Facial animation by optimized blendshapes from motion capture data

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents a labor‐saving method to construct optimal facial animation blendshapes from given blendshape sketches and facial motion capture data. At first, a mapping function is established between target “Marker Face” and performer's face by RBF interpolating selected feature points. Sketched blendshapes are transferred to performer's “Marker Face” by using motion vector adjustment technique. Then, the blendshapes of performer's “Marker Face” are optimized according to the facial motion capture data. At last, the optimized blendshapes are inversely transferred to target facial model. Apart from that, this paper also proposes a method of computing blendshape weights from facial motion capture data more accurately. Experiments show that expressive facial animation can be acquired. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.