your sim and create an entire fake life and people would be willing to swallow my lies, if done right. The only mistakes to avoid would be running out of excuses or to mix up parts of my own fake story.

 

 

[Callum Meriman]

On 11/15/2018 at 2:33 AM, Bertie2013 said:

CT8 automates the process of face-fitting to  1/2 hour per head and Mexicans charge US$33 per day. It's a global economy these days love....

Even at $33 a day this would be US$1320 a head. So, I'd suggest you go to China or India love, they are likely cheaper then Mexico. In fact, why not use Venzuela, they will do it much cheaper then Mexico. Maybe you can get the price down to as low as US$1000 a head,

You clearly don't understand the work involved to not just do the basic workflow, but to clean up the generated model, weight it to Bento bones, correct errors in the UV Map you introduced, and bring it in as a finished product. Having the finished product you then need to fine tune the animations/scripting so the eyes blink and the mouth moves when they talk... No matter what way you look at this, even doing the work in another country, this will be more then your expected US$5 cost.

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Callum Meriman

[Theresa Tennyson]

12 hours ago, Callum Meriman said:

Even at $33 a day this would be US$1320 a head. So, I'd suggest you go to China or India love, they are likely cheaper then Mexico. In fact, why not use Venzuela, they will do it much cheaper then Mexico. Maybe you can get the price down to as low as US$1000 a head,

 

Might want to check your math here - it's looking like you're calculating a day as lasting 45 seconds. Way to make me feel old...

[Nalates Urriah]

Well... we have lots of opinions. Doesn't sound like many would be willing to buy stock in a complay planning to execute your idea.

So... Now maybe it is time to just go do it if you think you can make it happen.

Let us know when you are to market. There will either be lots of 'crow eating' or 'I told you...'

[HunniHope]

Hi, my name is Talluliar, I am from Timbuktoo. I have soon come into money from dead uncle of 42,000,000 USD and so I look for pretty house boy to shower with precious things. I will be 188cm of amazon red hair and perfect egypt gold tan. Will I be allowed in?

[Callum Meriman]

13 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

Might want to check your math here - it's looking like you're calculating a day as lasting 45 seconds. Way to make me feel old...

No. 8 weeks to make the head = 40 x US$33 a day = US$1320. Unlike the OP I don't believe a bento rigged, and cleaned up head can be churned out in 1 hour.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Callum Meriman