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Voice animation

VoiceAnimator is an AI-driven facial animation tool from NetEase Games AI Lab. This tool is capable of generating facial animations for virtual characters directly from inputted audio or text and audio files, that is suitable for hyper-realistic and anime-style virtual characters.

Such facial animations, which originally took 10 to 14 days to produce, can now be generated by AI in just two minutes. Based on the generated animations, artists can make further refinements.

"Creating vivid facial animations is indeed a complex, time-consuming, and costly endeavor. It requires understanding subtle facial muscle movements and variations, as well as smooth lip synchronization with speech. With the increasing prevalence of virtual characters, there's a growing demand for efficient content production. We aim to facilitate this process," said Yin Xu, the technical manager of VoiceAnimator.

"As the AI industry flourishes, continuous learning is essential for those within the industry. Professional artists are also embracing AI knowledge. VoiceAnimator users not only need professional artistic skills but also need to learn AI-related tools to reduce repetitive tasks and unleash their creativity," Yin added.

In the approximately four years since its development, this tool has been continuously optimized for various usage scenarios, from in-game character animations to educational virtual language tutors and AI-driven news broadcasting.