A Survey of Facial Modeling and Animation Techniques

Realistic facial animation is achieved through geometric and image manipulations. Geometric deformations usually account for the shape and deformations unique to the physiology and expressions of a person. Image manipulations model the reflectance properties of the facial skin and hair to achieve smallscale detail that is difficult to model by geometric manipulation alone. Modeling and animation methods often exhibit elements of each realm. This paper summarizes the theoretical approaches used in published work and describes their strengths, weaknesses, and relative performance. Taxonomy groups the methods into classes that highlight their similarities and differences.