Faceware Technologies, an animation-specific technology firm has announced their newest product, Faceware Live, which shows incredible promise in its contribution potential to gaming animation.

The new software, available in late 2013 is capable of live rendering facial expressions and transferring them onto a 3D model. The implications of this in terms of the gaming industry cannot be understated. Not only does the mean that gamers can expect more realistic, spot on animations in their console games, but it means that Hollywood actors, who have already begun making their way into gaming with voice acting and such, will begin to play a much more pivotal role in a game.

Beyond the story, now the gamer can get a real performance from a person, not a person manipulating a program to give a performance. It’s an entirely new level of depth to gaming; the likes of which we have only just begun to see with more primitive forms of motion capture technology.

When asked to comment, Peter Busch, vice president of business development at Faceware said, “We’ve seen growing demand across a number of industries for real-time facial motion capture,” said Peter Busch, vice president of business development at Faceware Technologies. “Faceware Live is our revolutionary approach to meeting this demand. This product addresses the many challenges that arise in production and enables rapid content creation for anything from live stage performances to on-set pre-visualization to a desktop tool for animators.”

There are, of course, serious implications to this technology that reach far beyond the world of gaming, and Busch is very aware of that. We’re all excited to see what new developments will come out of the implementation of Faceware Live, stay tuned to Gamingbolt for updates.

Faceware Technologies has taken the lid off Retargeter 4.0, the next stage in evolution of its award-winning 3D facial motion capture technology.

For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Retargeter is a Faceware software used for capturing facial motion and reproducing it in rendered images. It’s been used in a copious amount of big name game releases, including Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K and Red Dead Redemption which are renowned for its visual presentation.

“In February, we announced that Retargeter 4.0 is coming. As soon as we did, artists began contacting us to find out more information,” said Peter Busch, Vice President of Business Development at Faceware Technologies. “So in an effort to meet their requests, we’re now disclosing more details. While I can’t reveal all of the features that will make it into the final release, I can say that every feature, especially AutoSolve, focuses on increasing the quality of your starting point and speeding the more mundane elements of hand animating so that artists can more quickly get to the part that matters: perfecting and polishing performances that set their CG characters apart.”

Here’s the list of new features included in Retargeter:

• Expression Sets: An add-on to the Character Setup process, Expression Sets are a group of pre-defined, standard facial poses that are unique to each character in your project.   Expression Sets define the style and look of the universal shapes and movements of a character to drive AutoSolve.
• AutoSolve: Combining the data from IMPD files generated from Faceware Analyzer along with pre-defined facial poses or ‘Expression Sets’, Retargeter’s AutoSolve can automatically create animation on a video performance with the simple click of a button, giving artists a great first pass in a matter of minutes that they can then fine tune through the award-winning Retargeter pose-driven workflow.   “AutoSolve is a revolutionary step in facial motion capture,” explains Busch. “We are excited to give studios the opportunity with Retargeter 4.0 to really capitalize on the idea of rapid prototyping.  Directors, artists, and producers will now be able to judge performance earlier in their production cycle– making more effective use of facial budgets.”
• Tracking Visualization: Retargeter 4.0 makes use of an improved IMPD file that contains the complex data needed for AutoSolve– it also contains a helpful way to see the tracking information that comes out of Faceware Analyzer.   This feature enables artists to better understand what is going on in the facial tracking process to better utilize Retargeter. 
• Batch Functionality: The command line abilities built into Retargeter 4.0 allow any function within Retargeter to be scripted, letting artists create a complete batch pipeline for facial animation.  With minimal character setup and a little basic scripting, artists can easily set up and AutoSolve hundreds of shots overnight.   Retargeter 4.0 will support a library of Mel, Python, and MaxScript commands.
• Shared Pose Thumbnails: Sometimes there are multiple artists using Retargeter for the same character on a project. Retargeter 4.0 now gives artists the ability to add thumbnail images for every pose, so that other artists on the team have a reference for every shared pose and can find what they need faster.    Artists have the ability to custom define each thumbnail, such as focusing on a particular area of a pose or showing the entire facial pose.

Students can create their own highly detailed faces for free courtesy of an educational program rolled out by Faceware Technologies. They are a leading provider of 3D facial animation software and hardware for the video game, film, television and commercial industries, today announced that it is rolling out its Educational Program to educational institutions around the world.

“Creating detailed and convincing animated facial performances is arguably one of the toughest challenges any animator faces in the 3d world,” said Ron Ryder, CEO of Faceware Technologies.

“With our new Educational Program, schools will have the ability to train student animators in this cutting-edge form of animation with our industry leading tools prior to launching graduates into a fast-paced production environment.”

The technology allows for high-quality facial animation: video performance capture, performance analysis, and facial animation creation. The analyzer and retargeter software is available for free while there’s a processing fee for studios and commercial clients.

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