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View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, pass type, topic, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view GDC 2023 session details and speakers, and share your favorites via social media. You will be able to build your schedule and access it during the show via export or Mobile App, once live. Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend.

The Facial Animation Pipeline of 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II' (Presented by DI4D)

Sean Comer  (Principal Technical Artist, Infinity Ward)

Bernardo Antoniazzi  (Principal Technical Artist, Infinity Ward)

Location: Room 3020, West Hall

Date: Wednesday, March 22

Time: 10:30 am - 11:00 am

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass

Topic: Visual Arts

Format: Sponsored Session

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: Intermediate

DI4D

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II every main character is a digital double with the same actor providing their likeness, voice performance, body performance and facial performance. This talk will provide a deep dive into the facial scanning, rigging and animation pipeline. Light Stage scans and DI4D PRO 4D expression data of each actor formed the basis for their character's facial rig. This allowed the parameter space coefficients and deformations of the facial rig to be learned with a higher degree of accuracy than from static scans alone. The learned parameter space has sparse semantic meaning, making the rig easy for artists and animators to manipulate when required. Stereo camera HMCs allowed the capture of facial performance to be processed as PURE4D 4D motion data. High quality transfer of the facial motion onto the rig was achieved without any human intervention, making the process highly scalable.

Takeaway

Attendees will gain an understanding of how a facial animation pipeline based on digital doubles and a combination of high resolution static Light Stage scans and 4D data can be used to produce highly realistic in-game facial animation at production scale with minimal human intervention.

Intended Audience

This talk is intended primarily for facial animators, riggers, and character technical directors. It will also be of interest more broadly to those curious about the challenges and advantages of adopting a digital double pipeline for in-game animation.