Any devs out there interested in partnering to produce an ONNX based animation system for Unreal Engine?

[VirtualityDave]

Hi All,

Aside from experience with neural networks and ONNX in particular, I have everything in place to implement a neural network based animation system in Unreal Engine; a 50-camera Qualysis mocap system, hundreds of animation clips custom made to use as training data, the relevant experience with UE to integrate a Machine Learning solution into a UE project and an overall system design for implementing a neural network based animation-for-locomotion system.

I've been following the progress of neural network based animation systems since Daniel Holden released his paper describing the PFNN in 2017 (see here: https://theorangeduck.com/page/phase-functioned-neural-networks-character-control) Quite frankly, I am amazed nobody has produced a commercially available system yet!

I'm looking to create a PFNN based solution for UE using the ONNX runtime. However, I specialise in programming for animation and do not have the necessary skills to implement this, so I am looking to partner with someone with the neccessary skills / experience.

The basic idea is to produce both a training application (this need not neccessarily be implemented in UE; Maya, Blender etc are all possibilities) and a ONNX based runtime for UE.
I would then produce trained models using custom sets of mocap data for sale on the UE marketplace. This would be an ongoing production process, as an almost endless range people can be mocapped to produce trained models for different character types (e.g. male, female, graceful, clumsy/orc like, warrior, old lady, etc, etc).
I plan to create different models for different character asset types; standard UE skeletal meshes, Metahumans and characters produced using the advanced Daz figure conversion system I have produced (demo here: https://youtu.be/j1MBUmnqf3Q)

From a game / VR experience / movie maker's point of view, switching to use this system would be a no-brainer as it would facilitate the rapid and easy production of an animation-for-locomotion system that produces far more natural, compelling results than state machine based systems, most likely with a lower performance overhead.

If there is anyone out there that feels they would be interested in producing the training app and ONNX based UE runtime I'd love to hear from you - you could be the final piece of a puzzle I've been working on for years!

So my question is: Is there anyone out there who'd be interested in partnering with me on this project?