iTechBahrain Information Technology Digital Marketing Web & Mobile Development Services
One of the more advanced technologies smartphones have managed to democratized is facial mapping. Thanks to the immense power these handhelds pack nowadays, developers have been able to accurately track your face for producing entertaining apps such as MSQRD and filters, masks as seen on Snapchat, Instagram and more. FaceRig is another similar application that takes it a step further by letting you cosplay a whole bunch of digital characters.
FaceRig, in a lot of ways, is similar to Apple’s animated emojis — Animoji. However, there is a range of glaring differences. For starters, FaceRig is a bit more advanced and doesn’t require any specialized hardware except for the fact that your phone should be compatible with OpenGL ES 3.0.
Instead of emojis, FaceRig allows you to control digital characters such as dragons, Donald Trump, burgers, anime with your face. Like Animoji, these figures also mimic your facial expressions and movements.
The background behind these avatars can be customized as well. In addition to that, there are masks like the ones you find on Instagram, Snapchat and it even comes the ability to swap five different faces in a single frame which is quite a feat. Lastly, there’s an option for uploading your own 2D files if you are a designer or an artist. Options for both pictures and high definition videos are present as well. It is indeed a complete package.
The majority of these filters, avatars are free of cost and unlocked on first boot. You can buy more through in-app purchases or make use of the earned credits. The credit system is surprisingly convenient too. FaceRig adds few points to your account as a daily reward. You’ll have to fire up the app every day to benefit from that, however. Individual premium characters are a bit on the expensive side and usually, are priced at a thousand credits. There are packs and combos available, though.
In most scenarios, FaceRig is able to develop accurate clips and the facial tracking technology is impressive especially when we consider there’s no additional hardware involved. There’s a good change FaceRig might end up getting acquired from some big conglomerate as is generally the case with indie developers.