Friday, August 8th, 2014 Posted by Jim Thacker

Dynamixyz Performer Suite adds multi-camera tracking


Performer Suite, Dynamixyz’s set of tools for facial motion capture, now supports multiple camera streams, letting users supplement markerless tracking with marker-based capture: in this case, a Vicon Cara set-up.

Dynamixyz has announced a new version of Performer Suite, its set of tools for facial motion capture, adding an option for simultaneous markerless and marker-based tracking and new pay-as-you-go pricing.

The new version – Dynamixyz has dispensed with numbering, so it’s just plain Performer Suite – will be on show at Siggraph 2014.

Simultaneous markerless and marker-based tracking
The main addition in the new Performer Suite is multi-view tracking, which enables users to run the existing markerless tracking system simultaneously with marker-based capture: a world first, according to Dynamixyz.

According to the company, this hybrid approach “merges accurate 3D markerless tracking of the main facial features (mouth, eyes, pupils) with 3D markers tracking the feature-less areas (cheeks, forehead)”.

That’s in the new Performer MV toolset. The existing single-view system (now renamed Performer SV) gets a revamped GUI, introducing a new timeline and animation curves, making it easier to edit data.

(A single licence of Performer Suite gets you both Performer MV and SV, incidentally: they aren’t separate editions of the product.)

In addition, Performer Suite’s facial tracking and retargeting toolsets have been updated, and the product is now available for both Windows and Linux.

New pricing models
The new release also brings in a change in pricing model, including four different annual rental plans for large productions, and a pay-as-you-go system for short-form work.

Dynamixyz tells us that it will announce full pricing information on a new website – we’ll post the link when it goes live – but that the pay-as-you-go option for Performer MV will cost up to $24 per second of animation.

Unlike Faceware’s old pay-as-you-go system, in which users uploaded raw files to the company’s servers, then paid to download the processed versions, no data has to go off-site: you pay by buying credits.

The new version of Performer Suite will be rolled out to existing users after Siggraph, then will become available publicly in September.

Updated 11 August: The new website is live. Scroll down the page to find full pricing information.

Read more about the updated Performer Suite on Dynamixyz’s website