Transferring facial expressions to different face models

Abstract

We introduce a facial deformation system that helps the character setup process and gives artists the possibility to manipulate models as if they were using a puppet. The method uses a set of labels that define specific facial features and deforms the rig anthropometrically. We find the correspondence of the main attributes of a generic rig, transfer them to different 3D face models and automatically generate a sophisticated facial rig based on an anatomical structure. We show how the labels, combined with other deformation methods, can adapt muscles and skeletons from a generic rig to individual face models, allowing high quality physics-based animations. We describe how it is possible to deform the generic facial rig, apply the same deformation parameters to different face models and obtain unique expressions. We show how our method can easily be integrated in an animation pipeline. We end with different examples that show the strength of our proposal.