Embodied conversational characters are autonomous, graphically embodied virtual creatures that live in a 2D or 3D virtual environment. They are able to interact intelligently with human users, other characters, and their digital environment. While for decades research has concentrated on geometric body modelling and the development of animation and rendering techniques for virtual characters, other qualities have now come in focus as well, including the provision of conversational skills as well as the simulation of believable behavior including affect and peculiarities induced by individual personality traits. As a consequence, the domain of virtual characters has become much more diverse and now encompasses a wide range of disciplines, from computer graphics and animation to AI and more recently also psychology, sociology as well as design and arts. The current paper discusses a number of design issues that arise when building an application with one or more embodied characters. By means of selected sample applications we also illustrate a yet ongoing development of animated presentation agents starting with TV-style information presenters to highly interactive multi-character scenarios in which information is conveyed to the user in the form of multi-party conversations.
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