Fancy a look at the future of graphics for facial performance capture? Then you really need to see this outstanding video which was produced from a collaboration of three teams. Capture, casting, voice recording, writing and direction was handled by Side, 3Lateral took care of head rigging and Cubic Motion was in charge of animating the results.

The three teams decided to produce the demo because they wanted to show off their skills at the cutting edge of what they were capable of today. In an interview with Develop magazine, Side MD Andy Emery said: “We’ve had it, as three outsourcing companies, where we’ve worked on various big projects, but been frustrated in the past by the fact we can’t showcase anything we’ve worked on publicly until a point where everything has moved on.”

Cubic Motion’s Simon Elmes added, “We wanted to create something we could share, and that was completely in our control, where there was no sacrifice made to compression, or many of the other restrictions we sometimes face.”

So without the restrictions of NDA’s or having to produce something for a specific game, the three teams were able to produce this video short which shows a woman recording what looks like a video diary letter home. There’s an impressive range (and more importantly, depth) of emotions on display and unlike many facial tech demos, we’re not just looking at a chatting floating head. Instead, we have a full cinematic cutscene complete with a background and real-time lighting reflecting on the character’s face. Hell, even the shifting material on the t-shirt looks good. Take a look for yourselves and let us know what you think in the comments section. Continue reading Synchronicity Facial Performance Capture Demo Sets New Standards →