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Video: 3D Face Morphing Animation Sofware: Polar Express Should've Waited

youtube.com — The future of animation? The Morphable Face Model shows how movie stars can be appear in films they never worked on, or even star in new films after they die! One person quipped that they should have delayed the release of The Polar Express until this program became available

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  • NiGHTSChao, on 10/12/2007, -1/+33Simply amazing.

    Since Beowulf is going to be done the same way as "The Polar Express" I wonder if they will use this kind of technology
    • bwjacket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+61Beyond that a new genre of movies could appear - "The Long Since Dead Actor Revival." Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's 2. Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times 2000.
    • NiGHTSChao, on 10/12/2007, -1/+180_o whoa, that'd be really weird

      but what about the voice acting?
    • bwjacket, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39Hire one of those goofs that does the "100 impressions in 5 minutes"
    • MasterFunk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@bwjacket (first comment)
      Metropolis in 3D!!!
    • estomped, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24This technology kick ass:
      http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=a-5fdd9dea:110088f5c20:49f6&rf=bm&fr_story=650ff1e00d0677c95caaad8c9938664384ba9652&st=1168376724453&mp=FLV&cpf=false&fvn=9&fr=010907_035823_w5fdd9deax110088f5c20x2428&rdm=431307.6478531022

      More info @:
      http://www.image-metrics.com
    • Llanowar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+29Sorry for comment abuse...

      But just imagine rpg-ing with that technology. You could play anyone you want, some celeb you like, or just yourself. Or maybe even tweak yourself a bit so you look just a bit better.

    • shadekeiko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I was in Nagoya studying abroad during the Aichi Expo, and one of the pavilions was like this. Basically what you did was you got a bunch of pictures of your face taken from all sides in this little booth. If you stayed really still, your face could be chosen among others in your group to be digitally rendered and put in a specially made 3D sci-fi movie. My Japanese host mother and I made brief cameos, actually. It was pretty cool.
    • makeaprettycake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+82I want to see mona lisa frown.
    • 4NDr01D, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6scanner darkly would have been cool like this

      polar express should have remained a brillant childrens book however
    • Jemulov, on 10/12/2007, -28/+7This story was up yesterday...

      ...But will it blend?
    • Doghound, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12The Mona Lisa was 3D face was awesome. Now mix that with the other software that turns regular photo into 3D worlds and then you can have a full Mona Lisa painting in 3D... how cool would that be?
    • pexor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7No, you all have it wrong. If I could do 3D, it would be Audrey Hepburn starring in "Obligatory Morning-After Breakfast At My Place".

      Alriight.
    • dawgma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"This technology kick ass:
      http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=a-5fdd9dea:110088f5c20:49f6&rf=bm&fr_story=650ff1e00d0677c95caaad8c9938664384ba9652&st=1168376724453&mp=FLV&cpf=false&fvn=9&fr=010907_035823_w5fdd9deax110088f5c20x2428&rdm=431307.6478531022"

      At the end of that video... around 3.30... you see a clip of the very first Killzone footage show for the PS3. Now we know what was used to make those models... PS3 dev kit my ass.
    • magicmarc, on 10/12/2007, -14/+8Want this on my mac NOW.
    • izzie2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Crazy talk does alot of that but I-clone is awesome.
      http://www.reallusion.com/
    • JackBandit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@makeaprettycake

      yeah i totally thought they were going to do that...it was my initial reaction
    • Joshuarr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"Want this on my mac NOW."

      So that you can turn your frown upside-down?
    • FTLJohnson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I image this technology will soon be used to create models for mmorpgs or online social environments like Second Life, and then you will also have it so that your webcam perceives your facial expression and replicates it on the ingame avatar... FREAKIN' AWESOME. Personally, I can't wait to stand over someone I've just splattered all over in Half Life 3 (or maybe 4) and smirk at their corpse. Actually, I'm smirking right now.. but can you see it? Soon... Soon...
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hasn't software similar to this been used in commercials already? I saw a popcorn commercial with a ghoulish, undead Orville Reddenbocker "3D actor" a couple of days ago. And there's the one where they changed a scene from Star Trek V around where William Shatner looks like someone punched him in the mouth and his lips swelled up.

