Reading Time: 9 minutes Did you know SMS open rates are as high as 98%, with 45% replying to branded SMS marketing? As texting continues to witness a steady rise, your brand could be missing out if you’re not leveraging automated text messaging for business! Text messaging is when your brand communicates with customers via SMS. These messages may be automated, that is, scheduled to be sent at opportune times. Interested in sending an automated text message for business? Keep reading.   What is SMS Marketing Automation? SMS marketing automation is the process of automatically sending text messages to recipients. It enables brands to send messages when certain trigger conditions are met. For instance, sending messages to a customer to confirm a purchase or remind them to complete a purchase when they have left items in the cart. What are the main benefits of automated SMS marketing? An automated text message for business can unlock many benefits, some of which are listed below: Saving time: Automated text message marketing saves time for core tasks rather than dedicating time for manual text responses for order confirmations, abandoned cart reminders, etc. Scalability: Using SMS marketing automation, brands can look to scale their SMS campaigns to a large customer base. Strategic communication: With SMS marketing automation, brands can deliver larger automated SMS drip campaigns tailored to specific target groups. Greater engagement: 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery. With automated SMS marketing, brands can send timely responses and elevate customer experience. Higher open rates: Automated text messages typically have higher open rates than emails, making them a more favorable medium for reaching customers. Is sending automated text messages legal for businesses? Businesses can send automated text messages to customers as long as they follow the rules and regulations of the state where they are being sent. In the United States, automated text marketing requires following the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which requires brands to get written consent before sending messages to customers. The new TCPA rules also state that brands need to honor SMS opt-out requests within 10 business days. Additionally, the CAN-SPAM Act sets rules for commercial communications. Brands need to ensure that recipients have opted for an automated text message service, as spam messages can result in fines. Moving on, how can your brand implement SMS messaging? Here are some use cases for automated text messaging for business to help you get started.   5 Common Use Cases for Automated Text Messaging for Business From the many ways in which brands can tap SMS marketing automation, below are a few use cases: 1. Reminders and Confirmations You could send personalized reminders and notifications to customers in the form of an informative automated text message, be it for bill payments, restaurant bookings, or any other appointments. Example: “Hi [Customer Name], here’s a reminder of your appointment with Dr. XYZ at 2 PM tomorrow. Reply 1 to confirm, 2 to reschedule, and 3 to cancel.” 2. Order Confirmations SMS marketing automation can be used to send tailored order confirmations and update customers on shipping and delivery. Manually doing this may be cumbersome and lead to errors, making it impossible for brands to operate at scale. Text messaging automation software can solve this problem by automatically sending shipping and delivery updates to customers to keep them informed of the latest activity. Triggers can be scheduled depending on the movement of the shipment. 3. Abandoned Cart Reminders An often underrated use of automated text messages for business is nudging customers about items they left in their cart. Brands can incentivize customers to complete their purchase by sending them text messages with specific deals on items left in the cart. The result? Higher potential conversions! 4. Promotional Offers Sending customized offers to customers via SMS marketing automation can be another way to boost conversions. Brands must ensure a crisp message followed by a clear CTA to relevant product pages. In this case, automation can do what is not manually possible. With the use of customer behavioral data, the right customers can be targeted with their preferred products. 5. Customer Support and Feedback While your customer support may not be available 24/7, some customer queries can be handled automatically using automated text messages for business. For instance, your brand could answer frequently asked questions (FAQs). SMS marketing automation can also be used for gathering quick feedback from customers who have recently interacted with your brand by simply including a link in the message.   How to Set Up Automated Text Messages for Business Setting up SMS marketing automation is easy and can be accomplished in just 5 steps, as listed below. 