Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 3, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The most important new feature in the Face Robot 1.5 facial-animation tool is the ability to export objects and animations directly for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The exporter optimises the mesh and, with Automatic Enveloping, ensures that no nuances of the character animation are lost even with only a few bones.
During export, the user can create relaxed and stressed meshes if required. These are meshes that represent the respective extreme situations, that is, either all muscles maximally tensed or all muscles maximally relaxed. Since relaxed skin has a different surface than tensed skin, the normal maps of the two extreme positions can also be exported separately. In the game engine, it is then possible to blend between the two normal maps depending on the state. The blend can be restricted and masked locally with up to nine region maps.
Alongside the new Face Robot version, Softimage also presented a complete workflow in collaboration with the Mova Contour Reality Capture System. Mova is a 3D scanner that makes it possible, among other things, to export a separate mesh for every frame. Although this leads to an immense amount of data, it is an excellent way to track the deformation and change of the skin. In Face Robot, there is the option of having these many meshes optimised first and then analysed. The movement and deformation calculated in the process can be transferred to a custom mesh. Most users create custom meshes from one of the scans, with the scanner’s relatively chaotic mesh serving as a guide.
The analysis of the many 3D scans and the additionally available video material is intended to enable the best possible animation of the head model. Together with the normal maps and the associated blend maps, the tool promises an optimum result when exporting to a game engine.
Face Robot Designer is a complete package and offers the ability to create 3D characters. The price is around 95,000 dollars. Face Robot Animator, by contrast, can only animate existing objects and costs just under 15,000 dollars.
Further Links:
- Softimage Face-to-Game Export
