— Multimedia Converting Interface

1. MCIFace, Inc. — Multimedia Converting Interface Pengyu Hong, Danfeng Li, Jun Li, Zhaoyu Liu, Zhen Wen

2. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15. 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

16. Companies use new technology • Complete solutions • Text driven • Face2Face – Video driven • LIPSinc – Speech 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

17. Potential competitors in the future (research labs) • More advanced technology • Early move advantage • More energetic & motivated 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 • Companies use new technology • Complete solutions • Face2Face – Video driven • Text driven • Speech driven • LIPSinc – Speech driven • Video driven (better)

18. 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 • Well-defined market: ~20 major companies; • the largest four take 50% of the market share • Product: IFace SDK – importable engine • Pricing: License – charge by video game unit sold

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

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

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

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

23. 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

24. 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

25. Development timeline Developing Testing Releasing Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Sep Oct Nov Dec Operations and Development • Operations – Quick reacting to the market demands • Good relationship with customers • Competent engineer team • Continuous R&D

26. 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

27. Financial Plan • $20,000 seed fund from the founders. • Financing round • Breakevenat the end of the 3rd year • In Year 5, sales of $71.6 million, with an after-tax net profit of $29.1 million, and a staff of about 105.

28. 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

29. 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)

30. 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)

31. Demo – Video driven face animation