Since practically before the 1990’s, artists and animators have labored over a more simplified way to have their 3D characters deliver a more engaging character.
By having a more engaged character with their audience was what was considered the secret sauce to having a successful movie or film.
After many different attempts by trying many different things, was discovered that by animating close to realistic facial expressions when their creations begin speaking, was the tipping point to further engage their targeted audience into their characters’ story.
Now, thanks to the mother of invention by these same ingenious entrepreneurs and digital artists, we now have access to an industry standard of affectionally named 52 "blend shapes” from the Apple Developer ARKit team to describe the facial expressions from an outside source (such as from an app used on an iPhone 10/X or higher) to apply the movements of specific facial features to a digital character.
It is this special app, when connected to a local area network using an iPhone X’s front facing camera, does this app register a person’s continuous facial features and transmits these facial “coordinates” to a local computer simultaneously running an advanced program such as Blender or Unreal Engine whom, in turn, can then mimic those similar facial expressions to a prefabricated 3D model in real time.
Furthermore, the user can choose weather to use all 52 blend shapes from this mishmash of wireless and wired connections depending on the complexity of the host computer, network traffic and a multitude of other considerations.
Ultimately, it is the user who would choose the number of active blend shapes so the user will be able to deliver a smoother, more enjoyable end user experience either when conducting a live streaming performance or recording for a later broadcast.
In delivering a good, enjoyable follower experience for his fellow Titans, it is up to your Host to select the optimum settings of his digital 3D avatar when streaming online on this platform.
In turn, please be gracious and appreciative of what is going on in behind the scenes when enjoying these streams.