DI4D introduces neural facial rigging solution
DI4D’s neural rig uses 4D data to faithfully reproduce an actor’s facial expressions
Glasgow & LA, February 2025 – DI4D, the leading independent facial capture and animation provider, has announced a new, highly efficient rigging solution to deliver facial animation that reproduces every nuance of a real-life actor. The solution uses machine learning to analyse a few minutes of 4D facial performance data to build an actor-specific facial animation rig.
DI4D’s neural rig is particularly effective when combined with DI4D’s PURE4D 4D facial performance capture solution. 4D “geometry cache” facial animation, such as that produced by PURE4D, can be solved accurately onto the neural rig, ensuring the resulting rig-based animation remains faithful to the original captured performance while allowing adjustments to be made where required.
DI4D’s neural rig builds upon the company’s 20+ years of pioneering development in the field of high fidelity, performance-driven facial animation. The development now allows DI4D to offer a complete digital double creation, rigging and animation service.
Neural rigging provides greater accuracy and control
Studios can now utilise DI4D’s neural rigging solution as a part of any 4D-driven facial animation pipeline used for CG and in-game characters. It can be used with DI4D’s own 4D capture and stereo HMC (head-mounted camera) systems, or with third party equivalents, allowing studios flexibility in how and where the source data is captured.
The neural rigging solution is also available as part of DI4D’s PURE4D facial animation solution, providing animators with greater editing control on top of animation that is faithful to the actor’s original performance.
Until now, editing 4D facial animation proved challenging for studios attempting to preserve the authenticity of the original performance. DI4D’s neural rig solves this problem with machine learning technology, analysing an extended 4D data set of the actor to produce an actor-specific rig.
Any adjustments made using the neural rig accurately reproduce the actor’s real facial expressions using their own 4D performance data. Subsequently, the final animation remains entirely faithful to the actor’s performance while providing greater creative control to animators.
For example, it’s now possible to accurately adjust the intensity of the animation’s expressions and emotions without detracting from its believability, or to edit a digital double’s look direction.
Colin Urquhart, co-founder & CEO, “Real performances are absolutely key to creating emotionally engaging digital scenes, and our new neural rig reproduces real acting performances in their entirety. We’ve successfully combined the accuracy of 4D performance data with an easily adjustable rig that gives studios greater control. DI4D can now provide studios with expertise at every stage of their facial animation pipeline, assisting in the development of detailed AAA games and blockbuster movies.”
With PURE4D RIG, DI4D’s service has now expanded to include all aspects of a performance-driven facial animation pipeline – from performance capture and 4D tracking to complete character creation.
