Users get to animate themselves in virtual worlds such as Minyanland. All Minyanland images © Minyanland.

When Tobi-Dawne Smith enters World of Warcraft, she encounters trolls, ogres, monsters, humans, dwarves, elves and dragons in the skin of her "toon," "Prairielily."

"We designed her to look like me and she actually did end up looking quite a bit like me, except for being ultra-thin," she said. "There wasn't an option for making a human character with a more 'human' build."

Customizing toons or avatars, whether they resemble the user or reflect that user's physical ideal, is one of the greatest demands on the creators of virtual worlds such as Second Life, Minyanland, World of Warcraft, Stardoll and others. The bottom line is that users want to animate themselves.

The interaction in virtual world communities now ranges from creating businesses, training in simulated exercises, and fighting against a common enemy, to engaging in romance. (According to a story on ShowbizSpy.com, a British couple met in Second Life and then left their spouses to continue their online relationship in the real world.) You name the activity and, more than likely, there is now a virtual world out there that allows one to do it.

When motion capture company Animazoo began animating avatars in Second Life, the biggest challenge, according to Animazoo Director of Technology and Co-Founder Ali Kord, was to allow users to enjoy real-time character movement.

"What we're doing and have always been doing is to allow users to move in real time," he said. The two-year jump from superimposing movements in Flash to Animazoo's motion capture technology is nothing short of a time-warp in advancements.

Animazoo asked performers to come into their studios -- everyone from martial artists to pole dancers -- and then, using their proprietary gyroscopic MoCap system, recorded and looped those movements. Animazoo's IGS-190 features 19 tiny inertial sensors or gyros attached to a flexible lycra suit allowing precision and stability of motion data. Coupled with their Gypsy software, which according to Kord has been perfected over years of development, the IGS-190 allows for realistic animations that Second Life users can "grab" and then attach to their custom avatars.

Animazoo's Second Life project launched 14 months ago and, within one month, sales covered the original investment.

"The challenge now is to give nuances to the movements to differentiate the characters from each other," Kord said. "Taking a dance and having an avatar do somersaults repeatedly gets boring. It's very hard to create individuality; it's like writing pop music."

Animazoo's Second Life project launched 14 months ago and, within one month, sales covered the original investment. All Second Life images © Animazoo.

The Next Generation
After Minyanville launched Minyanland, the financial virtual world targeted at children ages eight to 12 years old, they registered more than 35,000 kids within the first two months.

In a nutshell, Minyanland is Second Life for kids, but with an educational mission. When kids sign up, they can choose one of six characters (designed by John Bell, whose character design credits include Antz and Jurassic Park) and then receive $5,000 in Minyanland money and a condo worth $50,000. Minyanland is free for users and allows for parents and teachers to teach kids in an interactive forum of games and activities the core concepts of earning, spending, saving and giving.

"No one is doing anything like this," says Kevin Wassong, President, Minyanville Publishing and Multimedia, LLC. "Quite honestly, the family and kids' side of the financial world are probably the least served. We're trying to say to the people that the earlier kids are involved and learning, the better."

Laurie Petersen, general manage of Minyanville Family Media, said that users are very vocal in what they want to see in Minyanland and what they feel is missing.

"The key with virtual worlds is that you evolve them," Wassong said. "It's not a product you launch and then let sit."

The kids at Minyanland spend most of their time customizing their condos and dressing their characters to make them unique. At the same time, the games and activities are showing, rather than instructing, them that what they do in their world affects their economic status and the world itself.

While users in Second Life or Gaia Online are driving Scion cars or purchasing real-world brands for virtual use, the creators of Minyanland do not yet have name brands in their world. But they are open to allowing advertisers to create relevant marketing experiences.