QUESTION: Avatar Creation

[Gaynell Lyman]

I have a group of social studies teachers who are trying to create video games about Greek gods and they need a program that will allow their students to create Avatars.  Any ideas?  These would be used as the characters for a proposal they are creating.

[Julie Moore]

Voki?

[Kelly Farrow]

Do they want to have them create avatars in isolation (like w/ Voki, mentioned already), or do they want the avatar creation to be part of the video game creation software they end up using?

[Ryan Goble]

Hi Gaynell - see this question posted in the New Media & Tech group as they had a bunch of suggestions there as well.

[Jeff Brain]

I agree, Voki. I also have my students use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and one could use Gimp, to customize avatars or icons. Illustrator is also good, because of its vector nature. In Photoshop, use the Shapes tools rather than the brushes.

 

I believe GameSalad has some illustrative tools for its game creation engine, but its Mac only at present. GameMaker and AgentSheets have drawing tools in their engines as well.

[Leanne Grandjean]

I use scratch with my students to create stories, animations, and so on. With Scratch, you can save images from google then import them as characters in the Scratch program. Scratch is a free basic programming language created by students and professors at MIT for students. I use it at a basic level with my 6th graders.

[Jennifer Sacks]

http://www.meez.com/ is easy and fun to use, but I am not sure it has the costume options you may need to make the avatars look authentic as Greek gods.  Check it out anyway!