How to create an animated character from your facial expressions in real time
November 20, 2012
Faceshift automatically reproduces facial expressions, simplifying facial animation. Credit: Alain Herzog/EPFL)
Faceshift, announced Monday, is software that uses Kinect and similar cameras to read your face and create a moving avatar from it. It could enhance the future of video games and make video chats more fun, says Thibaut Weise, founder of Faceshift, a spinoff of EPFL’s Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory.
The software needs only ten minutes to recognize your face as you create basic expressions requested by the program: smile, raise eyebrows, etc. and start reproducing your expressions.
Creating animations faster
Weise’s team has created an algorithm that superimposes 3D depth data on image color and brightness data in one step. They demonstrated that 3D facial movements could be reconstructed in real time without using facial markers or complex scanning hardware.
With the current method of creating animated films and video games, the facial expressions of characters are defined with a program that creates movement of different parts of the face step by step. To simulate anger, for example, you have to knit each eyebrow in two or three clicks, then stretch the mouth down, and so on. Faceshift can reduce the time to make a film by up to 30%, he says.
A free trial version is available.
Faceshift video
Comments (5)
by Cybernettr
How long will it take for this to filter into television and film animation? Because of the expense of Disney-style full animation, TV has long been saddled with that dreadful “limited animation,” In which only the character’s lips move, along with an occasional eye blink. Voice/mouth synchronization has long been the most labor-intensive part. It looks like this system has that licked. Perhaps soon voice actors will become “real” actors, for not only will they be supplying the voices but they will be driving the animation as well.
by Rob B
One thing these systems always do is anchor the neck in a fixed positiion. I think they would add much realism if they allowed the neck to move naturally in 3space as it does it reality.
by GAUSS
That kind of capability is just a patch away!
by Kyle Rybski
The webcam face tracking in EverQuest II does look up, down, left, and right as the user does. Though it’s much worse at recognizing eyebrows than this demonstration.
by Jerry
Cool that it’s in EQ2, but wouldn’t you be looking away from the monitor, and hence the game, in doing so?