1. Sign up for an automated text messaging service To begin your automated text messaging campaign, you would first need to select a platform that meets your requirements. It would be wise to pick a service that allows you to automate end-to-end workflows and empower your team. 2. Upload recipients’ contact details Next, upload the contact details of those who have opted to receive your texts. You can either drag your contact file onto the page or browse for it to upload it. Remember, just having the recipients’ phone numbers doesn’t mean you can start sending them SMS messages right away. They need to explicitly give you their consent first. 3. Create segmented lists Create segmented groups of recipients based on criteria such as demographics, customer type, and so on. This can help your brand send automated text messages to relevant audiences and raise the chances of engagement. 4. Compose messages This step can be highly crucial as the content of your SMS can make or break your connection with your customer. Leveraging data can help with hyper-personalizing your communication. Typically, a crisp message with a relevant CTA could boost your click-through rates. 5. Schedule, test, and deploy Once your text messages are ready, it’s time to set up a schedule to send them. Some messages may be on specific recurring dates like birthdays, while some may be triggered by certain customer actions like cart abandonment. Finally, don’t forget to test your SMS marketing automation before you deploy it!   5 Automated Text Message Examples and Templates for Campaign Inspiration Now that you know how to set up automated text messages for business, let’s get some much-needed inspiration for creating your own successful SMS marketing campaigns. 1. Lulus | Promoting Offers and Deals Source: https://smsarchives.com/messages/lulus-text-message-marketing-example-12-31-2021/ Notice how women’s wear brand Lulus strategically uses automated SMS marketing to remind customers of their ongoing holiday sale, with a link to finish the purchase. In this case, automation helps deliver personalized deals to customers who may have earlier browsed through the brand’s website. For those who dropped off the website due to the absence of offers, this SMS can work as a smart nudge to complete that purchase. 2. Old Navy | Wishing Customers on Special Days Source: https://smsarchives.com/messages/old-navy-text-message-marketing-example-05-09-2021/ In the example above, Old Navy not only wishes its customers Happy Mother’s Day, but also goes a step further in offering deals on women’s wear. In this case, an automated text message could be used to narrow the target audience to women who are or could be mothers. This also includes wishing them on their special days. 3. Gaspar | Appointment Confirmation and Reminders Source: https://support.opentable.com/servlet/rtaImage?eid=ka0UQ0000003ogD&feoid=00N0c00000Ay3y5&refid=0EMDn000001hK7V A practical use of automated text messages for business is to confirm appointment reservations and get a response from the customer if they are willing to make changes. To elevate the experience further, the brand could add options to reschedule or cancel the reservation on the SMS itself, using automated text messaging. 4. Amazon | Shipping and Tracking Source: https://www.wonderment.com/hubfs/Wonderment_September2021/image/amazon_sms_shipping_alerts_w720.jpg This template ticks all the boxes for a well-crafted automated text message for business. Amazon informs the customer of the product name, expected date, and order status, along with the tracking link. These kinds of informative messages tend to be super useful to customers. 5. The Perfect Jean | Retargeting via Cart Abandonment Messages Source This automated text message example can serve as a model template for cart abandonment notifications. The brand reminds the customer of the items left in the cart and encourages the purchase by offering a custom discount code and a link to complete the purchase.   Top 3 Automated Text Message Services for Businesses SMS marketing automation can be simple to set up with the right tools. Here are some leading services that can help you send automated text messages to your customer base. 1. MoEngage MoEngage’s SMS automation software can make targeted SMS campaigns seem like a breeze with ready-to-use campaign ideas, hyper-personalized messaging, and 360-degree customer views. Standout SMS Automation Feature: MoEngage’s automated text message marketing service stands out for its ability to integrate SMS into the overall customer journey and deliver insight-led, revenue-driven campaigns. How Pricing Works: Schedule a demo to know which of the two pricing plans works best for your business. 2. Textedly Textedly offers an easy-to-use automated text message software for real-time conversations with your customers. However, it lags behind in providing an omnichannel brand experience. Standout SMS Automation Feature: The service has an intuitive platform and also a shared team inbox to ensure timely automated responses for instant customer support. How Pricing Works: While the service offers a free plan with limited features, the basic plan starts at $26 a month and varies for other advanced plans. 