Faceware shares details on facial mo-cap upgrade

Middleware provider Faceware has released more details of a major update to its facial motion capture technology.

Retargeter 4.0 is a lightweight plug-in to Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Softimage and Autodesk MotionBuilder.

The new software’s key features focus on automating more of the facial motion capture process, as well as simplifying creative collaboration. It includes AutoSolve, Expression Sets, Tracking Visualisation, Shared Pose Thumbnails and Batch Processing.

The middleware maker will also be showing off its new software at this year’s Game Developers Conference in booth #1036.

Retargeter is part of Faceware’s Professional Product Line, a suite of facial mo-cap hardware and software used in successful triple-A franchises including Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, God of War, Halo and others.

“In February, we announced that Retargeter 4.0 is coming. As soon as we did, artists began contacting us to find out more information,” said Faceware Technologies’ vice president of business development Peter Busch.

“So in an effort to meet their requests, we’re now disclosing more details. While I can’t reveal all of the features that will make it into the final release, I can say that every feature, especially AutoSolve, focuses on increasing the quality of your starting point and speeding the more mundane elements of hand animating so that artists can more quickly get to the part that matters: perfecting and polishing performances that set their CG characters apart.”

Retargeter 4.0 is scheduled to launch in April following its beta program.

The plug-in will continue to be free and will work with current versions of Faceware Analyzer. Users wishing to use the AutoSolve function will need IMPD files to be created with Analyzer 1.3. Upon launch, Faceware Retargeter 4.0 will be available for the following packages: Autodesk Maya 2010-2013, Autodesk 3ds Max 2010-2013, Autodesk MotionBuilder 2010-2013, Autodesk Softimage 2010-2013.

The new software will be shown in demonstrations at Faceware Technologies’ Booth #1036 at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 27-29 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. It will also be discussed in Remington Scott’s talk ‘Performance Capture: Insights from the Edge’ on Wednesday, March 27th, from 11-12pm in the West Hall (Room 3001).