NEXT GENERATION OF IN-GAME FACIAL ANIMATION
DI4D and Snappers Demonstrate Next Generation In-Game Facial Animation
World leading facial performance capture and facial rigging companies Dimensional Imaging (DI4D) and Snappers have combined to produce a stunning new facial animation technology demonstration. The new tech demo, which was unveiled at GDC in March, features “Digital Colin”, a highly lifelike “digital double” of DI4D’s CEO, Colin Urquhart. Colin’s facial performance data was captured with DI4D’s new Head Mounted Camera (HMC) system, solved onto Snappers latest facial animation rig and rendered in real-time in the Unreal game engine.
Colin commented: –
“We were delighted to have had the opportunity to work with Snappers on the Digital Colin tech demo. Our facial performance capture solution has mostly been
associated with high end pre-rendered visual effects and cinematics projects, but we were keen to show at GDC this year how it can now also enhance real-time rendered facial animation. We had worked with Snappers on some previous client projects and were very impressed with them and the quality of their rigs. When Snappers mentioned that they had a new version of their facial rig that was performing really well in real-time in Unreal, it seemed obvious to combine our forces to produce a super-realistic real-time facial animation demo for GDC. Digital Colin is the result.”
Galal Mohey, Snappers co-founder said:-
“It was a pleasure to work with DI4D on the Digital Colin tech demo. We were in the middle of developing a completely new facial rig that we think is going to be a game changer in both real-time and VFX fields. We saw the tech demo as a great opportunity to refine and test our new facial rig with DI4D’s amazing performance capture techniques. We were responsible for the facial rigging and look development inside of UE4. We had a very tight deadline to produce the demo for GDC and we are delighted by the high quality of facial animation we have been able to achieve in such a short time.”
Snappers created the Digital Colin animation rig from a series of super high resolution 3D expression scans of Colin captured by Protagon in Los Angeles, CA. Additional production support was provided by Lidar Guys.
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Notes to Editors
About Dimensional Imaging
DI4D is a world-leading technology company, which was formed in 2003 and based in Glasgow, UK and Los Angeles, CA. DI4D provides 4D facial performance capture services, systems and software for visual effects in movies, television, video games, VR and advanced research applications. Recent projects to have used DI4D include the Warner Brothers movies ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’, the Netflix animated anthology ‘Love Death and Robots’, and Microsoft Studios video game ‘Quantum Break’, with several more movie, television, video game and VR projects currently in production. Leading research customers include University of Glasgow, Imperial College London and Dallas Children’s’ Hospital.
DI4D’s proprietary “motion scanning” technology captures 4D data comprising video rate 3D surface scans tracked with a dense fixed topology mesh. The DI4D solution, which does not require any markers, make-up or structured light, provides much higher fidelity facial motion capture data than alternative solutions and ensures that every nuance of an actor’s facial performance is recorded. For more information visit www.di4d.com or email info@di4d.com.
About Snappers
SNAPPERS is an Egypt based Studio that was formed in 2013 as a Motion capture service provider and kept expanding since to provide many more services. Snappers mainly focuses on character related services such as Modeling, Texturing, Grooming, Rigging, Animation and look development.
Snappers worked on Games such as Mafia 3, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat 11 and feature films such as The Shape of Water, HellBoy, Legend of Ravaging Dynasties and many upcoming projects.
For more information visit www.Snapperstech.com or email info@snapperstech.com.