Softimage Launches Face Robot
With facial animation becoming more of a necessity — the Oscar-winning KING KONG relied on it heavily — Softimage unveils SOFTIMAGE | FACE ROBOT this month, the industry’s first software application dedicated to the creation of believable facial animation for high-end film, post and games productions.
Designed for studios faced with high-quality or high-volume facial animation requirements, Face Robot software represents a technological breakthrough by enabling professionals to animate a digital human face with higher quality results and in less time than using traditional methods. In just six easy steps, artists can generate emotive expressions that replicate natural, organic movement of skin and soft tissue. The software works with all major 3D applications and easily integrates into any studio pipeline.
“Believable facial animation is arguably the hardest problem in computer graphics today, and a huge challenge for 3D production,” said Marc Stevens, vp of Softimage. “Face Robot is an important step for Softimage, building on our long-standing heritage of innovation focused on revolutionizing the way 3D animators work. We are very excited to deliver a new technology that truly empowers artists to bring human characters to life with unprecedented quality and efficiency.”
Currently, the most common methods for animating human faces are complex, labor-intensive and time-consuming, typically requiring artists to create a series of shapes for each facial expression. With Face Robot software, artists save valuable production time by directly manipulating various anatomical features such as the mouth, eyebrows and jaw. With the ability to exercise precise control, Face Robot offers the freedom to sculpt the nuances of an expression at any point during the animation process. With the software’s unique soft-tissue “solver,” Face Robot simulates how facial tissue slides and deforms during the formation of expressions and includes a corrective sculpting system for detailed art direction.
Michael Isner, manager of special projects at Softimage and leader of the Face Robot development team, said, “The main objective behind developing Face Robot is to maximize the life-like appearance of a face while minimizing the difficulty of getting there. By working closely with top animators in the industry, we delivered a tool that is dedicated to enhancing the artistic approach to a 3D workflow. With a streamlined production process focused solely on facial behavior, Face Robot is poised to have a tremendous impact on the industry.”
With built-in support for importing and exporting of Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya file formats, Face Robot software can be easily incorporated into existing pipelines, offering further interoperability.
Face Robot has already been used on a number of projects, including U2’s latest music video, ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES, in collaboration between Spontaneous and Blur Studios.
The Face Robot system consists of two packages: Face Robot Designer ($94,995 MSRP) is a complete environment to prepare, solve and animate faces, with tools to define wrinkles and puffing, place tendons and fine-tune the mouth. Face Robot Animator ($14,995 MSRP) uses a powerful retargeting algorithm that transfers animation and motion capture across faces and offers high-level tuning controls. It is the animation environment for artists to apply keyframe animation techniques or manipulate MoCap data. In a typical Face Robot pipeline, there will be one seat of Designer and several seats of Animator.
Face Robot is considered a complement to performance and motion capture. Instead of capturing a large number of markers that both over constrain the face and create room for error, it allows productions to capture only those markers that represent the salient points of the face. The deformation of the face around these markers is driven by a soft tissue model that delivers believable, lifelike animation and removes the need for extensive cleanup and tweaking. Studios will save time gluing on markers, have much less data to clean and will be able to get animation into projects sooner.
Designed for studios faced with high-quality or high-volume facial animation requirements, Face Robot software represents a technological breakthrough by enabling professionals to animate a digital human face with higher quality results and in less time than using traditional methods. In just six easy steps, artists can generate emotive expressions that replicate natural, organic movement of skin and soft tissue. The software works with all major 3D applications and easily integrates into any studio pipeline.
“Believable facial animation is arguably the hardest problem in computer graphics today, and a huge challenge for 3D production,” said Marc Stevens, vp of Softimage. “Face Robot is an important step for Softimage, building on our long-standing heritage of innovation focused on revolutionizing the way 3D animators work. We are very excited to deliver a new technology that truly empowers artists to bring human characters to life with unprecedented quality and efficiency.”
Currently, the most common methods for animating human faces are complex, labor-intensive and time-consuming, typically requiring artists to create a series of shapes for each facial expression. With Face Robot software, artists save valuable production time by directly manipulating various anatomical features such as the mouth, eyebrows and jaw. With the ability to exercise precise control, Face Robot offers the freedom to sculpt the nuances of an expression at any point during the animation process. With the software’s unique soft-tissue “solver,” Face Robot simulates how facial tissue slides and deforms during the formation of expressions and includes a corrective sculpting system for detailed art direction.
Michael Isner, manager of special projects at Softimage and leader of the Face Robot development team, said, “The main objective behind developing Face Robot is to maximize the life-like appearance of a face while minimizing the difficulty of getting there. By working closely with top animators in the industry, we delivered a tool that is dedicated to enhancing the artistic approach to a 3D workflow. With a streamlined production process focused solely on facial behavior, Face Robot is poised to have a tremendous impact on the industry.”
With built-in support for importing and exporting of Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya file formats, Face Robot software can be easily incorporated into existing pipelines, offering further interoperability.
Face Robot has already been used on a number of projects, including U2’s latest music video, ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES, in collaboration between Spontaneous and Blur Studios.
The Face Robot system consists of two packages: Face Robot Designer ($94,995 MSRP) is a complete environment to prepare, solve and animate faces, with tools to define wrinkles and puffing, place tendons and fine-tune the mouth. Face Robot Animator ($14,995 MSRP) uses a powerful retargeting algorithm that transfers animation and motion capture across faces and offers high-level tuning controls. It is the animation environment for artists to apply keyframe animation techniques or manipulate MoCap data. In a typical Face Robot pipeline, there will be one seat of Designer and several seats of Animator.
Face Robot is considered a complement to performance and motion capture. Instead of capturing a large number of markers that both over constrain the face and create room for error, it allows productions to capture only those markers that represent the salient points of the face. The deformation of the face around these markers is driven by a soft tissue model that delivers believable, lifelike animation and removes the need for extensive cleanup and tweaking. Studios will save time gluing on markers, have much less data to clean and will be able to get animation into projects sooner.
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