Info Panel
This Info Panel is your quick guide to using Faceware Studio. It displays information relevant to the current setup and streaming process.
Pathfinder, at the top of the window, is your step-by-step guide to optimal setup for tracking and streaming.
Each section of Pathfinder will highlight green, yellow, red, or grey (optimal, sub-optimal, error/issue, inactive respectively) depending on the status of your input, tracking, and streaming.
Left-clicking on any of the individual sections of Pathfinder will highlight or open the relevant panel.
Right-clicking any section of Pathfinder will update the Info Panel with basic information for that step of the process.
You can find more detailed help and info by clicking Help > Get Support in the menu bar.
Open your Realtime Setup Panel
The Realtime Setup panel is where you will choose your video input for realtime tracking and will typically be the first step to get up and running. To open the panel, choose
Realtime Setup
from your
View > Panels
menu or press the Video button on the pathfinder bar at the top of the application.
Select your input and adjust settings
You can use live video (such as through a webcam), a saved video of a performance, or an image sequence as your video source.
For live streaming video:
1.) Select "Live" in the Input Type options
2.) Choose your video source, desired resolution and frame rate from the dropdown menus.
For video files:
Select "Media" in the Input Type options and select "Video" in the Select Media dropdown menu.
Navigate to your video file in the explorer and select it. The software will automatically read the resolution and frame rate of the video.
For image sequences:
Select "Media" in the Input Type options and select "Image Sequence" in the dropdown menu. Navigate to the folder containing your image sequence and select it in the explorer.
Select your desired frame rate for the image sequence.
Status updates
The Pathfinder bar will provide status updates about each step in your realtime setup process via changing colors and containing tooltips designed to help you get the best results.
Cause:
No video input has been selected.
Solution: Select an input (camera, video, or image sequence) in the Realtime Setup panel.
Cause:
An input feed was present, but has been disconnected from the software.
Solution: Select an input (streaming camera, video, or image sequence) in the Realtime Setup panel.
Cause: The video is streaming at a rate of 27 FPS or lower.
Solution: To ensure high-quality tracking, the minimum recommended frame rate is 30 FPS with 60 FPS being ideal. For live video, this may be limited by the camera and the computer's processing power, so reduce the simultaneous processes on your machine to get the best frame rate that you can.
Cause: The software is running a valid video source with a good frame rate.
Solution: Everything is good right now, move on to the Tracking phase.
Tracking and Calibration
Whenever you introduce a new actor/video source, you will be required to perform a quick, one-touch calibration to optimize the software's ability to detect and track your actor.
How to Calibrate
1.) Have the actor make a "neutral" facial expression with the mouth closed but relaxed, the eyes open normally and looking forward, and the brows in a relaxed state.
2.) Hold this expression for a few moments while looking into the camera and press the Calibrate Neutral Pose button (pictured above, in the Viewports panel where your video is playing).
3.) Once calibration is complete, the software start tracking the face and applying animation to the character. If you are unhappy with the results or want to get a better calibration, the Calibrate Neutral Pose button is replaced with Calibrate Face Again, which will recalibrate.
Status Updates
Cause: Calibration has not been performed on the current actor/video.
Solution: Make a neutral face and press Calibrate Neutral Pose in the Viewports panel.
Cause: The face is being tracked at a low FPS, which can cause issues with the results.
Solution: Make sure that the face is clearly visible in your video and is adequately lit. Reduce the simultaneous processes on your machine to free up resources.
Cause: Calibration is complete but the software cannot detect and track a face in the shot.
Solution: Recalibrate and make sure that nothing is blocking the face if there is one present in the shot.
Cause: The shot has been calibrated and is tracking at an acceptable frame rate.
Solution: No further action is required and you can move onto the Motion Logic phase of setup.
Animation Tuning
Studio includes an advanced feature called Animation Tuning. This feature allows users to fine-tune the data streaming from Studio to increase the control that they have over the final animation by letting the user change the output on a custom shape-by-shape basis.
Access the
Animation Tuning panel
via View>Panels>Animation Tuning.
The Animation Tuning panel contains each of the shapes that Studio tracks and streams. The
Purple
Bar
represents the
activation of that given shape on the
current frame
. The
Red Line represents the maximum value that has been activated for the given shape during the current session.
To adjust the amount of activation for a shape
, you can either enter a percentage value in the field to the right or grab and drag the blue slider that contains the name of the control.
The slider will change color based on the percentage for easy visual reference. You will also be able to see the adjusted maximum value if applicable.
Motion Effects
The Motion step of the setup process is where you customize the animation data for each control. Applying Motion Effects to your data ensures that you can always match the vision for your character and performance.
Note: Applying Motion Effects is considered an advanced feature and is not required, but will allow you to get the most control of your performance and animation data before it gets to your character rig.
Adding Motion Effects
With no effects applied, the animation data for each control is between values of zero (no activation) and one (maximum activation). Applying Motion Effects changes these values.
1.) Open the Control Effects panel (click Motion in Pathfinder or View>Panels>Control Effects).
2.) Click the
+NEW EFFECT button
3.) In the Create New Motion Effect menu, press Select a Primary Control and choose the control that you wish to apply the effect to.
4.) Press Select an Effect and choose one of the effects to apply:
Clamp: Set the upper and lower limits for the animation values for the given control. 0-1 is no restriction.
Increase By: Increase the value of the animation data relative to the value of another (secondary) control.
Offset: Changes the value of the animation data by the desired value through the entire animation. Can be positive or negative.
Reduce By: Reduce the value of the animation data relative to the value of another (secondary) control.
Profile Management
If you are satisfied with a set of effects that you have added, then you can save your profile to preserve the work and easily load it up again later. From the Profile menu, select Save Current Profile to store your settings, Load Profile to select a previously created profile file, or Default to revert the effects settings back to their default state.
Status Updates
Cause: No Motion Effects have been applied or modified during this session.
(Note: you can still proceed even without applying Motion Effects)
Solution: Apply at least one Motion Effect.
Cause: At least one Motion Effect has been applied to the controls.
Solution: No solution required.
Stream animation data to your character
The last step is to stream the animation values from your Studio application to one of the Live Client plugins (for Unity, MotionBuilder, or Unreal Engine 4).
Note: Before streaming, you must setup your character and Live Client plugin. See our knowledge base for more information: http://support.facewaretech.com/live-client
How to stream the data
1.) Setup your video input, tracking calibration, and motion effects as desired.
2.) Go to the Streaming Panel (View>Panels>Streaming Panel if closed).
3.) Select the desired port. The ports should match between this value and the port set in the Live Client plugin.
4.) Press the Streaming button (pictured)
If the button has the orange indicators, then data is streaming from Studio.
Status updates
Cause: Studio is not streaming data.
Solution: Press the Streaming button in the Streaming Panel.
Cause: Streaming is enabled, but there is no Live Client plugin connected.
Solution: Check to make sure that your Live Client plugin is configured and has the same port as Studio.
Cause: You are successfully streaming data into a Live Client plugin.
Solution: No further action is required for streaming. Toggle the button to enable/disable the data stream.