Modeling Three Dimensional Animated, Detailed, and Emotional Facial Expressions

This paper presents methods for generating 3D facial expressions. The pattern functions are employed to generate detailed, animated facial expressions. The created pattern functions include wrinkle patterns (forehead wrinkle, eye corner wrinkle, cheek wrinkle and frown wrinkle), dimple pattern and eye pouch effect pattern. The pattern functions allow a user to directly manipulate them and see immediate results, and allow expressive features to be applied to any existing animation or model. The location and style of an expressive feature can be specified, thus allowing the detailed facial expressions to be modeled as desired. Two kinds of tears can be created and combined with facial models to generate emotional facial expressions. One kind is teardrops, which continually change shape while dripping down the face. The other is shedding tears, which seamlessly connect with the skin as they flow along the surface of the face. The method provides real-time, vivid simulation of tears rolling down the face. These methods both broaden CG and increase the realism of facial expressions.