Hello, does anyone know where I can purchase or download facial animations or simple expression loops?
I already use facial mocap, but it would be nice to have a library of basic expression loops. The MetaHumans creator has some great ones… but none of them are downloadable for some reason.
Depends on what skeleton you use for facial animation. On github there is plenty of software to make your own with a webcam but you must always match the data to a skeleton. There are services online for mocap and for bigger companies it is common to have an actor perform the actual mocap and movement for a game scene. I think that is most fitting for the games where realism is of important so the expressions don’t feel “off” or artificial. For simpler cases (think sims or simpler) I think you can get away with a simple expression library. I just can’t recommend one. I would try to avoid going with marketplace assets if the library is tiny so you don’t waste time combining packs into something that is compatible with your existing work. I’m wondering if there is a pack publicy available for expressions (think of research data) on researchgate / github or even AI to visualize it for you.
I can’t be of more help with this, but I can think with you. Faceware might be aware of resellers of the data created with their software, you could ask their support.
Another option might be to download a large video containing human expressions (look at research data on the webs, maybe try HuggingFace / Github) and play that video through your FaceWare software pretending it to be your camera. Then cut the result into pieces for your own library.
It would be worth looking into the products sold by Daz 3D as to expression components and injector sets as part of the Genesis 9 framework. We have been using Daz Studio along with the Genesis framework for a few years now and able to produce usable results although not as refined as Metahuman.