3. Sender Sender enables SMS automation campaigns for bulk, personalized messages to customers. Standout SMS Automation Feature: Sender is an automated SMS software that offers affordable, easy-to-use templates for automating text messaging campaigns. However, it is limited to email and text message services, and does not offer integrated engagement solutions as part of the overall customer experience. How Pricing Works: Sender offers a free plan, with paid plans starting at $10 a month.   SMS Marketing Automation Strategies That Improve Campaign Performance Sure, you may be excited to launch your own automated SMS campaign. But hold on! There’s so much more you can get from automated text messaging, with some practical SMS marketing automation strategies listed below. 1. Make your automated text message conversational and interactive Customers love it when their brands are responsive to their needs! Using automated SMS services, you can make your text messages conversational. For instance, you can ask a series of questions to help customers reach informed decisions regarding your product or service. 2. Always ask for consent Before blasting automated text messages to your customers, it’s best to get their consent. Clear opt-in and opt-out options are necessary not only from a legal standpoint but also from the transparency angle. 3. Segment and personalize for your customer Nobody likes a random brand message that could be sent to just about anyone. You can use customer demographic and behavioral data to segment your customers into different groups. Armed with better insights, you can send more targeted and personalized text messages to your customers. 4. Grow your subscriber list with incentives Customers would be happy to consent to receiving your brand’s messages if they are offered something in return. Weaving smart opt-in messages with exclusive promotional deals and other perks can grow your subscriber base. 5. Review the little things A text message is one of the quickest ways to reach a customer. When done right, it can work wonders for your brand! But before you hurry to send out texts, remember to include crucial elements like a crisp main message, a valuable offer, a strong CTA, and a link to access the relevant offers or information. Finally, don’t forget to do automated SMS testing before sending the SMS.   Enhance Your Outreach with Automated SMS Marketing from MoEngage Brands can use the small but mighty SMS in many ways to deepen customer engagement. However, it is important to get subscriber consent and use other best practices to make the most of automated SMS marketing. MoEngage’s SMS marketing platform can help you have smoother interactions with your customers guided by detailed analytics, as part of a seamless omnichannel journey. Get a personalized demo to know how MoEngage can help you tap the massive potential of automated text messaging. The post Automated Text Messages for Business: A Marketer’s Guide appeared first on MoEngage.

This is a timelapse of how we made and edited the dancing animation from the reference. We used QuickMagic for the video mocap, then retargeted the animation in Cascadeur, used Animation Unbaking and Fulcrum Motion Cleaning tools to set up a solid base, then used AutoPosing to fix and edit the poses, and finally a touch of AutoPhysics to add secondary motion and bring the whole animation together Shoutout to @doridance1389 for the inspiration and amazing content! 0:00 Stress Intro 00:18 Import Animation 00:46 Retargeting 01:44 Animation Unbaking 02:41 Editing Timelapse 09:32 AutoPhysics 10:36 Timelapse 11:19 Final Result Learn more about Cascadeur license plans: https://cascadeur.com/plans Learn how to start using Cascadeur: https://cascadeur.com/learn Join our English-speaking community on Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/Ymwjhpn Follow us on: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CascadeurEN/ Twitter https://twitter.com/Cascadeur_soft #Animation #QuickMagic #Tutorial #mocap

Reallusion combines Vicon technology with industry-standard timecode support in iClone. Reallusion announces its official partnership with Vicon, enabling direct motion capture support for iClone. For the first time, Vicon systems can seamlessly connect with Motion LIVE, offering full integration of real-time, high-fidelity body capture, along with facial and hand mocap, all within one unified platform. Jeff Sheetz, founder of Monkey Chow Animation Studio, shares his experience with this powerful iClone-Vicon suite, which he believes delivers studio-quality results faster than ever before. Jeff Scheetz, Motion Capture Orlando Since leaving his role as co-founder of The Digital Animation & Visual Effect (DAVE) School, Jeff Scheetz, alongside his wife Anne, has been running Monkey Chow Animation Studio in Orlando, Florida. In 2021, they expanded into motion capture with the launch of Motion Capture Orlando, serving the theme park industry. Their work can be seen at Universal Studios and Walt Disney World, and they’ve also produced various motion capture packs