one of my clients wants such a thing on his website. is it better to record it by myself or take ready-made from a specialized company??

Making one yourself is very time consuming and the results may not be as good from a company who only does that for a living. You also need to consider voice talent because the computer voice is hit or miss. I say send it out and mark it up.

Who would want that on his website?

Most people I have spoken to find them annoying.

The only use for them is to make them say profanity...

The only use for them is to make them say profanity...

Har har

The only use for them is to make them say profanity...

^^ Good times I remember forgetting my volume was cranked and having one say "John Irving is the ****!" so loud my mom heard it upstairs

Back on topic though, I would say unless you have great recording abilities, equipment, and a good person to narrate whatever you want said I would get a company that does it for a living.

Those things have me going for the close or back button faster than a website playing Celine Dion!

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Those things have me going for the close or back button faster than a website playing Celine Dion!

They are annoying to us but for people who have little computer knowledge, they are simply mind boggling. Like how when gif animations first came out and people felt the need to put an average of 5 skulls on fire per page.

I agree with Darren (btw I know Darren Fox from London, owner of General Hotel Gallery...). It can be a nice gadget for SOHO users, like insurance agents, crafts, photo studios. Some people dont like text, even for me text is a basic thing in the internet.

I visited AVAGUIDE.NET (real people) and SITEPAL (cartoons). Don't do it by yourself, your client can spend few dollars for this stuff (who is your client, can we know?)

sd

Just be sure to charge way more than it is worth to install, outsource the work to India, and remove the website from your portfolio.