Cubic Motion, a global leader in real-time motion capture and facial animation technology have announced that its technology platform is now available for licensing.
The technology that Cubic Motion have been developing allows for a new way of content creators to capture real-time motion and facial data for use within the Unreal Engine 4. The announcement today means that the technology platform will be available for licensing, bringing in a new ear of performance capture to the industry. This is set to be demonstrated by Epic Games with the real-time facial performance of a new digital human personality, codenamed “Siren”, in partnership with Cubic Motion, 3Lateral, Vicon and Tencent at the Game Developer Conference.
The technology allows for a live actor to perform within the real world and digital world in real-time, capturing both motion and facial data as needed. This transforms the production process, allowing directors and producers to see the end result instantly and carry out retakes as needed, saving time and money. This solution is idea for using in developing videogames, film, TV and even virtual assistants with applications for virtual reality (VR) also possible. Cubic Motion have already proven that the technology works as it was used by developer Ninja Theory on the development of their videogame Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which was powered by the Unreal Engine 4.
Andy Wood, Chairman of Cubic Motion talked about the news saying: “We are offering the keys to unlock a virtual world, enabling content producers and game developers to more easily interact with our technology and streamline the creation process for performance driven real-time digital humans, by 2020, this will no doubt transform content production across the board by making this technology universally available. By 2024, we may all be interacting with digital humans in some way or other, whether its via headsets, films, TV, games, live performances and broadcasts, or by directing digital assistants in our homes in real-time.”
The Siren proof of concept character which Epic Games are using to demonstrate the full potential of Cubic Motion’s performance capture system will use a live actor, allowing for realistic face and eye movement to be captures offer interaction with participants. This will also utilize 3Lateral’s facial rigging technology with body animation driven by Vicon’s motion capture system.
Double Academy Award winner and CTO of Epic Games Kim Libreri commented by saying: “Cubic Motion’s breakthrough computer vision and facial animation technology was one of the keys to our success, creating believable digital characters that you can interact with and direct in real time is one of the most exciting things that has happened in the computer graphics industry in recent years.”
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via Mint VR