Face modeling and animation language for MPEG-4 XMT framework

This paper proposes FML, an XML-based face modeling and animation language. FML provides a structured content description method for multimedia presentations based on face animation. The language can be used as direct input to compatible players, or be compiled within MPEG-4 XMT framework to create MPEG-4 presentations. The language allows parallel and sequential action description, decision-making and dynamic event-based scenarios, model configuration, and behavioral template definition. Facial actions include talking, expressions, head movements, and low-level MPEG-4 FAPs. The ShowFace and iFACE animation frameworks are also reviewed as example FML-based animation systems

Generation of multi-modal dialogue for a net environment

In this paper an architecture and special purpose markup language for simulated affective face-to-face communication is presented. In systems based on this architecture, users will be able to watch embodied conversational agents interact with each other in virtual locations on the internet. The markup language, or Rich Representation Language (RRL), has been designed to provide an integrated representation of speech, gesture, posture and facial animation

PDE-based Facial Animation: Making the Complex Simple

YesDirect parameterisation is among the most widely used facial animation techniques but requires complicated ways to animate face models which have complex topology. This paper develops a simple solution by introducing a PDE-based facial animation scheme. Using a PDE face model means we only need to animate a group of boundary curves without using any other conventional surface interpolation algorithms. We describe the basis of the method and show results from a practical implementation.EPSR

The Many Moods of Emotion

This paper presents a novel approach to the facial expression generation problem. Building upon the assumption of the psychological community that emotion is intrinsically continuous, we first design our own continuous emotion representation with a 3-dimensional latent space issued from a neural network trained on discrete emotion classification. The so-obtained representation can be used to annotate large in the wild datasets and later used to trained a Generative Adversarial Network. We first show that our model is able to map back to discrete emotion classes with a objectively and subjectively better quality of the images than usual discrete approaches. But also that we are able to pave the larger space of possible facial expressions, generating the many moods of emotion. Moreover, two axis in this space may be found to generate similar expression changes as in traditional continuous representations such as arousal-valence. Finally we show from visual interpretation, that the third remaining dimension is highly related to the well-known dominance dimension from psychology

Elckerlyc in practice - on the integration of a BML Realizer in real applications

Building a complete virtual human application from scratch is a daunting task, and it makes sense to rely on existing platforms for behavior generation. When building such an interactive application, one needs to be able to adapt and extend the capabilities of the virtual human offered by the platform, without having to make invasive modications to the platform itself. This paper describes how Elckerlyc, a novel platform for controlling a virtual human, offers these possibilities

Recreating Reality: Waltz With Bashir, Persepolis, and the Documentary Genre

This paper examines Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir (2008) and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (2007) to elucidate how artists, distributors, and audiences shape and define the porous boundaries of the documentary genre, and how such perceptions are shaped within a digital context. By analyzing how each film represents reality; that is, how documentaries attempt to represent the real world, this paper explores the elements of performativity within animated documentary as a reflection of both the growing fluidity of the documentary genre and the instability of the indexical in a digital age. In a digital context, where the “real” can be manufactured at an increasing rate, stronger skepticism and cynicism push the documentary genre towards more subjective explorations, with animated documentaries serving as a key example of how genre distinctions have fluctuated in response

A Foundation for Emotional Expressivity

To express emotions to others in mobile text messaging in our view require designs that can both capture some of the ambiguity and subtleness that characterizes emotional interaction and keep the media specific qualities. Through the use of a body movement analysis and a dimensional model of emotion experiences, we arrived at a design for a mobile messaging service, eMoto. The service makes use of the sub-symbolic expressions; colors, shapes and animations, for expressing emotions in an open-ended way. Here we present the design process and a user study of those expressions, where the results show that the use of these sub-symbolic expressions can work as a foundation to use as a creative tool, but still allowing for the communication to be situated. The inspiration taken from body movements proved to be very useful as a design input. It was also reflected in the way our subjects described the expressions