Face Features

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Fri May 17, 2013 12:00 pm

This might seem like an odd request but could we get basic face features on the Actor?

In the past, seeing a face on the Actor wasn't important since we didn't have head tracking but now that we do, it would be helpful to be able to see where the Actor is looking when rotating it for the head device data. Positioning the hands is easy because of the number of bones branching from the wrist make the orientation obvious, but it's more ambiguous with the head because there is not real indicator of direction other than large rotation gizmo and the silhouette shape of the head. I think seeing two dots for the eyes and a few simple lines for the nose and mouth would be sufficient.

Thanks for listening.

G.

ManyMotion · **Joined:** Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:17 am **Posts:** 84

I will certainly 2nd this. It is such a cosmetic addition but it would certainly help!

Great suggestion Greenlaw!!

msulmanali · **Joined:** Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:58 pm **Posts:** 24

nuicapture they have face features, Its pretty common now, Like FaceFX, Faceshift are using simple methods for facial motion capture, I believe if you use more than 2 kinect it will improve the quality of motion tracking.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:31 am

msulmanali wrote:

nuicapture they have face features, Its pretty common now, Like FaceFX, Faceshift are using simple methods for facial motion capture, I believe if you use more than 2 kinect it will improve the quality of motion tracking.

Does NUI support two Kinects now? I thought it was just using the standard MS Kinect SDK, which AFAIK is still single Kinect.

I might be mistaken but I think iPi Mocap Studio is the only dual Kinect system available. But I haven't looked around lately.

We use LightWave for all our lighting and rendering, and iPi Mocap Studio works great with it. We did 'Happy Box' with it and are currently working on 'Brudders 2' using this combo. I bring this up because during Siggraph this summer LW3DG released Nevron, which is their own Kinect based capture system--if you use LightWave, the $199 price was too good a deal to pass up.

Now, for body capture, it's definitely not a threat to iPi Mocap Studio--Nevron uses the standard single Kinect MS SDK, so it's nothing new. But for LightWave users, Nevron brings retargeting and editing directly into LightWave, which is a big deal because this means you can also apply and edit mocap from any source, including iPi Mocap Studio, without having to go through Motion Builder or similar program. (iPi can retarget of course, but it doesn't really allow you to make changes or major corrections to the data.)

But I already have iPi Mocap Studio and Motion Builder, so why bother? Well, what really intrigued me is that Nevron allows you to use the Kinect data to drive any animateable parameter in the program, so you can use the Kinect for alternative forms of animation--imagine using the Kinect to animate textures or lighting, or other unusual forms of puppetry.

To keep this post on-topic, Nevron allows you to animate the face too. So, the way I see it Nevron will round out our mocap capabilities nicely, working as a perfect companion program with iPi Mocap Studio 2.

In the upcoming weeks, we hope to do some face tests, combining iPi Mocap Studio 2 and LightWave Nevron. Will post results if we're successful.

G.

msulmanali · **Joined:** Thu Aug 08, 2013 9:58 pm **Posts:** 24

Thank you greenlaw for sharing that information. first of all, You have made beautiful animation. I would like to see your next project. Lightwave sound to be a good program but i use Maya and i should stick to it. Because i already learn different Houdini, motion builder, zbrush, mudbox, UDK, premier, after effect, photoshop........... list goes on. Now lightwave which really inspire me but i feel tired haha, Right now i am interested in faceshift. But i would like to see ipi to have facial features. Right now i hear that ipi is working on 3 or more kinects! I hope after 3 kinects there will be more features. Kindly share your views about faceshift.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:08 pm

Oh, BTW, this topic is NOT about face capture--all I was asking for was facial features on the actor to make it easier to tell which way it is facing. :)

G.

dpolcino · **Joined:** Thu Sep 24, 2009 6:25 pm **Posts:** 14

I'll second this big time. Just did my first tests with head tracking (which worked great) but the see-thru blue 3D body makes it a little tough to figure out where the head is facing, so some improvements in that area would be great. Even just a coordinate sticking out of his head would be helpful so we know where it's looking.

dyhvn2 · **Joined:** Sat Nov 12, 2011 12:40 am **Posts:** 16

I usually adjust the settings in the menu "View", then activate "Mass Objects", cos it will be easier to see that "Head-Box".
and adjust the transparency of the "skin, video, and depth" to the lowest, or just setting it ALL to hide. :D

well hopefully for the next version, ..just give Arrows on Head to "Show Coordinate Axes",
or something similar (inside 'Motion-Controllers' Menu) when we use "PS-Move" on our head.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:46 am

I just noticed the new face texture on the Actor in the latest update (2.4.1.156). A very simple solution and I think it will be helpful. :)

Thanks for addressing this guys. I'll let you know how the face texture works for me.

G.

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