Neural Volumetric Blendshapes: Computationally Efficient Physics-Based Facial Blendshapes

Computationally weak systems and demanding graphical applications are still mostly dependent on linear blendshapes for facial animations. The accompanying artifacts such as self-intersections, loss of volume, or missing soft tissue elasticity can be avoided by using physics-based animation models. However, these are cumbersome to implement and require immense computational effort. We propose neural volumetric blendshapes, an approach that combines the advantages of physics-based simulations with realtime runtimes even on consumer-grade CPUs. To this end, we present a neural network that efficiently approximates the involved volumetric simulations and generalizes across human identities as well as facial expressions. Our approach can be used on top of any linear blendshape system and, hence, can be deployed straightforwardly. Furthermore, it only requires a single neutral face mesh as input in the minimal setting. Along with the design of the network, we introduce a pipeline for the challenging creation of anatomically and physically plausible training data. Part of the pipeline is a novel hybrid regressor that densely positions a skull within a skin surface while avoiding intersections. The fidelity of all parts of the data generation pipeline as well as the accuracy and efficiency of the network are evaluated in this work. Upon publication, the trained models and associated code will be released

Применение сервис-ориентированной архитектуры при интеграции систем управления технологическими процессами

Отражен опыт применения сервис-ориентированной архитектуры при создании автоматизированных систем управления технологическими процессами и их интеграции на ОАО "НПК "Уралвагонзавод"

Effects of Variability in Synthetic Training Data on Convolutional Neural Networks for 3D Head Reconstruction

Göpfert JP, Göpfert C, Botsch M, Hammer B. Effects of Variability in Synthetic Training Data on Convolutional Neural Networks for 3D Head Reconstruction. In: 2017 SSCI Proceedings. 2017 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE; 2017

Multi-Scale Capture of Facial Geometry and Motion

We present a novel multi-scale representation and acquisition method for the animation of high-resolution facial geometry and wrinkles. We first acquire a static scan of the face including reflectance data at the highest possible quality. We then augment a traditional marker-based facial motion-capture system by two synchronized video cameras to track expression wrinkles. The resulting model consists of high-resolution geometry, motion-capture data, and expression wrinkles in 2D parametric form. This combination represents the facial shape and its salient features at multiple scales. During motion synthesis the motion-capture data deforms the high-resolution geometry using a linear shell-based mesh-deformation method. The wrinkle geometry is added to the facial base mesh using nonlinear energy optimization. We present the results of our approach for performance replay as well as for wrinkle editing.Engineering and Applied Science

Accurate online alignment of human motor performances

Hülsmann F, Richter A, Kopp S, Botsch M. Accurate online alignment of human motor performances. In: Proceedings of ACM Motion in Games. Barcelona: ACM; 2017: pp. 7:1-7:6

Differential effects of face-realism and emotion on event-related brain potentials and their implications for the uncanny valley theory

Schindler S, Zell E, Botsch M, Kißler J. Differential effects of face-realism and emotion on event-related brain potentials and their implications for the uncanny valley theory. Scientific Reports. 2017;7(1): 45003.Cartoon characters are omnipresent in popular media. While few studies have scientifically investigated their processing, in computer graphics, efforts are made to increase realism. Yet, close approximations of reality have been suggested to evoke sometimes a feeling of eeriness, the “uncanny valley” effect. Here, we used high-density electroencephalography to investigate brain responses to professionally stylized happy, angry, and neutral character faces. We employed six face-stylization levels varying from abstract to realistic and investigated the N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and late positive potential (LPP) event-related components. The face-specific N170 showed a u-shaped modulation, with stronger reactions towards both most abstract and most realistic compared to medium-stylized faces. For abstract faces, N170 was generated more occipitally than for real faces, implying stronger reliance on structural processing. Although emotional faces elicited highest amplitudes on both N170 and EPN, on the N170 realism and expression interacted. Finally, LPP increased linearly with face realism, reflecting activity increase in visual and parietal cortex for more realistic faces. Results reveal differential effects of face stylization on distinct face processing stages and suggest a perceptual basis to the uncanny valley hypothesis. They are discussed in relation to face perception, media design, and computer graphics