Avid previews groundbreaking Softimage|Face Robot facial animation technology

Avid Technology has announced that it will preview Softimage|Face Robot at this week's Siggraph.
Hailed as revolutionary facial animation technology, Face Robot software is the first technology that allows 3-D artists to achieve realistic, lifelike facial animation for high-end film, post and games projects. The technology is built on a groundbreaking new computer model of facial soft tissue that mimics the full range of emotions portrayed by the human face. Siggraph visitors can experience the Face Robot system in the Avid Computer Graphics booth at and see how this new technology offers artists a very intuitive way to interact with CG characters while providing precise control over facial details, including wrinkles, frowns, flaring nostrils and bulging neck muscles.
"On our projects, digital acting is important and the face is the most critical piece," said Tim Miller, creative director and co-founder of Blur Studio in Los Angeles. "There were no tools on the market that could get us close to the quality we wanted, so we began to work with Softimage on a solution. Face Robot has made a huge difference in the quality of the facial animation of our characters. For the first time, I look forward to the moment when the characters stop beating each other up and have a little chat!"
Blur, recently nominated for an Academy Award in the animated short category, is using the technology and will be showing work created with it at Siggraph.
Jeff Wilson, animation supervisor at Blur Studio added: "Creating believable facial animation is very important because the face is fundamental in understanding emotion. It is also very difficult because facial expressions emerge primarily from deformations of the soft tissue on the face, which is nearly impossible to capture with existing 3-D software. Face Robot removes the cumbersome, repetitive work of legacy approaches and allows us to focus on bringing a character to life. Softimage is creating a truly incredible tool for facial animation."
The Face Robot software supports both keyframe animation and motion capture, the primary techniques used for digital acting today. The soft tissue model at the core of the technology removes the need to manually create dozens or even hundreds of 3-D shapes for different facial expressions and allows animators to work with an optimal number of control points.
Keyframe animators can gain very direct, intuitive access to facial expressions, while motion capture animators can work with fewer markers to reduce setup and cleanup time.
See www.softimage.com/facerobot for further information.
(SP)