Avatars are edging into mainstream videoconferencing, but evaluation of how avatar animation modalities contribute to work meeting outcomes has been limited. We report a within-group videoconferencing experiment in which 68 employees of a global technology company, in 16 groups, used the same stylized avatars in three modalities (static picture, audio-animation, and webcam-animation) to complete collaborative decision-making tasks. Quantitatively, for meeting outcomes, webcam-animated avatars improved meeting effectiveness over the picture modality and were also reported to be more comfortable and inclusive than both other modalities. In terms of avatar satisfaction, there was a similar preference for webcam animation as compared to both other modalities. Our qualitative analysis shows participants expressing a preference for the holistic motion of webcam animation, and that meaningful movement outweighs realism for meeting outcomes, as evidenced through a systematic overview of ten thematic factors. We discuss implications for research and commercial deployment and conclude that webcam-animated avatars are a plausible alternative to video in work meetings.

翻译：虚拟形象正逐渐进入主流视频会议领域，但关于虚拟形象动画模式如何影响工作会议成效的评估仍较为有限。我们报告了一项组内视频会议实验：某全球科技公司的68名员工组成16个小组，使用相同风格化虚拟形象的三种动画模式（静态图片、音频驱动动画、摄像头驱动动画）完成协作决策任务。定量分析表明，在会议成效方面，摄像头驱动动画虚拟形象较静态图片模式显著提升了会议效率，同时被反馈为比其他两种模式更令人舒适且更具包容性。在虚拟形象满意度方面，摄像头驱动动画同样较其他两种模式获得更高偏好。我们的定性分析显示，参与者普遍倾向于摄像头动画提供的整体性动作反馈，且对于会议成效而言，有意义的动作表现比真实感更为重要——这一结论通过对十大主题因素的系统性综述得以验证。我们讨论了该发现对学术研究及商业部署的启示，并得出结论：摄像头驱动动画虚拟形象可作为工作会议中视频传输的可行替代方案。