Rigging and Data Capture for the Facial Animation of Virtual Actors

This paper presents a method of animating the facial expressions of virtual characters based on data capture processes. A presentation is given of a facial rigging system capable of simulating facial muscle activity in a realistic way. A distance-based methodology is outlined in which curves are calculated that define animation by the rig controllers, using data from Saragih's Face Tracker. The method's performance is tested by reproducing expressions from various different public databases of facial expressions.