Digital Actors

As a consequence of developing V2V, high quality, animated digital actors have been produced. Due to their modular design, these actors are suitable for use by producers of high quality, next generation virtual reality experiences and games.

September 2022: Technical showcase: The latest version of the Digital Actor showcasing the neural network (RBF node) driven joint corrective morphs in action.

September 2022: Technical overview: Description of the character skeleton conversion and JCM creation processes.

March 2022: Technical showcase: Current Digital Actor on a challenging surface animated in realtime

Features

By using a suite of custom scripts, standard Genesis 8 Daz 3D characters are exported from Daz3D, passed through an extended production pipeline (Maya, Motionbuilder) to Unreal Engine in a highly customised format optimised for animation. Once inported to Unreal Engine, the characters can be used as NPC actors or avatars.

• High quality motion capture animation
• Custom coded IK solution for high accuracy foot placement
• Custom coded full body animation for VR avatars
• Advanced, programmable skin deformations (aka jcm blendshapes) for realistic muscle deformations
• Physics based realtime hair and cloth simulation (Groom and Draper solutions)
• Programmable emotional states (facial blendshapes)
• Eyes following functionality (can follow camera / avatars / objects held in the hand etc)
• Lifelike randomised blinking of eyes

Current Development

September 2022: Work is complete on this release of the Digital Actor. A marketing strategy is being formulated whilst preparations are made to re-commence work on the V2V Virtual Reality meeting application.