Photobucket has teamed up with Meez to offer animated avatars with their service.
Now you can create your own Meez directly from your Photobucket account. This is added to the rest of your personal media and can be shared in the same manner as their signature slideshows, on your MySpace, Hi5, Piczo, etc. profile walls. Your animated avatar can be dressed and accessorized, with backgrounds and other objects available to be incorporated. You can make several Meez avatars, and the finished products are saved in seven different sizes. Meez is one of the leading customized avatar services, and is often seen on MySpace profiles.
This is great timing for Photobucket to announce a new release, especially since they've been permitted to have their videos show on MySpace again. Other avatar news includes EA Games partnering with Endamol to offer virtual reality games, and Second Life opening their open-source grid.