Distributed Solution of the Inverse Rig Problem in Blendshape Facial Animation

The problem of rig inversion is central in facial animation as it allows for a realistic and appealing performance of avatars. With the increasing complexity of modern blendshape models, execution times increase beyond practically feasible solutions. A possible approach towards a faster solution is clustering, which exploits the spacial nature of the face, leading to a distributed method. In this paper, we go a step further, involving cluster coupling to get more confident estimates of the overlapping components. Our algorithm applies the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers, sharing the overlapping weights between the subproblems. The results obtained with this technique show a clear advantage over the naive clustered approach, as measured in different metrics of success and visual inspection. The method applies to an arbitrary clustering of the face. We also introduce a novel method for choosing the number of clusters in a data-free manner. The method tends to find a clustering such that the resulting clustering graph is sparse but without losing essential information. Finally, we give a new variant of a data-free clustering algorithm that produces good scores with respect to the mentioned strategy for choosing the optimal clustering

High-fidelity Interpretable Inverse Rig: An Accurate and Sparse Solution Optimizing the Quartic Blendshape Model

We propose a method to fit arbitrarily accurate blendshape rig models by solving the inverse rig problem in realistic human face animation. The method considers blendshape models with different levels of added corrections and solves the regularized least-squares problem using coordinate descent, i.e., iteratively estimating blendshape weights. Besides making the optimization easier to solve, this approach ensures that mutually exclusive controllers will not be activated simultaneously and improves the goodness of fit after each iteration. We show experimentally that the proposed method yields solutions with mesh error comparable to or lower than the state-of-the-art approaches while significantly reducing the cardinality of the weight vector (over 20 percent), hence giving a high-fidelity reconstruction of the reference expression that is easier to manipulate in the post-production manually. Python scripts for the algorithm will be publicly available upon acceptance of the paper

A Majorization-Minimization Based Method for Nonconvex Inverse Rig Problems in Facial Animation: Algorithm Derivation

Automated methods for facial animation are a necessary tool in the modern industry since the standard blendshape head models consist of hundreds of controllers and a manual approach is painfully slow. Different solutions have been proposed that produce output in real-time or generalize well for different face topologies. However, all these prior works consider a linear approximation of the blendshape function and hence do not provide a high-enough level of details for modern realistic human face reconstruction. We build a method for solving the inverse rig in blendshape animation using quadratic corrective terms, which increase accuracy. At the same time, due to the proposed construction of the objective function, it yields a sparser estimated weight vector compared to the state-of-the-art methods. The former feature means lower demand for subsequent manual corrections of the solution, while the latter indicates that the manual modifications are also easier to include. Our algorithm is iterative and employs a Majorization Minimization paradigm to cope with the increased complexity produced by adding the corrective terms. The surrogate function is easy to solve and allows for further parallelization on the component level within each iteration. This paper is complementary to an accompanying paper, Rackovi\'c et al. (2023), where we provide detailed experimental results and discussion, including highly-realistic animation data, and show a clear superiority of the results compared to the state-of-the-art methods

Accurate and Interpretable Solution of the Inverse Rig for Realistic Blendshape Models with Quadratic Corrective Terms

We propose a new model-based algorithm solving the inverse rig problem in facial animation retargeting, exhibiting higher accuracy of the fit and sparser, more interpretable weight vector compared to SOTA. The proposed method targets a specific subdomain of human face animation - highly-realistic blendshape models used in the production of movies and video games. In this paper, we formulate an optimization problem that takes into account all the requirements of targeted models. Our objective goes beyond a linear blendshape model and employs the quadratic corrective terms necessary for correctly fitting fine details of the mesh. We show that the solution to the proposed problem yields highly accurate mesh reconstruction even when general-purpose solvers, like SQP, are used. The results obtained using SQP are highly accurate in the mesh space but do not exhibit favorable qualities in terms of weight sparsity and smoothness, and for this reason, we further propose a novel algorithm relying on a MM technique. The algorithm is specifically suited for solving the proposed objective, yielding a high-accuracy mesh fit while respecting the constraints and producing a sparse and smooth set of weights easy to manipulate and interpret by artists. Our algorithm is benchmarked with SOTA approaches, and shows an overall superiority of the results, yielding a smooth animation reconstruction with a relative improvement up to 45 percent in root mean squared mesh error while keeping the cardinality comparable with benchmark methods. This paper gives a comprehensive set of evaluation metrics that cover different aspects of the solution, including mesh accuracy, sparsity of the weights, and smoothness of the animation curves, as well as the appearance of the produced animation, which human experts evaluated

MRI reconstruction using Markov random field and total variation as composite prior

