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4D Facial Capture

4D performance capture

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Our unique ‘4D’ facial capture system produces full 3D facial animation from a recording of an actor's performance. It uses a bank of high-resolution video cameras, operating at rates of up to 30fps.  It can be regarded as a 3D video camera for the face.

The output of the system is a sequence of accurate meshes each with an associated colour texture.  Mesh topology, vertex ordering, UV maps etc. are maintained throughout, permitting easy integration into existing animation pipelines.

Recent developments of the system allow animation to be transferred to secondary characters, for example an actor can drive a dog animation. In addition we have introduced a low-bandwidth ‘bones’ method for using our data in game engines without loss of quality.

As far as we are aware, this is the only commercially available system in the world that provides all of these features.

4D Facial Capture of James 3D Head Scan of James Still from finished BBC Digital campaign animated using artemdigital's 4D facial capture system. Lorna's facial capture shoot Still from the finished campaign featuring Lorna's character

The Mill | BBC Digital FACES

Conkerco through Academy for Red Bee Media. Post produced by The Mill.

Red Bee Media, directing duo Conkerco and The Mill picked artemdigital's unique 4D facial capture system to produce realistic animating heads to promote the BBC's Digital channels.

The "Faces" campaign portrays the nation speaking in one voice about the benefits of the BBC's digital television channels.

Each of the four different executions open on a talking face.  The camera then pulls back to reveal that they are just part of a face made up of a multitude of faces, all talking in unison whilst moving gracefully through spectacular landscapes. The face then morphs into images that represent the programming being spoken about - from wild lions, and Sherlock Holmes to Bob the Builder and Michael Caine.

BBC Digital Marketing: "What makes this production even more astounding is the time that this has all been pulled together. Seven weeks from start to finish. Animation may have come along way over the last few decades, but it's jumped to a new dimension in the last few weeks."

  • CLICK HERE to download a demo explaining how the system works and a short clip from "Faces" ( 5.75MB, requires Quicktime to play );
  • CLICK HERE to view the Christmas version (8.63MB, Quicktime format).

“Of all the ideas we had for this project, this was the most striking and most visually powerful. Watching artemdigital and The Mill bring it to life has been a breathtaking process, pioneering new techniques and inventing new technology.”

Simon Riley, Creative Director, DFGW

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