      This tech looks good in stills, but once animated and talking, the faces look unnatural, and somewhat disturbing.

      Great for games though, if you're making an original character, and because the realism level isn't as high. Something like this has already been used in Oblivion.
    • BocoDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Nights: I don't think you'd have to worry about the voice acting for Charlie Chaplin ;)
  • inkubux, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32This is going to be useful for sports video games where you see all the faces of theses athletes :)
    • Doghound, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Similar technology has been around to map a persons face into a 3D model. But the person had to be present, sit still, and get photos taken of every side of their face.

      This technology, though, would remove any need for the person to be present for that torture. They could send in a photograph and let EA take it from there :)
    • Ramtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Holy Crap... They'll be able to bring back Bruce Lee!!! :)
    • igraham09, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7when it morphed to tom hask's face i was like "Mother *****!"
    • FTLJohnson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Or Brandon Lee... and then they could make another Crow movie!!!



      Oh wait... they've been doing that... Sorry Eddie Furlong... We do still love you.
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4[quote]when it morphed to tom hask's face i was like "Mother *****!"[/quote]

      Tom Hask! ROFL.
  • WavyLayz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+46When can I put my face on my video game character or online avatar? Thats what I wanna know.
    • jivemasta, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7You already can. You could do it on one of the tony hawk games, and the elder scrolls 4: oblivion has a program to model your face and spits out settings to use when you make a character in the game. I'm sure there are more instances than just those two as well.
    • teamparadox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Rainbow 6 for 360 has this feature also, works pretty good if you get the lighting right in your picture.
    • stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5And Second Life too, apparently.
    • lexbaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8EA Sports had their "Face-in-the-Game" feature a few years ago for a few of their games.
    • jpt62089, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Where is this program for Second Life? I would absolutely love it :D
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[quote]When can I put my face on my video game character or online avatar? Thats what I wanna know.[/quote]

      It has been possible to do that for years. Most games don't support it because it requires downloading everyone's custom faces. Back with games like Quake, you could set them to allow downloading of custom models and maps automatically. Most people turned that option off because they'd wind up downloading tons of crap with it on.

      You can do it in Second Life though. That online world with that Asian lady that likes flying penises. I think that as bandwidth and storage becoming much less of a problem over the next year we will see it enabled in other games again.
    • lathicentropy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1alas...they wanted to with Perfect Dark, remember? with the whole connectivity to the Game Boy Color camera, however it never made it into the final release.

      now Perfect Dark 3...
  • gerry87, on 10/12/2007, -4/+68I wanna see them do Brian Peppers.
  • Propapanda, on 10/12/2007, -14/+30The Polar Express never should have existed...
    • TomFrost, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7You're also not the demographic for that movie. Sure, you think the movie's terrible. I think Nickelodeon and MTV are both horrible too. The Polar Express was fantastic to its intended age range.
    • GlitchEnzo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2While I agree that the movie itself is not that good, you should really see in in 3D. I got to see it twice in an IMAX theater and it is definitely the best 3D thus far.
  • DiggCommando, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Reminds me of the many hours wasted on the Oblivion face generator. This is much much cooler.
    • zephc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Yes, like Oblivion, only the faces aren't hideously ugly. Bethesda hates attractive characters, evidently.
    • Axim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17or characters that look remotely different, seriously you could mess around for an hour in the creator and you would still end up looking like some ukrainian grandmother
  • gardnmi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30My brain just exploded.
    • Anonymvs, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6My brain just got blended. Yes it blends!
    • retral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You must have some serious hax if you managed to type that message after your brain exploded.
  • RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6The animation in Polar Express reminded me of OpenGL cut scenes in games like Call of Duty or Warcraft 3. It was really bad for a feature-length film.. (Okay for a game)
    • TomFrost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The Polar Express was a book, which was beautifully illustrated (and written) by Chris Van Allsburg. The intent of the movie was to mimick these illustrations, with such accuracy that certain frames in the movie would appear to be near-exact replicas of some of the book's pages. The graphics weren't supposed to be photorealistic, or match modern games. Pretty sure the illustrator of a children's book wasn't concerned about how it might compare to futuristic war video games in.. when was it published? 1985?
    • RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3The animation sucked ass. It was choppy and the facial expressions were horrible. They didn't match the illustraitions very well at all.
  • swansong24, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1If they can fiqure out how to virtually fix my carborater I will indeed post a comment on digg. But, there must be a way to name my new computer lights, hmmm.
  • krakkinem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Now if they can figure out how to perfectly emulate a person's voice we'll be all set.

