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Making Faces

Jan 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Michael Goldman

Facial Motion Capture The role of motion-capture technology in facial animation depends on a wide range of factors: project, budget, medium, resolution, creative needs, and the philosophy of those producing the animation. What is clear, however, is that motion capture has become, in the last year, more practical than ever before for animators struggling to replicate the nuances of the human face.

"Captured facial motion in animated characters has received a lot of validation recently," says Zac Jacobs, VP of marketing at Famous Technologies, a company that produces facial tracking and animation software that is compatible with most major mo-cap hardware systems. "We've recently started to see companies purchasing motion-capture systems specifically for facial work and even setting up dedicated facial stages in several cases."

Jacobs adds that improvements in such technologies are fueling demand for facial animation in CG-animated TV shows. "Some animated shows can now feature the same volume of dialogue that live-action sitcoms use because of the detail artists can now put into the face," he notes. "That means this technology is changing animation from a creative point of view."

But Keith Robinson, president of Modern Uprising Studios, New York, says that demand for facial animation is still highest in the video games and live-events markets, not in film and television. "The human face is one of the hardest things to animate realistically at a high resolution," he notes. "Many film and TV people feel that lip-synching software and other third-party tools, used in conjunction with keyframe animation, is the best approach for their projects."

Boston-based LifeFX built one of the most sophisticated systems ever created for realistic, high-res facial motion capture a couple of years ago. Now, however, the company has shifted its focus to Internet animation applications. The LifeFX story, ironically, points to an ongoing issue: How can workable technologies be financially viable in high-end production pipelines?

Two years ago, LifeFX set up shop at Hollywood post facility Pacific Title Mirage to develop the technology for a feature film, The Incredible Mr. Limpett, which was eventually shelved. Through a system that combined optical motion-capture data (produced using hundreds of facial markers and high-def cameras), with biomechanical computer models, sophisticated behavioral software, and proprietary algorithms designed to age and manipulate CG faces, the LifeFX team created and realistically aged a CG face of actor Jim Carrey for the film. Many industry professionals called the accomplishment one of the most impressive steps in facial animation. But the extended period needed to develop and hone that CG face caused some experts to question whether the technology could practically coexist with production deadlines and budgets.

LifeFX has since split off from Pacific Title Mirage and is now focusing on products such as animated e-mails, Web site hosts, and online classroom teachers. "We decided to streamline the pipeline and build it for the Internet," says Dr. Mark Sager, VP and codirector of research and development for LifeFX. "We're creating a whole range of digital people that will populate Web sites, mainly aimed at consumers and businesses. The advantage here is avoiding the complications of high-resolution film close-ups. We can rapidly capture motion when needed, program the performance, and create photoreal physiological models without worrying about film resolution."

The Web, in fact, is chock full of sites that utilize facial motion capture, many combining facial data with third-party software designed to edit and customize movement. A well-known tool for such application is FAMOUSfaces (see page 110 of this issue for more information). Other products, such as face2face and LIPSinc, are also being used with optical mo-cap systems to create cost-effective facial-animation pipelines for the Web, video games, and TV.

Proprietary Approaches With several motion-capture facilities around the country developing their own approaches, most of which rely on optical systems in combination with third-party and proprietary software, the quest for high-res facial capture is not over.

Giant Studios, Atlanta, relies on optical hardware from Biomechanics Inc., also of Atlanta. The manufacturer originally developed the system for medical applications, but Acclaim Entertainment, New York, later adapted it exclusively for video-game production. Featuring real-time preview capabilities, the technology is now licensed by Giant and is used mainly for high-end work, including the upcoming Lord of the Rings feature film.

Like other systems, the Biomechanics system can capture detailed facial data with its proprietary cameras. But Matt Madden, Giant's director of research and development, points out that the successful capture of facial data is only half the battle. He says that Giant also needed to figure out how best to relate that data to accurate surface textures of particular characters. To do this, Giant engineers developed a new tool, dubbed "Nuance."

"When you set up a relationship between marker data sets and your computer model, you need to apply that relationship in order to give artists what they need," says Madden. "This is about communicating that deformation is taking place in a certain part of the face - like curves at the corner of the mouth - throughout the system, in order to achieve, in the end result, the original, organic nature of the data, which is the reason for doing motion capture in the first place."

Madden says that Nuance is dedicated, in large part, to reducing the need to clean facial motion-capture data, allowing producers to move information swiftly and efficiently into animation pipelines. "Our philosophy is to set the project up correctly, and that sometimes can take a while," he notes. "But it's worth it because we want to capture data that does not need much fixing by hand. Any post processing, we feel, should be dedicated to customizing the motion for the animation's particular style, not to cleaning and fixing it."

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.