In a demonstration of performance-driven digital human faces, the companies Clear Angle Studios, DI4D and TexturingXYZ revealed a 4D facial performance capture service at Siggraph 2024. This service is said to produce per-frame map data to deliver a final product that is indistinguishable from recorded footage of a human.
Clear Angle Studios provides 3D capture and processing technologies, DI4D provides markerless mesh tracking along with independent facial capture and animation, and TexturingXYZ provides high-resolution skin texture maps and advanced skin processing using its Hyperskin technology.
4D capture records scans in motion, allowing a photo-realistic digital replication of the actor’s performance that captures all the subtlety and nuances only a real human can produce.
Every pore and micro skin detail stretches, contracts, flexes, and flows in a specific way when differing facial poses are pulled. This causes visible distortions, and changes to the way that light falls across the skin. This new collaborative 4D process produces a faithful representation of these real world shifts happening dynamically per frame.
Clear Angle Studios co-founder and CEO Dominic Ridley said, “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. 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!”
DI4D co-founder and CEO Colin Urquhart said, “DI4D pioneered the use of 4D facial capture and have been leaders in the field for over 20 years. 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.”
TexturingXYZ CEO Jeremy Celeste said, “At TexturingXYZ, our mission has always been to empower artists with the highest quality texture maps, enabling them to create stunningly realistic digital humans. 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.”
Clear Angle Studios has worked with entertainment companies including Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Universal and the Creative Artists Agency, and creates the likenesses of performers and are protected via contractual process prior to capture.