for iClone and ActorCore, such as Run for Your Life, Bank Heist, and Avenging Warriors. Jeff’s team also collaborated with Actor Capture on the Netflix movie The Electric State. Key team members include senior mocap technicians Kaszmere Messbarger and Nelson Escobar. iClone and Vicon—The New Dynamic Duo One of the most exciting aspects of Jeff’s relationship with Reallusion is getting to test out cutting-edge technology before it’s officially released. When he was informed that iClone would soon support Vicon integration and timecode synchronization, it was a game-changer. Motion Capture Orlando has been using Vicon’s cameras and software since they started investing in mocap gear, but they were unable to integrate Vicon data directly into Motion LIVE until now. This breakthrough is especially significant for Jeff, as the previous workflow involved streaming Vicon data into Motion Builder for retargeting, and then moving that data into Unreal Engine. The integration of facial data, hand motion (via data gloves), and the inherent latency in this multi-step process presented challenges. Now, with iClone’s Motion LIVE, Vicon streams directly into iClone, allowing for seamless integration of face, body, and hand all within the platform. This streamlined approach reduces complexity, making it easier to execute live shows and set up production workflows. Record, Edit, and Render Previz in iClone When it comes to previz, speed and cost-effectiveness are essential. Traditional mocap workflows can be time-consuming due to the necessary exports and imports between different software tools. However, by recording directly into iClone, you can immediately start blocking shots, working out camera moves, and rendering previews. Jeff’s team recorded a few assassin chase scenes on their stage, using Motion LIVE to capture data, and the resulting iProject files served as the foundation for their productions. The quality of the capture was impressive due to starting with Vicon data. This allowed them to present high-quality previz to a director quickly. The renders included vital data on the edges, such as version info, lens used, and notes for feedback, helping the team stay organized throughout the process. From Previz to Polished Video: Cleaning and Syncing with Timecode After capturing mocap for the previz, the team performed proper data cleaning using Shogun Post (Vicon’s mocap cleaning software), and motion edits were carried out in iClone. They identified the best takes—approximately 20% of what was shot—and cleaned only those pieces. One major challenge was syncing the cleaned data, but the introduction of timecode has made this process much easier. Using the new Timecode Plugin, Jeff could instantly sync the cleaned motion data with the original timeline. By dropping the new motion (as an FBX) onto their character and selecting “Align Clip to Embedded Timecode”, iClone automatically aligned it with the original recording. This feature works not only for motion data but also for facial capture, hand data, audio, and video. Seamless Mocap Sync with Live Action This seamless integration was especially useful when creating a sitcom scene for Life with Bob! in which a live actress performed against a CGI character. Mocap actors, placed just out of frame, could improvise and interact with the CGI character. The use of a Tentacle Sync device transmitted timecode across all systems: Vicon, the Live Face app, the video camera, and sound recording devices. This made it incredibly easy to sync everything once the master shot was completed. Reshooting and Updating with Motion LIVE One of Jeff’s favorite features of this new workflow is the ability to quickly make adjustments, such as reshooting facial animation without the need for a full reshoot. Using his iPhone, he could capture just the parts that needed improvement, like the lips, while leaving other aspects of the face intact. The flexibility to isolate and reshoot specific elements is a major time-saver and enhances the overall efficiency of the production process. The New Workflow: Speed, Efficiency, and Creativity For creators using Reallusion products, the integration of Vicon with iClone opens up new possibilities for creating high-quality animated content in a fraction of the time previously required. For a more detailed insight into the workflow, please find the full article here. The new workflow allows for fast, professional results with minimal overhead. With the addition of the Timecode plugin, keeping everything aligned and organized is simple. Motion LIVE, combined with Vicon’s mocap system, empowers creators to focus on what matters most: creativity and storytelling. And after all, that’s why many of us got into animation in the first place. Brought to you by Reallusion: This article is part of the befores & afters VFX Insight series. If you’d like to promote your VFX/animation/CG tech or service, you can find out more about the VFX Insight series here. The post Pro-Level Mocap Sync: Stream Vicon in iClone for Real-Time Animation appeared first on befores & afters.

