Reallusion launches AccuFace
Reallusion has released AccuFace, a new GPU-accelerated AI mocap plugin for iClone.
The add-on is capable of extracting facial motion data from video footage of an actor captured on a standard 720p webcam and streaming it to the animation software in real time.
It is compatible with iClone’s AccuLips automated lip-sync system, and can generate accurate lip movements for a range of languages.
Extract facial motion from video of an actor and stream it to a 3D character in iClone
AccuFace (strictly, it’s styled ‘accuFACE’) extracts facial motion data from footage of an actor – either a live feed or pre-recorded video – and streams it to iClone in real time.
It is intended for use with standard USB webcams or laptop cameras, so it can work with relatively low-quality footage: the recommended minimum is 720p resolution and 30fps.
It includes controls for denoising and smoothing the raw animation data, and for adjusting the strength of motion of different regions of the face when retargeting animation to a 3D character.
Processing is GPU-acclerated, and requires a relatively recent NVIDIA GPU: anything from 2019’s GeForce RTX 2060 onwards.
So why use AccuFace over other facial mocap add-ons?
There are a number of third-party solutions for extracting facial motion-capture data from video, and iClone already has two facial mocap add-ons of its own: Live Face, for use with iPhones, and an integration with Faceware’s real-time facial tracking technology.
As well as being optimised for consumer webcams, selling points for AccuFace include timecode sync, and good support for iClone’s native tools: the add-on is optimised for AccuLips, iClone’s automated lip sync system, which supports languages other than English.
You can see a comparision table for Reallusion’s facial mocap add-ons in the online FAQs.
Price and system requirements
AccuFace is compatible with iClone 8.33+. It requires a compatible NVIDIA GPU. It has a MSRP of $499, although at the time of writing, it is available at a launch discount.
iClone itself is compatible with 64-bit Windows 7+. New perpetual licences cost $599.
Read an overview of AccuFace on Reallusion’s website
Visit the AccuFace product webpage
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.