    ...or can they do it already?
    • btattersall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+65Paris Hilton put out an album

      I'm sure they can make you sound like whatever they want you to sound like
    • realyst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The above comment being awesome and all, the truth is they really can.

      I can't seem to dig it up at the moment, but I do remember a presentation by a TTS company that took a speech from Bill Clinton. They then ran it through their software and used text to speech to make Bill say whatever they wanted. And the sound was uncannily precise.

      Remember that the Stephen Hawking voice machine is over 30 years old:) And that the TTS samples you get in Windows(also used in UT2K3 etc...) are samples from ATT from over a decade ago. The really pricey stuff is the stuff that sounds awesome.

      Hawking was actually approached to have his TTS voice updated. He declined due to the fact that the robot sounding voice is his voice now and that he wouldn't care to be disassociated with it.
    • krakkinem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@realyst

      you know that thing about Stephen Hawking had subconsciously nagged at me for years. I knew that voice emulation technology had come a loooong way in recent years, so why didn't he upgrade his rig?

      And what an interesting answer - he felt attached to his "voice," despite it being synthetic and ancient by current standards.
    • ronfez, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Boobs
    • btattersall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Reminds me of when I found out that Hawkings was actually british. His robo-voice had no accent. When he was approached with a newer version that would return his accent, he denied for teh same reasons as stated above
  • glasgowm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+60I think they should work on the "frown" feature a bit more.

    It looks more like.."suck all life out of face'
  • imikedaman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Anyone else see Keanu Reeves when they started demonstrating the caricature slider at the 1 minute mark?
    • The0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Haha yes I did, and I was about to post the same thing!

      Oh yeah, and HOLY ***** THATS AMAZING!
    • geodescent, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25And it already acts better
    • EricAnderton, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yes. That's what I saw too.

      My reaction? An audible "Whoa."
  • danknerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16NEXT UP: Video Evidence being skewed, anyone can be easily inserted into a video as if they were there.... as Master Shake would say, "Clearly, that is not me!"
    • dokbeast7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just finished reading 1984. It would be like the news falsification, except video. That's downright creepy.
    • schlongmeister, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Did anyone else think of the 1987 Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man"? Similar technology was used by the evil network execs to change the (apparent) outcome of the final fight sequence between the Governers Schwarzenegger and Ventura.
    • FreydNot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Dugg up just for the line "... final fight sequence between the Governers Schwarzenegger and Ventura."
  • corneliusroot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7When they slimmed down Tom Hanks didn't it look freakishly like Michael Stipe of REM fame? Creepy.
    • jeremedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I thought the same thing, and even rewound it to see it happen again.
    • MightyGiant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Me too!
  • AustinLucas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2so will this tech be applied to video games?
    anyone have any more info on this?
  • jeremedia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Amazing work.

