Faceware partners with Vicon to improve mo-cap tech

3D facial capture firm Faceware Technologies has partnered with Vicon, the motion capture specialists for the entertainment, defence and engineering industries.

The partnership will focus on providing mo-cap studios and service providers with more hardware and software options for capturing, analysing and retargeting facial and full-body mo-cap data.

Kicking off this global partnership, Faceware has made its software products, including Analyzer and Retargeter, compatible with Vicon’s Cara head rig when used in a single-camera configuration.

Studios capturing facial performance data using Cara will now be able to process and retarget that data onto 3D characters using Faceware’s products. Cara integration is complementary to Faceware’s own Headcam options.

“Vicon is one of the leading providers of motion tracking hardware and software for entertainment,” Faceware VP of business development Peter Busch. “Their systems complement ours, and in many cases, are used alongside our software and hardware products. The main goal of this global partnership is to simplify the mocap process by making sure that studios and really anyone using both Vicon systems and our software products are not hindered in any way.”

Cara is Vicon’s latest facial motion-capture system that enables film and games studios to bring characters to life through advanced facial tracking and capture.

“Cara’s modular design gives users complete flexibility when dealing with the captured data and opens up the performance capture market to a whole new range of potential customers,” added Phil Elderfield, entertainment product manager at Vicon. “By partnering with Faceware, customers can seamlessly integrate Cara with Faceware’s Analyzer and Retargeter software.”

Faceware and Vicon have also started discussing additional integrations between their hardware and software solutions.