MuvizuPlay is an animation software package based on the Unreal Engine 3 developed by the UK-based company Digimania (Formerly knowns as the DA Group), whose prior work includes the virtual newsreader Ananova. [1]
Animation is a method in which pictures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets or clay figures.
Muvizu was known as Muvizu 3D during the beta release cycles and was rebranded as Muvizu Play upon the 1.0 release in April 2013. [2]
The software is aimed at people who wish to make 3D animations without using expensive software packages and without specialist training. [3] It is a popular tool for educational purposes. Muvizu has a wide variety of content producers, from single amateur users to professional studios, such as Zubox, who create shows such as The Football Special, which is broadcast on MSN. [4]
MuvizuPlay comes pre-packed with a variety of two-legged characters, objects, effects and pre-made animations which users can use to fit their own stories. The software also supports custom objects, character textures, object textures, dialogue (including the ability to lip-sync automatically) and sound effects allowing a wide variety of customisation. [5] One of Muvizu's key features is its extremely quick production cycle – it is possible to have a fully voiced and animated video ready for upload within a couple of hours – when Rafa Benitez was confirmed as the manager of Chelsea in 2012 the script, voice recording, and animation was completed five hours before the actual press conference. [6] Users have also been able to produce relatively simple videos in as little as 20 minutes.
Chelsea Football Club are an English professional football club based in Fulham, London. Founded in 1905, they compete in the Premier League, the top division of English football. Chelsea are among England's most successful clubs; they have been league champions six times and won over thirty competitive honours, including six European trophies. Their home ground is Stamford Bridge.
A news conference or press conference is a media event in which newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions. A joint press conference instead is held between two or more talking sides.
There have been a wide variety of videos made using the Muvizu package, but the most widely known commercial videos are:
The Football Special
Ghost House
Muvizu:Play can be downloaded and used free of charge. The videos it produces are watermarked with the Muvizu logo. Watermarked videos may not be used for commercial reasons. To earn money from Muvizu videos users must pay to remove the watermark. An in-app purchase process lets you remove the watermark from your videos and in return users get the full commercial rights for that video allowing them to sell it, use it for business and attach YouTube adverts to it. On October 7, 2013, Digimania announced a new paid version of Muvizu called Muvizu:Play+. It can be purchased for 24.99 GBP but allows for unlimited watermark free renders, thus allowing for unlimited commercial use. [7] [8]
As Muvizu is based upon the Unreal 3 engine it has relatively high minimum specifications, and as such users may have to upgrade their machines prior to use. There is also no current version of Muvizu which works on Linux or Mac OS X, so in order to use Muvizu users must have a Windows installation on their machine, which can be done via bootcamp on Apple Macs. [9]
The minimum specifications for Muvizu are:
OS: Windows XP, Window 7, Window 8, Window 8.1
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz, AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz
Memory: 2GB RAM
Graphics: A shader model 3.0 compliant card, such as Nvidia GeForce 7800GTS or ATI Radeon X1800
DirectX: 9.0c
Hard Drive: 2 GB HD space
Sound: DirectX Compatible
The recommended specifications are:
OS: Windows 7 -64bit
Processor: Intel Quad Core i5/i7 or AMD Athlon II X4
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / ATI Radeon HD 5850 (Shader Model 3.0 compatible with 1GB of RAM)
DirectX: 11
Hard Drive: 2 GB HD space
Sound: DirectX Compatible (Surround Sound 5.1 capable)
Please note that it may lag if you're using the minimum specifications.
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