Gizmoz is a new service that lets you create animated avatars from a photo. It has just launched a revamped version of its beta tonight.
With gizmoz, you can make an avatar from an existing animation, or use your own photo incorporated with the animations included in the gizmoz library. These gizmoz can be embedded in your MySpace, hi5 or Piczo profile, or uploaded to a video hosting site such as YouTube or Revver. Gizmoz avatars can also be used in your Skype profile. You can also create a widget with your gizmoz that can act as an answering machine for your blog or social networking profile. Your own speech can be recorded for your gizmoz from your computer's microphone.
Gizmoz is pretty strict with the photos that can be used for integration with animation, for positioning and coloring purposes. The community aspects of gizmoz are good, and very encouraging of sharing content. Other users' gizmoz can be embedded or emailed out, as well as remixed for your own use. While the service is currently free, gizmoz has plans to add premium accessories for your avatar that can be purchased, which is a model similar to Meez. Unlike fix8, gizmoz doesn't incorporate live video avatars.