    And, its refreshing to see simple, honest appreciation of technological innovation in digg comments after endless days of fanboy wars.
    • WhiskerTheMad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Screw you photorealizm fanbois! Cel-shading 4life!
  • NoBullet2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Polar Express wasnt trying to be realistic. It was trying to mimic the same art style from the book it was based on.
  • MackPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2not something to watch while hungover.
    • SuburbanDave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Or when taking certain psychopharmeceuticles
  • zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Polar express was suppose to look the way it did.
    What the studio was trying to achieve is the look of the art in the book "The Polar Express".
    They were not going for realism.
    Now as far as this software is concerted. Oh my god that kicks total ass.
    I can't wait to see that software as part of a 3d studio package such as mudbox, maya or modo.
    I could use that as a package right now! That would save me tons of time trying to do face setups.
  • estomped, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It was presented at SIGGRAPH 99
    More info at: http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/~blanz/
    • returnofmalv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Lot's of amazing things happen at Siggraph. It's like taking a brief glimpse into the future of gaming and movies. Here are all the papers that have been featured in Siggraph in the past 7 years along with videos.

      http://www.cs.brown.edu/~tor/
  • cying, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://www.virtualcinematography.org/
  • geuisteses, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25Wow, the porn applications are LIMITLESS.

    Ok, so that other story the other day about the judge that dismissed the porn charges against the guy because there was no way to tell if they were legal-age actors because his defense argued they could have been "photoshopped";

    So, in a couple years we can easily take some porn(or other video) and morph different people into. Umm, while this is cool I don't want some sicko driving by a school yard taking pictures of kids, who then goes home and morphs their little faces and bodies onto some other crazy *****. I suppose that's better than hurting real kids, but still disturbing.
    • geodescent, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Two words: Natalie Portman
    • ahawks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Indeed...

      If they can do that with a face (what we're most adept at recognizing details in, and noticing when something is wrong)... this could easily be applied to the entire body with full body scans instead of just face.

      And instead of parameters like smile/frown... we'd get to adjust boob size, height, weight, leg length, etc.

      I hadn't considered porn, but it certainly is one of the many possibly applications of this
    • lump1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Imagine how many more chicks with really hot bodies would do porn if the producers disguise their faces to make them unrecognizable? Then they could just do porn under a fake name, earn some money, and not have to worry about later regretting it. I have a feeling that face morphing would be easier to do than entire bodies. And the result wouldn't have to be perfect, since I suspect that most porn customers don't examine the faces in great detail.

      Also, think about all the situations where people's faces are pixelated for annonymity. With this, they could just be given new features, or maybe get the "average face" so that no one would recognize them. Yeah, depending on how automated they can make this, I could see many applications.
  • d00by, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3wow. If this technology is just now becomming public, imagine how long the CIA and FBI must have had it. Makes me wonder if some videos used as evidence in high profile cases could have been falsefied.
    • bergur1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Aye. I would love to see this being used for trying to catch kidnappers caught on security cameras.
  • zanvann, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I can't stop gawping, this soft is qute impressive!
    I really hope that application is as easy as demonstrated, it would be revolutionary.
  • FoxFaction, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Wow, the Tom Hanks face matching was incredible, and then the texture matching to top it was just icing on the cake. I can't believe they've automated something so incredibly complex. Video game faces are going to be pretty sweet in the future.
    • excalpius, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Some of us have been doing this level of work for a decade, but as you say, this makes it MUCH more intuitive. Bravo.
  • rholloway, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'm scared.
  • kjartan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4For some reason, the Mona Lisa example creeped me out.
  • xudakai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12This video was actually presented at SIGGRAPH 1999.... believe it or not this video is 8 years old.
    http://www.mpi-sb.mpg.de/~blanz/

    Interesting video on motion capture without markers:
    http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?auto_band=x&rf=sv&fr_story=650ff1e00d0677c95caaad8c9938664384ba9652
    • lintmonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1OLD.