From The Heretic’s Gawain to Louise in Enemies, our Demo team continues to create real-time cinematics that push the boundaries of Unity’s capabilities for high-fidelity productions, with a special focus on digital humans.The pursuit to create ever more realistic digital characters is endless. And since the launch of Enemies at GDC 2022, we have continued our research and development into solutions for better and more believable digital human creation, in collaboration with Unity’s Graphics Engineering team and commercially available service providers specializing in that area.At SIGGRAPH 2022, we announced our next step: replacing the heavy 4D data playback of the protagonist’s performance with a lightweight Ziva puppet. This recent iteration sees the integration of Ziva animation technology with the latest in Unity’s graphics advancements, including the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) – all with the aim of further developing an end-to-end pipeline for character asset creation, animation, and authoring.Along with the launch of a new strand-based Hair Solution and updated Digital Human package, the Enemies real-time demo is now available to download. You can run it in real-time and experience it for yourself, just as it was shown at Unite 2022.While the cinematic may not appear too different from the original, its final rendered version shows how the integration of Ziva technology has brought a new dimension to our protagonist.Ziva brings decades of experience and pioneering research from the VFX industry to enable greater animation quality for games, linear content production, and real-time projects. Its machine learning (ML)-based technology helps achieve extraordinary realism in facial animation, and also for body and muscle deformations.To achieve the level of realism in Enemies, Ziva used machine learning and 4D data capture, which goes beyond the traditional process of scanning actors in 3D scans. The static, uneditable 4D captured facial performance has now been transformed into a real-time puppet with a facial rig that can be animated and adjusted at any time – all while maintaining high fidelity.Our team built on that 4D capture data and trained a machine-learned model that could be animated to create any performance. The end result is a 50 MB facial rig that has all the detail of the 4D captured performance, without having to carry its original 3.7 GB of weight.This technology means that you can replicate the results with a fraction of the animation data, creating real-time results in a way that 4D does not typically allow.In order to achieve this, Unity’s Demo team focused on:Creating the puppetTo create this new version of Louise, we worked with the Ziva team. They handled the machine learning workflow using a preexisting 4D data library. Additional 4D data was collected from a new performance by the original Enemies actor (we only needed to collect a few additional expressions). This is one of the unique advantages of our machine learning approach.With this combined dataset, we trained a Ziva puppet to accurately reproduce the original performance. We could alter this performance in any way, ranging from tweaking minute details to changing the entire expression.Using the 4D data capture through machine learning, we could enable any future performance to run on any 3D head by showing a single performance applied to multiple faces of varying proportions. This makes it easier to expand the range of performances to multiple actors and real-time digital humans for any future editions.The puppet’s control schemeOnce the machine learning was completed, we had 200–300 parameters that, when used in combination and at different weights, could recreate everything we had seen in the 4D data with incredible accuracy. We didn’t have to worry about a hand-animated performance looking different when used by a group of different animators. The persona and idiosyncrasies of the original actor would come through no matter how we chose to animate the face.As Ziva is based on deformations and not an underlying facial rig, we could manipulate even the smallest detail because the trained face uses a control scheme that was developed to take advantage of the fidelity of the machine-learned parameters/data.At this point, creating a rig is a relatively flexible process as we can just tap into those machine-learned parameters – this, in turn, deforms the face. There are no joints in a Ziva puppet, besides the basic logical face and neck joints.So what does this all mean?There are many advantages to this new workflow. First and foremost, we now have the ability to dynamically interact with the performance of the digital human in Enemies.This allows us to change the character’s performance after it has already been delivered. Digital Louise can now say the same lines as before, but with very different facial expressions. For example, she can be friendlier or angrier or convey any other emotion that the director envisions.We are also able to manually author new performances with the puppet – facial expressions and reactions that the original actress never performed. If we wanted to develop the story into an interactive experience, it would be