Pengyu Hong, Danfeng Li, Jun Li, Zhaoyu Liu, Zhen Wen — Multimedia Converting Interface

Company Overview Mission: Innovate computer character animation. – Multimedia-driven face animation – Reconfigurable virtualization Company: –Hi-tech animation software company –Based on years of research supervised by Prof. Thomas S. Huang at UIUC

Product Description Product Description – Technology IFace Speech to face animation Speech stream Text stream Text to face animation Video to face animation Video stream Face Modeling

Product Description – Product line IFace Software Development Kit (SDK) IFace Basic – Low cost & quality IFace Professional – Moderate cost & quality IFace Enterprise – High cost & quality Future products – Importable engines & function calls. IFace Software Full body animation

Product Description – Applications Video Games Video Games TV/Movies Visual Communication Electronic Art’s WCW wrestling game Tomb raider

Product Description – Applications Video Games TV/Movies TV/Movies Visual Communication Toy Story

Product Description – Applications Video Games TV/Movies Visual Communication (Source: Newsweek) –Visual –Internet chatting –Web advertising –Very low bandwidth handheld device communication –Web-based real-time customer supports

Product Description – Value Proposition We bring competition advantages to our customers by helping them: Multimedia driven face animation. – Increase flexibility Automatically create high-quality face animation. – Save time & cost Enable face-based,vivid information delivery. – Attract buyer’s attention. Achieve reconfigurable virtualization – Create more realistic and appealing products

Market Analysis – Video game Video games represent the fastest growing segment in the U.S. entertainment industry Revenue Growth Unit Sales Growth (Source: PC Data)

Market Analysis – Video game Video games represent the fastest growing segment in the U.S. entertainment industry Revenue Growth Unit Sales Growth (Source: PC Data) 1Q of 2000: unit sales grew 20%, revenue increased 16%.

Market Analysis – Market Analysis – Animation Tools (Source: M2 Research) Million $152M AGR 12.6% $358M AGR 14.8 %

Market Analysis – Customer analysis Our potential customers include: Companies that integrate IFace SDK into their products for reconfigurable virtualization: NINTENDO Sony Electronic Arts …

Market Analysis – Customer analysis Our potential customers include: Companies that integrate IFace SDK into their products for reconfigurable virtualization. Companies that use IFace software as development tool in their business: On-line news or information providers (e.g. Ananova, CNN). Online advertisement producers (e.g. Advertising.com, Direct-Web Advertising, Y&R Advertising). Web-based real-time customer support providers (e.g. FaceTime Communications Inc., LivePerson Inc).

Market Analysis – Customer analysis Our potential customers include: Companies that use our products to design or manufacture their own product. Companies that use our products as development tool in their business. Millions of end users.

Market Analysis – Competitor analysis Competitors Our Advantage Companies use traditional approaches (e.g. Discreet, SoftImage, Maya ) New technology which saves at least 90% time, therefore saves cost

Market Analysis – Competitor analysis Competitors Our Advantage Companies use traditional approaches (e.g. Discreet, SoftImage, Maya ) New technology which saves at least 90% time, therefore saves cost Face2Face – Video driven LIPSinc – Speech driven Companies use new technology Complete solutions Text driven Speech driven Video driven (better)

Market Analysis – Competitor analysis Competitors Our Advantage Companies use traditional approaches (e.g. Discreet, SoftImage, Maya ) New technology which saves at least 90% time, therefore saves cost Face2Face – Video driven Companies use new technology Complete solutions Text driven Speech driven Video driven (better) LIPSinc – Speech driven Potential competitors in the future (research labs) More advanced technology Early move advantage More energetic & motivated

Marketing Plan – Target market Video game as main target Large ($6.1 billion in 1999); high growth rate (16% in 1Q 2000) Benefit most from our technology  Pricing: License – charge by video game unit sold Well-defined market: ~20 major companies; the largest four take 50% of the market share  Product: IFace SDK – importable engine

Marketing Plan – Target market (cont.) Animation software  Pricing: Charge by software unit TV/Movie studios – currently the largest market in animation software industry (42%, 1999)  Products: Different versions of software products E-commerce – emerging market along with the growth of Internet industry. End users – large potential customer base

Marketing Plan – Advertising & Promotion Advertising Magazine and online ads – Game Developer – Computer Graphics World – Yahoo – eBay – …

Marketing Plan – Advertising & Promotion Advertising Magazine and online ads Trade shows and conferences – SIGGRAPH – ACM Multimedia – COMDEX

Marketing Plan – Advertising & Promotion Advertising Magazine and online ads Trade shows and conferences Product reviews – Digital Producer – Gamasutra – cnet – zdnet

Marketing Plan – Advertising & Promotion Advertising Magazine and online ads Trade shows and conferences Product reviews On-line MCIFace community – announce news – provide services – exchange ideas among the end users

Marketing Plan – Advertising & Promotion Advertising Magazine and online ads Trade shows and conferences Product reviews On-line MCIFace community Promotion Free license of IFace SDK for the 1st year Time-limited free trial of IFace software products

Operations and Development Operations – Quick reacting to the market demands –Good relationship with customers –Competent engineer team –Continuous R&D Development timeline JanFebMarAprMayJunJulySepOctNovDec Developing Testing Releasing

Management Team Founders with competent technological expertise –Pengyu Hong (CTO) and Zhen Wen are the key researchers of the project leads to MCIFace tech. at UIUC. –10 accumulative years of software development experience in face modeling/animation An external experienced CEO, VP Marketing, VP Sales and CFO. Strong board of advisors

Financial Plan In Year 5, sales of $71.6 million, with an after-tax net profit of $29.1 million, and a staff of about 105. $20,000 seed fund from the founders. Financing round financingDateAmountSharesIRR 1 st roundJan-01$1.6 mil24%85% 2 nd roundJan-02$2.0 mil8%55% Breakeven at the end of the 3 rd year

Exit Strategies Buyout –By animation software companies (e.g. Discreet, SoftImage) –By large companies (e.g. Microsoft, AT&T) IPO –Solid products –Sound market share

Demo – Text driven face animaton “We strive to make the meter on animation production, and are always looking for new technology that will enable faster, more appealing character creation,” said Joel Kransove, Digital Director of Nickelodeon. (Source: Digital Producer)

Demo – Speech driven face animation “Game characters have become synthetic actors and dialogue is an essential element of the effect we create. The quality of the lip- synching can make or break the sense of reality,” said Scott Cronce, vice president and CTO at Electronic Art (Source: Gamepro)

Demo – Video driven face animation