Clear Angle Studios, 3D capture and processing provider to the film and TV industries, alongside independent facial capture and animation provider DI4D and high-resolution skin texture maps and advanced skin processing pros TexturingXYZ demonstrated their vision for a new standard of performance-driven digital human faces at SIGGRAPH 2024.
“For more than a decade, we’ve provided full body character, head and prop scanning, LiDAR and environment capture along with 3D scan processing for some of the most recognisable studios in the business,” said Dominic Ridley, Co-Founder & CEO of Clear Angle Studios. “I’m immensely proud to be able to apply our learnings and expertise from that journey to this advancement in 4D capture, which we and our partners will offer as a single service to the entertainment industry. Once again this is an advancement only made possible through teamwork and collaboration with fantastic people!”
The three companies revealed the new 4D facial performance capture service, which they say is the first to producer per-frame map data to deliver a final product that is almost indistinguishable from recorded footage of a human.
“DI4D pioneered the use of 4D facial capture and have been leaders in the field for over 20 years,” said Co-Founder & CEO Colin Urquhart. “We’re very excited to be collaborating with Clear Angle Studios and TexturingXYZ — two world-renowned leaders in the fields of 3D scanning and texture map generation. By combining their expertise with our world-leading 4D tracking capability, we are able to produce groundbreaking 4D data with highly accurate per frame diffuse, normal and displacement maps, resulting in the most realistic performance driven facial animation possible.”
The video, which shows the building process from the initial mesh to final render, offers a glimpse into the future of interactive entertainment and what this collaborative capability from all three specialist companies could offer vendors in one single-service. Clear Angle Studios provides the capture technologies, DI4D provides markerless mesh tracking and TexturingXYZ enhances the micro skin details on the maps using their Hyperskin technology.
While 3D scanning produces an accurate digital model of a static real-life subject, recreating the actor’s movements could not be fully automated. This 4D technique records scans in motion, allowing for photorealistic digital recreation of the actor’s performance. Animation a static frame of skin detail from a single 3D scan leads to loss of detail (or assumed re-applied detail), while the 4D method creates a highly detailed micro skin texture map across the geometry, as well as highly accurate light reflections.
“At TexturingXYZ, our mission has always been to empower artists with the highest quality texture maps, enabling them to create stunningly realistic digital humans,” added Jeremy Celeste, CEO. “This collaboration is a testament to what can be achieved when industry leaders combine their unique strengths. We’re excited to contribute our expertise to this revolutionary 4D capture process, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in digital entertainment.”
clearanglestudios.co.uk | di4d.com | texturing.xyz
