Facial capture within a voiceover booth is sometimes seen as a technological constraint on artistic performance – but this needn’t be the case. By integrating Faceware’s ProHD Headcam hardware into its pipeline, sound studio Formosa Interactive can deliver simultaneous facial and audio capture without breaking the rhythm of performance or production.
“Voiceover artist” is an apt term for a profession that’s just as much an art form as that witnessed on set or stage. Within the intimate confines of a VO booth, artists pour heart and soul into performances comedic, dramatic and everything in-between. The four walls of the booth comprise an almost sacred space, where actors must remain unperturbed to give themselves over to the performance at hand.
Considering this, it may seem counterintuitive to introduce a head-mounted tracking system into the process – a piece of gear that could potentially hinder a performance rather than empower. But this need not be the case.
Using Faceware’s ProHD Headcam hardware, Los Angeles-based sound studio Formosa Interactive has found simultaneous voice and face capture to be swift, simple, and adaptable process – one that enables sound engineers and actors alike to do their job without any of the hassle.
Read on to learn how Formosa has implemented Faceware into its voiceover pipeline, from initial capture to delivering results in post.
Immersive performance
Formosa Interactive was established as a dedicated division of Formosa Group in 2013 following considerable demand from the video game industry.
“We have nearly 20 seasoned and experienced full time employees who have provided world-class, high-quality post-production audio content for video games over the last two decades,” explains William “Chip” Beaman, vice president of Formosa.
Formosa’s clients are some of the biggest in the industry, with projects including Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Bethesda and id Software’s Doom reboot, Microsoft’s animated series Halo: The Fall of Reach, and indie-developer Camouflaj’s Republique.
Beaman’s own history stretches back more than a decade. He’s seen firsthand how advances in technology have minimized the hardware and hassle required to capture effective facial performances: “You used to need huge amounts of lumbersome equipment that didn’t allow for any flexibility in the capture process,” he says. “Now it’s very little – solutions like Faceware’s head-mounted cameras make things incredibly simple. They’re easy to set up, they have a robust end-to-end pipeline, and most importantly they don’t slow things down.”
Ultimately, this empowers Formosa to achieve simultaneous voice and face capture within its VO booths in a way that’s comfortable for the actors and streamlined for the sound engineers.
“It’s an incredibly versatile setup,” says Dave Natale, Formosa’s recordist and lead engineer. “Faceware’s solutions are easy to get up and running and easy to tear down, and it all integrates seamlessly into our workflow. In the world of voiceover work, where you have to get good results fast, that ease-of-use is vital.”
Fast results, fluid production
Formosa relies on Faceware’s ProHD Headcam hardware to capture raw data right in the booth. Formosa’s clients then take that data into post, using Analyzer software to track the performance without the need for facial markers. The performances can then be sent to Retargeter for final animation prep.
Capturing voicework and facial performance simultaneously has both creative and practical benefits. For starters, the capture is more true-to-life than it would be if the voice work and facial movements were recorded at separate times.
“There are huge advantages to getting that true lip-sync,” says Natale. “If you’re putting together asynchronous audio and facial capture, you could end up with one foot in the uncanny valley. With Faceware Headcams, since the video is recorded in combination with the audio in the VO booth, the output is an exact frame lock. That results in a more vivid recreation of reality that’s also true to the actor’s original performance.”
This approach is possible because Faceware’s ProHD Headcams are lightweight, comfortable, and unobtrusive, meaning actors can wear them without being drawn out of the performance they’re delivering.
“We use the exact same mics and headcams that are used on the mocap stage, so the actors are comfortable and familiar with them,” says Natale. “That means a more natural final performance: things are totally organic. It allows us to create those perfect moments that really sell a scene.”
In Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, for instance, Formosa was brought on board to capture audio and facial performances for picture-in-picture comms sequences. Here, the faces of non-player characters appear on screen, creating a focal point around those elements and the dialogue being delivered. Thankfully, using its in-booth Faceware ProHD Headcam setup, the actors were fully comfortable in their performances, delivering audio and video that perfectly matched the subtle movements and inflections of their character’s faces.
In practical terms, considering the quick-and-easy setup of Faceware’s hardware, it’s not just the rhythm of the actor’s performance that remains uninterrupted, but that of the production itself. The wheels of the studio can continue to turn while clients receive great quality capture.
“The downtime between scenes recorded on stage is much longer compared to just recording VO in a booth with us,” says Natale. “Faceware doesn’t slow down how we work – logistically it’s much simpler. Our sessions tend to be more focused and fluid, allowing the team to run through the recording agenda at a much faster clip.”
Staying synchronised
There’s another reason why Formosa chooses Faceware ProHD Headcams: “Faceware is by far the easiest to work with, because I don’t have to run two recording rigs,” explains Natale. “It’s 100 times easier with Faceware than it is with the other tech, because, technically-speaking, it just runs and records video in the background. It’s so simple to get up and running.”
This ease is exemplified in the ability to quickly track specific takes: “While other vendors require a unique time code for every shot of the day which, in turn, requires running and tracking multiple clocks and having expensive recorders, Faceware’s hardware allows us to use the same time code data for multiple takes,” affirms Beaman.
Having that locked time code makes it easier to go back and deliver enhancements or tweaks to a performance after the fact, saving even more time later on in the post process: “We can get the exact same time over and over; the data doesn’t foul up and require someone to go through by hand with each file and adjust it,” explains Natale. “It saves about half of the editing time on our side, because we don’t have to match between multiple sessions with different operating clocks.”
Keeping rhythm
In-booth facial capture with Faceware ProHD Headcams is not only cheaper and easier than asynchronous capture of audio and performance, but it also saves the studio many headaches down the line. Formosa calls Faceware “second-to-none” in providing brilliantly lifelike performances across all types of digital media, reducing time investment and increasing creative iteration later on in the production cycle. And that, in turn, means great, immersive games.
“Faceware hardware cuts down on time, tracking, and expense,” says Beaman. “It’s a precise method offering reliability, affordability, and truly excellent results. The versatility of taking it into a VO booth too is just the icing on the cake.”
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