important to expand the possibility of what the digital character reacts to, such as a player’s chess moves, with nuances of approval or disapproval.For the highest level of fidelity, the Ziva team can even create a new puppet with its own 4D dataset. Ziva also recently released a beta version of Face Trainer, a product built on a comprehensive library of 4D data and ML algorithms. It can be used to train any face mesh to perform the most complex expressions in real-time without any new 4D capture.Additionally, it is possible to create new lines of dialogue, all at a fraction of the time and cost that the creation of the first line required. We can do this either by getting the original actress to perform additional lines with an HMC and then using the HMC data to drive the puppet, or by getting another performer to deliver the new lines and retargeting their HMC data to the existing puppet.At SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! we demonstrated how to apply the original performance from Enemies to the puppet of another actress – ultimately replacing the protagonist of the story with a different person, without changing anything else.This performance was then shown at Unite 2022 during the keynote (segment 01:03:00), where Enemies ran on an Xbox Series X, with DX12 and real-time ray tracing.To further enhance the visual quality of Enemies, a number of HDRP systems were leveraged. These include Shader Graph motion vectors, Adaptive Probe Volumes (APV), and of course, hair shading.Enemies also makes use of real-time ray tracing in HDRP and Unity’s native support for NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 (Deep Learning Super Sampling), which enable it to run at 4K image quality, comparable to native resolution. All of these updated Unity features are now available in Unity 2022 LTS.The brand new strand-based Hair Solution, developed during the creation of the Enemies demo, can simulate individual hairs in real-time. This technology is now available as an experimental package via GitHub (requires Unity 2020.2.0f1 or newer), along with a tutorial to get started.By integrating a complete pipeline for authoring, simulation, shading, and rendering hair in Unity, this solution is applicable to digital humans and creatures, in both realistic and stylized projects. The development work continues with a more performant solution for hair rendering enabled by the upcoming Software Rasterizer in HDRP. We are also diversifying the authoring options available by adopting and integrating the Wētā Wig tool for more complex grooms, as showcased in the Lion demo.Expanding on the technological innovations from The Heretic, the updated Digital Human package provides a realistic shading model for the characters rendered in Unity.Such updates include:A better 4D pipelineA more performant Skin Attachment system on the GPU for high-density meshesMore realistic eyes with caustics on the iris (available in HDRP as of Unity 2022.2)A new skin shader, built with the available Editor technologyTension tech for blood flow simulation and wrinkle maps, eliminating the need for a facial rigAnd as always, there is more to come.Discover how Ziva can help bring your next project to life. Register your interest to receive updates or get early access to future Ziva beta programs. If you’d like to learn more, you can contact us here.

Breakdown of using Vicon Motion Capture (MOCAP) and MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5.5 to make a real time camera operator training simulatior. The app is called "Cam Op Simulator" and it's available on Steam for PC and Mac OS Silicon. 0:00 - Intro 0:40 - MOCAP Studio 2:27 - MOCAP Shoot 5:33 - MetaHuman Retargeting 9:11 - UE5 Sequencer Assemble 14:03 - Cam Op Sim Live Demo 17:49 - Conclusion

Back in March, we showcased Mesh Match, David Liebard's advanced mesh registration tool for Maya. Since then, the developer has made significant progress, launching a dedicated website, releasing full documentation, and announcing that the Mesh Match for Maya 2023, 2024, and 2025 on both Windows and Linux will be publicly available before the end of this month.In case you missed it, Mesh Match brings mesh registration capabilities to Autodesk Maya, a feature that has never been natively available. It enables precise alignment of meshes that share similar overall structures, even when their topologies differ in vertex count or order. Mesh Match can also retarget deformations and transform matrices between models, whether or not they have identical topologies, while accurately considering local curvature and scale variations.Mesh Match is powered by a high-performance C++ deformer plug-in, with a Qt-based user interface that gives users intuitive access to its features and manages the overall workflow. For those looking to integrate it into custom pipelines, an API is also available to automate tasks.To help users get started, Mesh Match offers in-depth documentation, tutorial videos, example scenes, and access to a dedicated Discord server for community support and discussion. You can also try the beta for free through the Discord.Check out Mesh Match site here and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.