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# Posted: 30 Jul 2008 20:03:13 Edited by: lesath


DIGITAL CONCEPTS GROUP LAUNCHES FACEPRO

Facial Motion Capture Toolset Simplifies and Automates Process of Achieving

Realistic Facial Animation

Los Angeles, CA—July 30, 2008—Digital Concepts Group, a leading developer of motion capture pipelines and solutions, announced the launch of FacePro, a toolset developed to lead experienced and novice motion capture users alike through every step of cleaning and retargeting facial animation. FacePro is a cost-effective solution to help bring quality facial motion capture to the next generation of game, film, television and advertising media. FacePro will be demonstrated publicly for the first time during the SIGGRAPH Conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center from the VICON booth, #1101, at 2:45PM from August 12-14, 2008.

FacePro, the first commercial plugin for the VICON Blade software platform, combines native and custom tools into a smart and intuitive pipeline that provides users with the ability to quickly and easily refine facial motion capture data. FacePro was developed based on years of the professional production experience of Digital Concepts Group co-founders, DJ Hauck and Steven Ilous, who helped bring pioneering facial motion capture to the big screen for "The Polar Express," "Monster House" and "Beowulf."

Leading European motion capture studio Northern Lights Studios has been using FacePro on several client projects. "FacePro has allowed us to offer a very malleable facial solution that is diverse enough to work in games, television or film," said John Klepper, Managing Director, Northern Lights Studios. "Turnaround of data from motion capture to animation with FacePro is fast and incredibly streamlined, while yielding top quality results for our clients. Each client has a different pipeline and project requirement and FacePro provides a way for us to accommodate various different applications of facial motion capture."

FacePro Feature Set

* Rule-Based Stabilization: No part of the human face is truly stable. Skin moves with muscle, slides across bone and stretches and wrinkles. FacePro stabilization is based on user-defined rules that compensate for these factors to solve the underlying motion.

* Easy Retargeting: Whether working with one or a dozen characters, the retargeting setup is fast and simple for new users while still allowing advanced users the freedom to tweak and control more complicated setups.

* Automated Gap Filling: Even the best motion capture data will have gaps. FacePro uses learned facial motion and available data to calculate gaps based on the best choices, not guesses.

* SkinFlex: Many of the nuances of facial motion lie in how the skin rolls as it stretches and moves, but this is not inherently captured in traditional motion capture data. SkinFlex restores this by procedurally calculating the rotations of facial markers to bring another level of life to every lip curl and purse.

* Smart Filtering: Even Blade's powerful combination of digital frequency and curve fitting filtering can be daunted by the motion and noise of facial data. Smart Filter dynamically analyzes motion to create custom settings to perfectly filter every frame.
Pipeline Management: Studios, clients and projects are rarely ever the same. FacePro is designed to work with data from both VICON and Motion Analysis systems, any marker-set and most character rigs. Even with all of that flexibility, FacePro is easy to set up. New projects typically take just a few hours to prepare.

"Facial motion capture is a complex, and oftentimes tedious job. Via the commercial release of FacePro, we're pleased share years worth of production experience and practical understanding gained on films that represent some of the most ambitious uses of facial motion capture to date," said DJ Hauck, co-president, Digital Concepts Group. "FacePro is designed to create more flexibility in a variety of situations with varying levels of customization. Novice users and mo-cap veterans alike will now have the ability to derive more lifelike animated facial performances than ever before with this set of tools," added Steven Ilous, co-president, Digital Concepts Group.

About Digital Concepts Group

Founded in 2007, Digital Concepts Group develops motion capture facial pipeline toolset, FacePro, and provides high-end motion capture R&D and consulting for feature film and games industry clientele. Tapping the motion capture expertise of company co-founders DJ Hauck and Steven Ilous, Digital Concepts Group delivers solutions based on production proven experience on films such as The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, The Polar Express, Monster House, Beowulf, and more. For more information, visit www.thedigitalconceptsgroup.com



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