La Cantoche (website)
 La Cantoche's website in January 11th, 2001. | |
| URL | https://www.cantoche.com (Defunct) |
|---|---|
| Language(s) | English, French |
| Country | France |
| Owner(s) | La Cantoche Production |
| Launched | May 11th, 1997 |
| Written in | HTML, CSS |
La Cantoche was the website for La Cantoche Production, a French 3D animation company founded by Benoit and Serge, who were known for making Microsoft Agent characters.[1] They are mainly known for making the Microsoft Agent characters James and Victor. They have also made other Microsoft Agent characters such as Oscar, Plany, Milton, and Claude (their mascot).
Pages
Primary pages
News
The News page is the main page of La Cantoche. This page displays the current announcements, their mission as a company, and is also connected to the Microsoft Agent Ring.
What is an Agent?
From the title, this page explains what agents are, what Microsoft Agent is, and the things the user can use agents for.
Our Services
This page is where users and companies can request and have La Cantoche create a custom agent just for them. They can either animate the user's head, create a custom version of James with the user's company logo and options on it, or create a entirely custom made agent just for the user or company.
Our References
The References page shows Microsoft Agent characters ordered by different companies, to prove that La Cantoche is a reliable and trustworthy company. They also can provide download links to download the Microsoft Agent characters that were ordered by the companies.
Applications
This page offers exe installers for their Microsoft Agent characters. The user can download the files as either a .exe or a .zip that has a .exe and .doc containing all the current animations. They also host their own trialware TTS engine called Digalo, which can read text in 7 different languages.
Agent Gallery
This page is where La Cantoche showcases that they also create animations for different productions outside of Microsoft Agent. This includes advertising, movies, video games, and in-house presentations.
The Company
This page contains information about La Cantoche and the history behind the company. It also describes the staff team of the company.
Contact us
This page allows the user to contact the La Cantoche staff team. It contains the e-mail address of the company, the phone number, and the fax number of the company.
Secondary pages
Job Opportunities
Like the name implies, this is where people can get hired for and work at La Cantoche. On the page, it describes the type of people they are looking for, and what they need knowledge of.
How to program
This page explains how to program a Microsoft Agent in the user's webpage, by linking the official documents by Microsoft, as well as helpful utilities for programming with Microsoft Agent.
MSAgent
This page showcases examples of Microsoft Agents, and also lists sites that utilize Microsoft Agent technology.
Agent Photo
This page is where users can give a picture of their face to La Cantoche and have them turn it into a Microsoft Agent character. It explains what an AgentPhoto is, the animations they can create, the options they offer, the way users can create their own AgentPhoto, and the advantages of using an AgentPhoto.
James Customized
On this page, users and companies can request La Cantoche to create a custom James agent for them. The user or company can have Cantoche integrate their logo into the agent, integrate their graphics into the agent, or even change the clothes that James wears.
Agent Customized
This is where users or companies can have La Cantoche create a custom character just for the user. If the user or company has an existing mascot, they can send 1 or more screenshots of the character model to Cantoche. If they do not have an existing character, they can describe what they want their character to look like to Cantoche, and they will create an entire character just for the user or company.
Ask for our prices
This is where users and companies can ask how much it would cost to have La Cantoche make their soon to be requested character just for them. Custom character prices on the site differ from how complex the character is, and how specific the company or user wants the character to look.
James, Claude, Oscar, Milton, and Plany
These 5 different pages contain basic descriptions for each one of the different La Cantoche characters. They also link the main character download page to download the character.
Gallery
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Front page of La Cantoche's site which comes before the News page. -
The News page of La Cantoche's site. -
Screenshot of the "What is an Agent?" page on La Cantoche's site. -
The Services page of La Cantoche.
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The References page of La Cantoche. -
Applications page that contains the download links of La Cantoche's Agents and Applications. -
La Cantoche's Animation Gallery page. -
The page about La Cantoche's company. -
La Cantoche's Contact page. -
"Job Opportunities" page on La Cantoche's site. -
"How to program" section on La Cantoche's site. -
"MSAgent" section on La Cantoche's site. -
Page for La Cantoche's Agentphoto option. -
Page for La Cantoche's Customized James option. -
Page for La Cantoche's Custom Agent option. -
The "Ask for our prices" page on La Cantoche.
Trivia
- La Cantoche Production was a lead in creating most of the classical Microsoft Agent characters.
- They have their own software called Living Actor,[2] which is similar to Microsoft Agent.
- It is still unknown what happened that caused the site to shutdown.
