Public Funding for Epic Games Animation UK Ltd

The aim of this project is to produce a real time 3D facial animation system, revolutionising the way facial animation is produced and creating new product opportunities in the video game, TV and film industries. A range of animation technologies are used in video games, such as Grand Theft Auto and films, including Lord of the Rings and Avatar. These can increase efficiency, but the process generally involves many separate stages with manual intervention required. The proposed research project is intended to produce new technology, which can capture facial movements from video and transfer them to a 3D character in real time. This would drastically improve the workflow and efficiency of facial animation and make new products possible, such as live on-set pre-visualisation and desktop animation tools. Key areas of technological advancement include tracking ofunseen footage without human interaction, tracking facial features accurately in real time and automatic transfer of facial movements onto 3D character controls. As experts in the fields of Computer Vision and Facial Animation, with experience in successfully creating and taking performance-driven facial animation technology to market, we feel we are ideally placed to create the next generation of facial animation technology.