This is Emily. Emily is a 27-year-old PR rep working in Los Angeles. She likes beef jerky and has a soft spot for videogame nerds. Actually, I completely made that up. In fact, everything about Emily is a complete fabrication. This image and the following video featuring “Emily” are completely computer-generated.

The uncanny valley may soon be traversed.

As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, the technology is called… actually, it appears the technology itself doesn’t really have a name. Image Metrics, however, is the company behind “the technology”. A facial motion-capture with results that rival that of Alter Ego, the big difference between the two techs being that Image Metrics doesn’t use any markers.  This is great news for mo-cap actors that don’t like sticky balls all over their faces.

Image Metrics instead captures video of the actors performing, and then “the technology” is used to convert the movement into animation while tracking things that regular mo-cap can’t, such as eyes, teeth, tongue, etc. How does it do that? Well… I have no idea.

Image Metrics’s technology has been used in Grand Theft Auto IV, Unreal Tournament III, Top Spin 3, Devil May Cry 4, and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (among others).  You can also see it in action in the Gnarls Barkley video for “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”.

Is it just me, or do you now have a completely different view of the California Raisins?

In addition to the lack of balls on your face, Image Metrics can supposedly use their technology to give premium results about five times faster than normal motion-capture software. They even run the animation through whichever program a developer is using for their game or video to provide seamless integration with the rest of the project.

You can check out more info or get the “company line” at the Image Metrics website, which also hosts more video examples of their tech in action.

Computer-generated facial animations have always towed the line between creepily realistic and just plain bad. All the nuances and complexities of the human face probably make it the hardest thing to replicate convincingly in any medium, if not pixels and polygons. Some new tech developed by Pendulum Studios’ Alter Ego team, however, might be the first big step outside of the uncanny valley and into the Holodeck.

Using trademark “facial performance software” in conjunction with special motion-capture techniques, the faces Alter Ego renders are almost unbelievably detailed, extremely expressive, and look convincingly alive.

The implications for the movie industry are huge, of course, but the games industry’s going to be along for the ride as well, with Dark Sector and Silent Hill 5 making use of Alter Ego’s technology. With games like Heavenly Sword and Metal Gear Solid 4 out there and tech like this, could the age of the digital actor finally be on the horizon? See for yourself after the jump.