From Photo to Expression: Generating Photorealistic Facial Rigs

In this 2024 Machine Learning Summit talk, Hau Nghiep Phan (Technical Art Director, Electronic Arts) discusses how machine learning can improve facial animation in the gaming industry. A showcase on their solution using in-house facial rig, FaceRig, and will demonstrate how blendshapes can be automatically created to suit various character identities.
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[@REXanadu]

I wonder what games these tools will be used on in the near future. The graph shows the Frostbite logo, so I assume the Mass Effect series will be using this in the latest entry Hopefully, these hi-res models don't make my computer explode 😅

[@ronydey2696]

NICE

[@minhbips6940]

Toàn người Việt làm game nc ngoài, buồn thật

[@mykoladavydenko3578]

I mean it's probably cool for movies CGI and stuff, but facial animations does not really matter for video games. It's much better to spend resources on another gameplay polishing iteration or engaging writing.

[@askeladden450]

But theres no point in making games more realistic if the entire illusion is broken as soon as a character enters a frame. Ofcourse I think gameplay features are far more important, but for games like Unrecord, stuff like this is really important too. Its so jarring seeing the difference in quality between environment and characters in such games.

[@TheBindoS]

Yeah this is really apparent in recent Assassin's Creed titles​. The cutscenes/dialogue animations are so bad and stiff that they break all immersion for me

[@LordSnorky]

Like most blanket statements about anything, this is simply wrong. It depends on what type of experience you're trying to make. If for instance you're making a story rich game where you want people to connect with characters with lots of close up conversational shots, then yes facial animations are incredibly important. It can be a core part of the gameplay experience as much as anything can.

[@Nov-5062]

​@@TheBindoS so you feel less immersed from older games because they don't have photorealistic visuals?

[@TheBindoS]

@@Nov-5062 No, I struggle to immerse when there is a mismatch with everything looking great except for the actual movement of the characters. When both are dated it doesn't stick out as much