FACEWARE's key differentiator is a pose-based retargeting workflow which establishes the relationship of actor to character prior to the performance transfer and retargetting onto the character rig. Once a performance is analyzed, artists then pinpoint a characters' extreme poses and subtleties, essentially training FACEWARE how the character moves and its relationship to the original actor's performances.
Artists effectively "teach" FACEWARE on a per-character basis, defining facial expressions such as what a smile looks like, how far to the left the actor looks, and how high the actor's brows move through key poses set on the character rig. A key advantage to this workflow is the ability to establish relationships of actors to non-human CG characters.
These poses establish the creative relationship of the actor to the character—ensuring that you maintain an ‘on model' feel and desirable poses throughout the entire animation. FACEWARE removes the painstaking work involved in creating convincing lip sync, timing, and eyelines, which allows artists to produce higher fidelity animation in less time. As a result, animators can focus on the key areas of the performance they choose to embellish.
