Hello Awesome Folks,
Before proceeding to the latest change-log, let us remind you (yet again) that FaceRig is at this time still in development. It is fun and functional, but it still has bugs.
Now...As you might remember, we’ve been polling our community for the past months, figuring out what matters most for improving FaceRig. The results have shown us that you think our main focus should be the tracking quality and accuracy and improve on that before ending the Early Access period.
The big news!
We’re proud to announce that FaceRig is now using a new, revolutionary face tracking product from ULSee Inc., a rising and ambitious company with excellent lineage in the field of computer vision.
We trust this is the change many of you have been waiting for. We ourselves are beyond excited about it, and could go on forever about how this change brings to FaceRig arguably the most accurate and robust image-based face landmark tracker worldwide right now. Of course the best way for you to realize why we are so psyched about it is to try it out yourselves and reach your own conclusions.
This change was prompted by tracking-related issues our community has been asking us to improve on, such as maintaining tracking during large rotations, higher responsiveness on both sides of the face, registering more subtle asymmetric mouth shapes, increasing overall responsiveness, and so on.
Our closed beta test feedback shows that the ULSee tracking technology does an outstanding job at addressing your concerns, and also has an easier time dealing with beards, moustaches, and glasses. Try it out for yourself and let us know how you like it!
As a bonus, this update also contains the first batch of “retargeted” avatars. These “retargeted” versions of the existing avatars are also a response to our community’s need for higher fidelity expressions, especially around the mouth. The “retargeted” avatars use an alternate method for transferring expression from the user to the avatar model; this offers more fidelity and responsiveness (e.g., you can move your jaw left and right, and it registers).
Both the regular avatars and their “retargeted” versions are all driven by the ULSee tracker. Compare the normal avatars with their retargeted versions and tell us what you think! Of course, the retargeting method is still a work in progress so it will be a while until all avatars will have their “retargeted” versions ready.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_gR91oqask&feature=youtu.be
Here is a full change log:
- changed facial tracking technology. The face tracking should now be more accurate and even less laggy.
- the new tracker requires you to register a simple neutral expression/pose at the start. This is an easy one-click process, but is very important for accurate tracking. This step auto-calibrates all the settings in "Advanced Tracking tab". If you'd rather keep your advanced calibration custom settings, simply close the "Reset neutral pose window" from the X mark in the upper right corner, instead of pressing "Okay".
- added new facial tracking interpretation module called Retargeting (available on the avatars that have a "R" over their icon in the avatar browser). This new subsystem allows for more subtle movements to be mapped from the user's face to the avatar. Unlike the default interpretation module (animation based) that uses a set of animations to approximate the user's expressions, the retargeting module directly modifies the character's mesh (model) for a better approximation of the user's face and movements. Notes: - retargeting can be configured from the Advanced Tracker Configuration > Expression tab > Retargeting subtab
- optimized build size to about 50-60% of the original size (~1.8 GB without custom data)
- added a demo video mode if the tracker does not detect any faces for 2 minutes
- we recommend clearing all custom settings to defaults when installing this update (My Documents\Holotech\FaceRig\UserCfg)
- optimized first-run loading times (previously some custom-avatar related data was being unnecessarily compiled on first run)
Known issues
- The D key is a BETA debug key that toggles the face landmark overlay on the input video feed on and off. You can accidentally toggle this when typing text in the avatar searchbox.
- The default smoothing value for retargeting avatars is set rather low, for high accuracy and responsiveness. you can change this by going to the Advanced Calibration tab.
- Old .rpl files are not compatible with the new tracking system
So... wait no longer! Update to the newest version of FaceRig through Steam and see what all the hype is about!
To find out more about ULSee, visit www.ulsee.com ( will be up soon :D) , or contact Paul Liu, [email protected]