      They've been doing this to Tupac Shakur since 1996.
  • kingkong118, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1lol, the whole way through it was tripping me out.. lol, its too real.
  • xjoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"...should have waited." The technology was there before the movie was made. This video is old as is the technology.
  • Keyframe3D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1amazing, however in this state pretty much useless for animation, unless you want all objects to frown and smile the same way.. not to mention there is no opening of the mouth shown.. we'll get there in 10 years sure
  • jmp478, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Reminds me of the new Orville Redenbacher commercial. Creepy stuff.
  • docsimmons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Now we can start making movies with Chris Farley in them.
  • diggware, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3FaceGen:

    http://www.facegen.com/
    http://www.facegen.com/modeller.htm
    • cman2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3facegen is what was used in oblivion. simply put, it sucks.
    • Evi1d33d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The FaceGen model of my face looked pretty real but when I use the same settings on Oblivion, it doesn't look like me at all.
    • kylerk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The oblivion one doesn't have the asymetrical settings that exist on the computer version, so it won't look quite right. Unless your already symetrical.
  • jeickholt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Good bye animation career!
  • bouche, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well that completely explains the origins of the HOLODECK. That is an amazing milestone of technology.
  • bossgalaga, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I think television news just lost its trustworthiness.

    If that hadn't happened already.
  • synaesthesia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Imagine if this technology/software became accessible to Joe Average...Say in 2010, Adobe releases "Adobe Image Metrics" which becomes as popular as photoshop is now. There'd be torrents of "jessica.alba_angelina.jolie.LesbianXXXvideo.avi" that as far as one can tell, features the actual actors- could lawsuits emerge for using someone's face for such purposes? Imagine all of the hilarious, crazy or amazing photoshops you've seen of celebrities and your friends, then imagine that the same manipulation level could be easily applied to videos.
  • Blakieto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is already a commercial version of software like this: www.cyberextruder.com.
  • dttvb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, extreme video!

    http://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/bu/people/volker/
    I think this is the official page, and that page was last modified: November, 13th 1998
  • numlok, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Though I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, I believe this is the basic technology behind the "younger" Professor Xavier and Magneto FX shots in the last X-Men movie.

    Also, seeing as how this is technology from 8 years ago (!), am I the only one who is now forever skeptical of just about anything shown on the news? Seems like it would be relatively effortless for "motivated parties" to defame or incriminate whoever they pleased...

    eek!
  • Blakieto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is already a commercial version of software like this:
    http://www.cyberextruder.com/Default.aspx?p=37
  • dragonopolis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually I wouldn't be surprised if Actor/Actresses didn't start contracting their faces and voices out for multiple years and thus leaving a legacy behind for their families or Studios will start making actors sign contracts that give a studio the right to use computer generated versions of them ( for example Paramount would have the right to use William Shatner's face for Kirk in an on going series years after William Shatner died). Also, this technology will eventually allow Studios to create their own actors by just combining different face Models (which would be cheaper than higher an actor/actress )and then hire the right voice actor for the job. This may or may not famous actors/actresses but it would definitely hurt the extras/stunt people market.
  • zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2wow thanks for all the links.
    I'm going to start ordering demos tomorrow to see if this can be intergrated into our pipeline.


  • blastin311, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24How does this get over 1,000 diggs and I submitted it 110 days ago and have only 20. Oh yeah, I only have 2 friends on Digg. *Cry*

    http://www.digg.com/software/Insane_3D_Face_Model_Video
    • CLIFFosakaJAPAN, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1110 days ago, Digg was just being discovered....
  • aserer511, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks like slingblade, hahah
  • lowerlogic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can see the ads for this product already:
    j00 |-|@V3 b33n d3f@C3d!!!!10n3!1!! (With our new 3D Face Morphing Animation Software, offered at an affordable price and great value!)
  • lifewithout, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Looks like Michael Jackson's Black or White video but sounds better.
  • areohbe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1wow
  • FlapJaw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's Forrest Gump!
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