echo performances is a service provider specialized in facial animation.

  • Whether your project requires fully keyframed animations or based on an existing performance, we can handle it.

  • We are experienced with both cartoon and realistic facial rigs.

  • We also provide consultations to help you build your pipeline, to overcome production challenges, and to meet your deadlines.

In the future, we hope to expand our available services to include performance capture, rigging, and sculpting.

Scroll below to view our recent work, or navigate through the different pages in the menu above.

Guys’ Night

Our 1st experiment using Unreal's MetaHuman Animator.

This short film serves as an exploration of several new technologies:

  • The script was written with ChatGPT using several prompts, multiple drafts, and manual edits. The head and facial rig were created in Metahuman Creator.

  • The performance was recorded on an iPhone 11 using the Live Link Face app. The voice-over track was generated using Respeecher (Ritter US -3.0).

  • The Facial Animation was generated using the new Metahuman Animator feature of UE 5.2. Animation polish was done entirely in UE5’s Sequencer (no reliance on any DCC).

Gaming 101

An experiment using Faceware Portal / Mesh-To-Metahuman

This new experiment combines several new technologies.

+ Faceware Portal - Faceware's new Neural Net Facial Tracking

+ Mesh to MetaHuman - Using a scan to generate a MetaHuman

+ Unreal Engine 5 - Rendered in UE5's sequencer

Old Scores

This is our 4th experiment using Unreal's MetaHuman Creator.

Similar to experiment #3 (Turning 40), the goal was to continue "stress testing" the Facial Rig and processing it through Faceware Analyzer and Retargeter in Maya.

To find out how we captured both Jon McLaren and Alex Weiner’s performances for this shoot, check out our Behind The Scenes video.

Turning 40

This is a third experiment using Unreal's MetaHumans.

In Summer 2021, while there was somewhat of a "goldrush" to get results with MetaHumans and real-time solvers, I wanted to take the time to portray a more nuanced performance. The goal was to "stress test" the Facial Rig using static cam footage and processing it through Faceware Analyzer and Retargeter in Maya, which offers a level of precision we simply can't get with real-time solutions, at least not yet.

Tutorials

In this tutorial, we break down the process used to create our short films.

Whether you're familiar with facial animation or you have a general curiosity about working with Faceware and MetaHumans, this video could be for you.

If anything wasn't clear, if you have any questions, or suggestions, please leave a comment and we'll do our best to reply as quickly as possible. If you have ideas for future tutorials or projects you'd like to see on this channel, please let us know.

Faceware

Faceware's facial motion capture hardware and software help professional animators accurately capture facial performances and create believable facial animations. For more info, visit their website or check out their latest Partner Reel.

MetaHuman Creator

MetaHuman Creator is a free cloud-based app that empowers anyone to create photorealistic digital humans, complete with hair and clothing, in minutes. MetaHumans come fully rigged and ready to animate in your Unreal Engine projects. For more info, visit their website or this 'Meet the team' video.

Performance Capture

Performance Capture, commonly referred to as PCap, is the process of capturing an actor's body motion, facial expressions, and voice simultaneously in order to obtain the most accurate, natural, and believable performances on a digital character. For more info, check out this Making-Of video.