Control of Feature-point-driven Facial Animation Using a Hypothetical Face

A new approach to the generation of a feature-point-driven facial animation is presented. In the proposed approach, a hypothetical face is used to control the animation of a face model. The hypothetical face is constructed by connecting some predefined facial feature points to create a net so that each facet of the net is represented by a Coon's surface. Deformation of the face model is controlled by changing the shape of the hypothetical face, which is performed by changing the locations of feature points and their tangents. Experimental results show that this hypothetical-face-based method can generate facial expressions which are visually almost identical to those of a real face.