Introducing a new type of face-swapping, an update to the popular face-swap app Reface now lets you upload and animate old portraits, monuments, paintings, and memes with your own face.
Reface Now Lets You Animate Uploaded Photos With Your Face
Reface calls the new feature Swap Animation, and it allows users to upload their own images or GIFs to the app to face-swap or animate. While users can upload any content to the platform, Reface is taking the approach of using the feature to face-swap with old portraits, monuments, paintings, and so on.
Similar apps have had the ability to animate existing pictures that users upload, but Reface lets users go one step further and face-swap with these uploads.
After uploading a picture or video to the app, users can choose from 30 preset motion and audio animations for their face-swapped creation. The new feature is available to everyone for free, but only Pro users of the app can upload GIFs to the app in addition to photos.
Face-swapping is clearly a popular gimmick, as Reface has racked up 100 million downloads as of March 2021. Giving users extra functionality can only be a good thing, and is sure to attract more people to download the app.
Download: Reface for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases)
Previously, you could only face-swap with pre-selected images and clips in the app. Users couldn’t choose to animate or face-swap any of their own content, only what the app provided.
How Does Reface’s New Feature Work?
If you’re looking to try out the new Swap Animation feature on Reface, make sure you’ve updated the app to the latest version. Head into Reface, tap the + button, and then Animate Image. You’ll then be asked to upload an image, and can then get to work.
Reface’s new feature uses GAN (generative adversarial network) algorithms. The app separates the motion from a video. Using key points on the head, it warps the source image through the motion and can draw any elements that are absent. That’s why you’ll still be able to see an ear if you turn your head–the app is recreating the ear.
In terms of privacy, face-swaps on Reface are created without storing any photos. Rather, the app relies on face embeddings, which are numeric values that represent different information about a face.
Reface says that this data gets deleted within a maximum of 24 hours in accordance with its policy. It’s also worth noting that face embeddings are encrypted, and any images used are stored locally on users’ devices.
Face-Swap With Anything
With the roll-out of Reface’s new feature, users can animate and face-swap with anything they like. As users can now upload their own content for use in the app, it’s hard to think where face-swapping can go next.