[Update] September 12, 2022
Hi Developers! The day has arrived!
Facial Animation, formally known as Dynamic Heads, is now released and out of beta! Developers can publish experiences with avatars containing dynamic heads – ie, Meshparts with associated FaceControls and face animations.
With this, the full release of Automatic Skinning Transfer is here as well. Find out more here: Link
So, what does this mean?
It means that any developer can use Facial Animation in their live experiences, not just in Studio. Therefore, you could:
- Add Facial Animation to your in-experience avatar editor.
- Use Facial Animations for your NPCs.
- Retrofit in-experience emotes and animations to include a face component.
- Cool stuff with animated characters we haven’t thought about!
As a reminder, we have released documentation to help with:
- (NEW) Facial Animation
- Creating a new Dynamic Head
- Integrating example Dynamic Head assets in your experience
- Creating new face animations using the Face Animation Editor
- Creating Face Accesories
While Facial Animation was in beta we ran performance tests to ensure that feature did not materially affect the performance of any live experience. We are constantly looking for feedback so let us know if you encounter any issues!
So, what’s next?
We are planning to begin releasing this on the Avatar Shop later this year. This means that players can start entering your experience with a Dynamic Head that can animate through emotes and animation packs! Feel free to play around ahead of the Catalog release in order to spot any issues or concerns.
Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or feedback!