3D Avatar Messenger from Greater China-based InterGrafx lets you create icons, wallpapers, and videos using your Nokia and InterGrafx’s cloud-based service. The colorful interface requires no knowledge of 3D techniques at all. My partner and I had fun with this $0.99 (USD) app, even though I am clearly not in the center of their target demographic. (The interface was girley enough I felt the need to go to the gym, pump some iron, and swear in the locker room for a bit.)

3D Avatar Messenger is compatible with Symbian OS, S60 5.0 (touch) devices. I tested it on my Nokia N97.

Here are two animated icons (GIF files) my partner and I created using the app:

Click to see animation. My partner created this "urban party girl" avatar in about 5 minutes.

Click to see the animation. Not my real skin tone, but I do dance that badly.

The entire process requires no drawing skills at all — you merely select a series of options and let the app do the rest. There are 23 options in all, including gender, dance moves, skin tone, facial shape and expression, and environment.

Male or female is the first of 23 options you can customize.

You can select the facial shape and expression, as well as hair style and color.

Each step along the way the app provides you a preview of your avatar. Once you like what you have created, select Done to finalize your creation. You can choose a variety of outputs including static wallpaper and high-resolultion videos.

Output is available in a variety of formats.

Wallpapers and animated icons are stored on your device's memory card while videos are delivered via e-mail.

3D Avatar Messenger is the first app from InterGrafx to appear in Ovi Store, but it looks like there are more apps on the way from this development house. IntegGrafx specializes in multimedia visualization  on mobile devices, and their technical staff comes from the renowned Media Labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). I found this sneak preview of a 3D game the InterGraphx is preparing for Nokia devices:

3D Avatar Messenger is a fun way to dress up your online presence and send e-mail messages. You can even add text bubbles to your avatar and create e-mail greetings.