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 simulta-neously has both creative and
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