Faceware Technologies has announced Shepherd, a new application that synchronises facial motion-capture recordings made with the firm’s ProHD heacams with full-body capture from Vicon or OptiTrack systems.

The solution will help studios to use Faceware’s facial capture technology, used on movies like The Walk and games like the Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty franchises, on set during full-body capture sessions.

Set your full-body capture system to start and stop recordings made with Faceware’s ProHD headcams
Like Reallusion’s iClone Motion Live solution – with which Faceware’s tech is compatible – Shepherd lets users record facial and full-body mocap data simultaneously using different companies’ technologies.

However, unlike Motion Live, it isn’t based around iClone itself, which should make it easier to integrate with studios’ existing production pipelines.

 
The system enables users to connect Faceware’s high-end ProHD headcam systems to multiple Ki Pro recording devices, and control recording and playback directly.

The facial capture system can then be linked to a full-body capture system over a local area network, meaning that the full-body system can be used to start and stop facial recordings.

The integration removes the need to track the facial capture session manually – Shepherd can pull the shot names from the full-body system – and results in facial recordings that sync with the full-body data.

Users can then export video clips for review, or feed them into a Faceware Batch pipeline to use Faceware’s Analyzer and Retargeter software to generate facial data for use in 3ds Max, Maya and MotionBuilder.

Shepherd currently integrates with Vicon’s Shogun and Blade optical capture systems and OptiTrack’s Motive optical capture systems, but more integrations are planned.

Pricing and availability
Shepherd will be available for Windows PCs and tablets. The closed beta starts later this month, with an open beta period to follow in November 2018, and a public release scheduled for “early 2019”.

Faceware Technologies hasn’t announced pricing for Shepherd yet.

Read more about Shepherd in Faceware Technologies’ online documentation

Visit Faceware Technologies’ website

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