Image Metrics, the leading provider of facial animation solutions to the entertainment industry, has animated lips on a photo-real CG heart that sings about its loss of love in Gnarls Barkley’s l... [more]

Image Metrics, the leading provider of facial animation solutions to the entertainment industry, has animated lips on a photo-real CG heart that sings about its loss of love in Gnarls Barkley’s latest video, “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” from the recently released album, The Odd Couple. Radical Media, producers of the video, turned to Image Metrics because its unique facial animation solution was the only one able to exactly capture lead singer Cee-Lo’s lips for translation onto the digital heart. The project is Image Metrics’ first music video collaboration with Gradient Effects, which designed and developed character animation for the CG heart. Chris Milk, director of Kanye West, U2 and Green Day music videos, wrote and directed the project. Milk wanted to capture Cee-Lo singing the lyrics and then add his lips to the photo-real CG human heart designed and animated by Gradient Effects. This proved to be a challenge, as traditional motion capture techniques rely on tracking markers, which cannot be placed on lips. Radical Media and Gradient Effects turned to Image Metrics and its unique video-based capture process that works easily with any footage to capture the entire face, pixel-by-pixel, including the lips and eyes.

Styles: 3D, Other

Categories: Funny, Cool, Drama, Totally Wacky, Action, Scary

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