Call of Duty : Modern Warfare

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare

We delivered 25 minutes of high-fidelity, 4D facial performance data for Activision and Infinity Ward’s renowned first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The resulting data was used by Blur Studio to drive the facial animation of the eight main characters in the video game’s cinematic cutscenes.

4D Reconstruction

In order to achieve the highest level of realism, full performance capture, sometimes referred to as “pcap”, was used to simultaneously capture body motion capture and facial performance of the scenes involving the main actors. This performance capture data was used by Blur Studio to drive digital double versions of the real-life actors. Blur turned to DI4D to process the stereo helmet mounted camera data captured during the sessions to obtain the most faithful reproduction possible of the actors’ facial performances. Our proprietary 4D processing pipeline was used to reconstruct an accurate 3D scan for each frame of stereo HMC data, allowing us to reproduce every nuance and minute detail of the actors’ facial performances.

An initial challenge came while processing an actor’s face with a full beard, something that’s not ideal for facial performance capture – it’s typically preferable to capture a clean shaven actor and then apply a beard in CG. We overcame this challenge by developing a unique workflow that allowed us to accurately track all the visible facial features, such as the lips, and then use this data to interpolate the rest of the face obscured by the actor’s beard. 

In addition to delivering geometry cache data of the actors’ facial performances, we also solved the geometry cache data to facial  rigs provided by the studio.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare achieved the most life-like and accurate facial animation in the series to date.