Zign Creations has created an affordable facial expression recognition application for use with Animation Master, Blender and Poser.  There have also been individual efforts to create import scripts for Max and Maya as well.

At just $119 USD, even amateur animators can afford this:

You can specify virtual facial landmarks and don’t necessarily have to apply reference stickers to the actor’s face.

While adjustment is still necessary once a captured facial animation is applied, this can be a tremendous time savings since it does all the rough-in animation work for you.

But I think I’d find it hard to “act” in front of my webcam though.

Tags: animation master, blender, face recognition, facial animation, poser, zign creations