DeepSketch2Face: A Deep Learning Based Sketching System for 3D Face and Caricature Modeling

Face modeling has been paid much attention in the field of visual computing. There exist many scenarios, including cartoon characters, avatars for social media, 3D face caricatures as well as face-related art and design, where low-cost interactive face modeling is a popular approach especially among amateur users. In this paper, we propose a deep learning based sketching system for 3D face and caricature modeling. This system has a labor-efficient sketching interface, that allows the user to draw freehand imprecise yet expressive 2D lines representing the contours of facial features. A novel CNN based deep regression network is designed for inferring 3D face models from 2D sketches. Our network fuses both CNN and shape based features of the input sketch, and has two independent branches of fully connected layers generating independent subsets of coefficients for a bilinear face representation. Our system also supports gesture based interactions for users to further manipulate initial face models. Both user studies and numerical results indicate that our sketching system can help users create face models quickly and effectively. A significantly expanded face database with diverse identities, expressions and levels of exaggeration is constructed to promote further research and evaluation of face modeling techniques.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, to appear in SIGGRAPH 201

Mean value coordinates–based caricature and expression synthesis

We present a novel method for caricature synthesis based on mean value coordinates (MVC). Our method can be applied to any single frontal face image to learn a specified caricature face pair for frontal and 3D caricature synthesis. This technique only requires one or a small number of exemplar pairs and a natural frontal face image training set, while the system can transfer the style of the exemplar pair across individuals. Further exaggeration can be fulfilled in a controllable way. Our method is further applied to facial expression transfer, interpolation, and exaggeration, which are applications of expression editing. Additionally, we have extended our approach to 3D caricature synthesis based on the 3D version of MVC. With experiments we demonstrate that the transferred expressions are credible and the resulting caricatures can be characterized and recognized

Example Based Caricature Synthesis

The likeness of a caricature to the original face image is an essential and often overlooked part of caricature production. In this paper we present an example based caricature synthesis technique, consisting of shape exaggeration, relationship exaggeration, and optimization for likeness. Rather than relying on a large training set of caricature face pairs, our shape exaggeration step is based on only one or a small number of examples of facial features. The relationship exaggeration step introduces two definitions which facilitate global facial feature synthesis. The first is the T-Shape rule, which describes the relative relationship between the facial elements in an intuitive manner. The second is the so called proportions, which characterizes the facial features in a proportion form. Finally we introduce a similarity metric as the likeness metric based on the Modified Hausdorff Distance (MHD) which allows us to optimize the configuration of facial elements, maximizing likeness while satisfying a number of constraints. The effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated with experimental results

Recourse to Language Humour as an Added Incentive to Studying Contrastive Grammar and Idioms: a Modest Proposal

The present contribution submits to the reader a 'modest proposal' suggesting how language humour can be resorted to in an attempt to improve vocabulary and grammar skills of students taking comparative language courses (English vs. German vs. Romanian). Students ¿ and reader alike ¿ catch a first glimpse of linguicomedy in the second section which exposes the comicality of a prima facie 'humour-proof' sentence like I only drink whisky on the rocks. Sections Three and Four discuss briefly the theory advanced by Coseriu on linguistic norms and my own view on comic effects generated by the flouting of the aforesaid norms, with appropriate examples adduced in corroboration of the theory submitted. Section Five investigates translatability of language humour. Various linguicomedy samples are being anatomized, assigned to the particular linguistic norm type which they have been found to flout, and then provided with a "punchline-friendly" "rendition" "if any" into one "or both" of the other two languages being investigated, with concomitant recourse to domestication and ethnocentric techniques for the intertextual type. A synopsis presented after the concluding section on the two otherwise similarly performing student groups shows the grades which the 'humourful' student group got in their finals to be considerably higher than those of the 'humourless' one, thus proving my 'humorous' strategy right