This paper reports results from a program that produces high quality animation of facial expressions and head movements as automatically as possible in conjunction with meaning-based speech synthesis, including spoken intonation. The goal of the research is as much to test and define our theories of the formal semantics for such gestures, as to produce convincing animation. Towards this end we ...

We present here a framework for developing a generic talking head capable of reproducing the anatomy and the facial deformations induced by speech movements with a set of a few parameters. We will show that the speakerspecific articulatory movements can be straightforward encoded into the normalized MPEG-4 Facial Animation Parameters and Facial Definition Parameters.

A system consists of a text classifier and Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) to build a life-like virtual character capable of expressing emotion from a text input is proposed. The system classifies emotional content of sentence(s) from text input and expresses corresponding emotion by a facial expression. Text input is classified using the text classifier, while facial expression of the life-like c...

Facial Animation in films and videogames has traditionally relied on creating all the facial poses and animation controls in the early stages of a production. This process, whether for key framed controls or motion captured animation, takes a lot of time and effort. We present a novel sketching control system inspired in the way artists draw, where a stroke defines the shape of an object and re...

Interactive virtual characters are expected to lead to an intuitive interaction via multiple communicative modalities such as the expression of emotions. Generating facial expressions that are consistent with the interaction context is a challenge. This paper presents our interactive facial animation system based on the Component Process Model, generating facial signs of appraisal during a real...

The aim of this study was to quantify facial movements in a sample of normal adults and to investigate the influence of sex and facial shape on these movements. The study sample consisted of 50 healthy adult subjects, 25 males and 25 females (age: mean = 27.3 years; range = 23-39 years). A video-based tracking system was used to track small-diameter retroreflective markers positioned at specifi...