Recording & Importing

Getting Started

Recording & Importing

There are two ways to create a take in UFM: record live from a webcam, or track a video you’ve already shot. Both produce the same result — a take with per-frame blendshape and head-rotation data.

Recording from a webcam

  1. Pick your camera from the device list in the capture panel. Real device names are shown (e.g. Logitech BRIO); a connected iPhone appears as a separate entry.
  2. Choose what to preview while you record — Video, 3D Head, or Both. The live 3D head mirrors the webcam like a selfie so it reads naturally.
  3. Press record. Tracking runs live and the head responds as you move.
  4. Stop to finalise the take. It’s saved into the current project.

By default a take saves a reference video of the webcam (with audio from your selected microphone). You can opt out of the reference video or audio in the recorder panel.

Tracking existing footage

Use File ▸ Track Existing Footage… to pick a video file. UFM runs the tracker over every frame and produces a take with the same data as a live recording, keeping the original video as the reference.

This is useful for footage shot on another device, or for re-processing a clip with different smoothing.

Smoothing & stability

UFM applies an adaptive stabilizing filter to reduce jitter without adding the lag of a fixed rolling average:

  • Adaptive smoothing stays smooth when you hold still and responsive when you move quickly. The smoothing slider controls how aggressive it is — at the lowest setting the data passes through raw.
  • Dropout handling keeps the head steady when the tracker briefly loses your face (which happens most during fast motion) instead of snapping to neutral.

The filter applies to the live preview, recorded takes, imported video, and the live DCC stream alike.

Reference video & audio

Recorded takes bundle a reference video so playback shows your real performance next to the 3D head. Video and audio use open, royalty-free formats so they play back reliably inside the app. Audio is captured from your chosen microphone and baked into the reference video.

Next Steps