Beginner Looking for Simple Daily Workflow – Replace My Head with 3D Model (Tracking + Lip Sync)

iClone General
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Hi everyone,

I’m completely new to iClone and facial animation, and I’d really appreciate help setting up a super easy daily workflow. My goal is to make short videos where my real head is replaced by a consistent 3D model, with automatic tracking and lip sync.

Here’s What I’m Trying to Do:

  • Record a short video of myself talking using my **iPhone 13.
  • Replace my real head with the same 3D model each time.
  • Automatically track head movement (rotation, position, scale).
  • Lip sync the 3D head with my talking (from the video or audio).
  • I want to reuse the same head and rig,so I don’t have to set it up every day.

Tools I Have:

  • PC with good performance
  • iPhone 13 (ready to use for face tracking)
  • DaVinci Resolve (for editing/compositing)
  • Planning to use iClone and open to plugins like Motion LIVE, Character Creator, etc.

What I Need Help With:

  • What’s the best way to use my iPhone 13 for facial/head motion capture and lip sync with iClone? Or can I just simply record a Video and thats it?
  • How can I reuse a 3D head model** for daily videos?
  • Can I set this up as a template for easy reuse (just swap in new footage daily)?
  • What’s the best way to composite the animated 3D head onto my real body in DaVinci Resolve? Do I Need davinci for this anyway?
  • Is it possible to NOT record the videos live with the iPhone, and instead apply tracking/lip sync afterward on pre-recorded footage? Or is live recording necessary?

If you have any tips, recommended workflows, tutorials, or project files that could help a beginner like me, I’d be super grateful!

I‘m looking for the quickest and easiest way to to this. A few clicks Daily After the Video is recorded would be what I want.
What Software etc. Do I need to make this work?

Thanks a lot in advance!

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Hi…

Both iClone and Character Creator work with 3D rigged character models. You can use motion capture and the available animation tools to animate them and bring them to life with ultra realistic facial animation and lip-synced audio.

Unfortunately though, there are no options available to import a video or use a live feed of yourself and then just replace the head in the video with a 3D head.

Can I ask why you need to use your own body and only replace the head with a 3D model instead of just using a full bodied 3D character?

I ask because everything you want to achieve could be done using a full bodied 3D character model, but combining a video or a live feed and a 3D head is sadly not a viable option in iClone/Character Creator.

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Hi and thanks a Lot for helping!

The Concept is using my body, but altered head.
So Theres no Quick way to do this with iclone?

Chatgpt says it’s done in a few clicks.
Just Plugin my iPhone to my Laptop , record on phone and iclone. Export the Head without background- put Both in davinci and thats it.

But I have to Track the Face After it says. No idea if this really would Look good.

I also heard about create studio. Somebody Said this would work. Do you know that or any other software for this ?

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There seems nothing simple about this; I also don’t know any other software that might do this easily (i.e. with a few clicks).
I also have my doubts that combining an animated CGI-head with a real body “on the fly” or as a daily workflow is going to look good (as in: will seamlessly integrate); that may also depend on the kind of outfit you’d be wearing on camera, especially with regard to the collar area/point of transition to the CGI-head.
You may also need to recreate your real-world lighting set-up in CG so that the head and the body seem to inhabit the same space (unless, of course, you don’t care about that).

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Please, PLEASE!! stop asking ChaptGPT general questions about highly specific software tasks ‘without very specific contextual information. :roll_eyes:

CG head replacement and tracking on a live human is clearly more than “a few clicks”
so you might just want to use a full CG character for your project as @Pete_RL suggested

https://discover.therookies.co/2024/02/06/exploring-vfx-cg-head-replacement/

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Well, for the fun of it, I checked with Grok and here is what Grok had to say (as a PDF because it was too long to paste in here):
Grok Head Replacement Chat

Grok thinks it is possible, but it does not look a like a process that can be done with a few “clicks”…

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