Monday, July 22nd, 2013 Posted by Jim Thacker

Dynamixyz announces Performer 7


Dynamixyz’s teaser for Performer 7. The markerless facial-capture system will be on show at Siggraph 2013.

French developer Dynamixyz has announced Performer 7, the latest version of its suite of tools for markerless facial motion capture. The technology will be on show at Siggraph 2013.

Since its foundation in 2010, the company has drawn the attention of many within the motion-capture community – its testimonials page includes plugs from leading UK capture studio Audiomotion, and Jasper Brekelmans, creator of the Brekel Kinect markerless capture system – and has recently opened a Vancouver office.

How the Performer Suite works
Like Faceware Technologies’ markerless system, the Performer Suite consists of a head-mounted camera unit, tools for analysing facial performance and retargeting it to a CG character, and a real-time streaming system.

New features in version 7 include the option to reuse retargeting profiles; the option to speed up workflow by running solves as background tasks; and better scripting and pipeline integration functionality.

Performer 7 is due for a commercial release next year. Pricing is on request.

PRESS RELEASE (Excerpts)
Dynamixyz, freshly established provider/democratiser of high-quality facial capture and analysis software and hardware, is proud to announce the new release of Performer 7, today’s most efficient markerless facial performance capture solution.

The Performer Suite is Dynamixyz’ award-winning video-based facial capture and analysis solution, delivering unsurpassed raw animation, and unique real-time capability, with time-efficient annotation and highly accurate tracking.

The new software includes additional key features such as project versioning, monitoring in console mode, annotation prediction process (…) as well as major improvements related to background tasks, GUI and user-friendliness (Birds-eye view navigation tool, tree, thumbnail views, shortcuts,…).This updated software is now up and running and, therefore, available for free fully functional evaluation (visit www.dynamixyz.com for details).

“We strongly believe in markerless facial motion capture as it is the only technology able to capture the so many subtle movements of the face accurately and for every region including inner lips contour, wrinkles, skin color changes, eye movements… With that new release, Performer is now a 2 year-old product which has proven its accuracy and efficiency. We will also unveil at Siggraph 2013 our new 4D based technology using a HMC with a 3D sensor operating at very close range and safe for the eyes. This new technology integrates easily in Performer’s workflow and will deliver very high quality data.” said Gaspard Breton, CEO and co-founder of Dynamixyz.

Dynamixyz’ technology goes 4D at Siggraph ’13
The next step of Dynamixyz’ markerless face tracking technology, 4-dimensional facial mocap, will be disclosed in July in Anaheim, CA. This new technology will make it possible to capture the real 3D facial deformations of the actor’s face over time, all using a lightweight head-mounted camera safe for the eyes – and powered by SoftKinetic.

After the summer, an Early Access Program will let our Trusted Partners be the first to test our innovation technology out while the first product release is expected beginning of 2014.

Performer 7 Key Features
Project versioning and customization
Whereas project versioning makes it possible to further exploit/develop actors’ profile without any loss in production time and to fine tune every sequence independently, project customization enables the generation of model actors’ profiles re-using the same (existing) retargeting profiles. The result is a noticeable impact on production data and time (that are greatly optimized).

Annotation prediction feature
The annotation process has been enhanced and now includes a prediction functionality running as background task. This prediction model enables a semi-automatic annotation for the second half of the profile speeding up the annotation step.

Background tasks
The (improved) automatic keyframes selection and annotation prediction process can now be run as background tasks providing immediate productivity gain during the actor’s profile creation phase.

Monitoring in console mode
Retargeting links edition can now be scripted in Maya thanks to a control interface. The core retargeting system can be used in Maya’s console mode in order to be fully integrated into any workflow and controlled using scripts.

Data pipeline automation
Performer 7 enables the creation of a range of motion model dedicated to a production or a rig. Widely used in the production of actors’ profiles for previz, this feature allows you to replace the images used for tracking profile by those of the new actor. This new software release also enables the creation of ROM models based on a set of action units.

Read more about the Performer Suite on the Dynamixyz website