Reconstruction of magnetic resonance images (MRI) benefits from incorporating a priori knowledge about statistical dependencies among the representation coefficients. Recent results demonstrate that modeling intraband dependencies with Markov Random Field (MRF) models enable superior reconstructions compared to inter-scale models. In this paper, we develop a novel reconstruction method, which includes a composite prior based on an MRF model and Total Variation (TV). We use an anisotropic MRF model and propose an original data-driven method for the adaptive estimation of its parameters. From a Bayesian perspective, we define a new position-dependent type of regularization and derive a compact reconstruction algorithm with a novel soft-thresholding rule. Experimental results show the effectiveness of this method compared to the state of the art in the field

Oksidacija antrahinonskih boja peroksidazom iz rena imobilisanom u obliku umreženih enzimskih agregata

Finding a sustainable and ecofriendly methods for recalcitrant synthetic dyes removal is a researchers major challenge. A carrier-free technique for commercial HRP immobilization is a focus of the present study. The immobilized biocatalyst, HRP-CLEAs with 580 U g-1 of the activity was obtained under the following immobilization conditions: precipitation reagent 80% ammonium sulphate, cross-linking reagent 1% of glutaraldehyde and protein-fedder, bovine serum albumin (BSA) concentration 5 mg ml-1. The obtained HRP-CLEAs showed great affinity towards model anthraquinone dye, C. I. Acid Violet 109. 88.4% of the dye was oxidized under the reaction conditions: pH 4, dye concentration 40 mg l-1, H2O2 concentration 1 mM and 0.1 U of HRP-CLEAs. The possibility of the immobilized biocatalyst application in five and eight oxidation cycles of the dye and pyrogallol (retained activity 80%), respectively, indicates that HRP-CLEAs is an efficient and environmentally friendly biocatalyst with great potential in aromatic compounds removal from wastewater. This paper is a continuation of our earlier research related to HRP from horseradish extract immobilization in the form of CLEAs and the application in the wastewater colored with a synthetic anthraquinone dye treatment.Pronalazak održivih i ekološki prihvatljivih metoda za uklanjanje sintetičkih boja je jedan od vodećih izazova za istraživače. U ovom radu akcenat je na metodi imobilizacije bez primene nosača. Imobilisani preparat peroksidaze iz rena, aktivnosti 580 U g-1 dobijen je pod sledećim uslovima imobilizacije: taložni reagens 80% amonijum-sulfat, umrežavajući reagens 1% glutaraldehid i goveđi serum albumin koncentracije 5 mg ml-1. Dobijeni umreženi agregat peroksidaze iz rena pokazao je veliki afinitet prema model antrahinonskoj boji, C. I. AV 109. Pod optimalnim uslovima: pH 4, koncentracja boje 40 mg-1, koncentracija H2O2 i 0,1 U enzimske aktivnosti oksidovano je 88,4% ispitivane boje. Mogućnost primene imobilisanog enzima kroz pet i osam uzastopnih ciklusa oksidacije boje i pirogalola (zadržana aktivnost 80%) pokazuje da je imobilisani enzim efikasan i ekološki prihvatljiv biokatalizator koji se može koristiti u oksidaciji aromatičnih jedinjenja iz otpadnih voda. Ovaj rad predstavlja nastavak istraživanja vezanog za umrežavanje peroksidaze iz svežeg ekstrakta rena, koja se takođe pokazala kao imobilisani biokatalizator sa velikim potencijalom primene u tretmanu obojenih otpadnih voda

Synthesis of Aliphatic Esters of Cinnamic Acid as Potential Lipophilic Antioxidants Catalyzed by Lipase B from Candida antarctica

Immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica (Novozyme 435) was tested for the synthesis of various phenolic acid esters (ethyl and n-butyl cinnamate, ethyl p-coumarate and n-butyl p-methoxycinnamate). The second-order kinetic model was used to mathematically describe the reaction kinetics and to compare present processes quantitatively. It was found that the model agreed well with the experimental data. Further, the effect of alcohol type on the esterification of cinnamic acid was investigated. The immobilized lipase showed more ability to catalyze the synthesis of butyl cinnamate. Therefore, the process was optimized for the synthesis of butyl cinnamate as a function of solvent polarity (logP) and amount of biocatalyst. The highest ester yield of 60.7 % was obtained for the highest enzyme concentration tested (3 % w/w), but the productivity was for 34 % lower than the corresponding value obtained for the enzyme concentration of 1 % (w/w). The synthesized esters were purified, identified, and screened for antioxidant activities. Both DPPH assay and cyclic voltammetry measurement have shown that cinnamic acid esters have better antioxidant properties than cinnamic acid itself

Immobilization of horseradish peroxidase onto Purolite (R) A109 and its anthraquinone dye biodegradation and detoxification potential

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is a highly specific enzyme with great potential for use in the decolorization of synthetic dyes. A comprehensive study of HRP immobilization using various techniques such as adsorption and covalent immobilization on the novel carrier Purolite (R) A109 with a special focus on enzymatic decolorization and toxicity of artificially colored wastewater. The immobilized preparations with an activity of 156.21 +/- 1.41 U g(-1) and 85.71 +/- 1.62 U g(-1) after the HRP adsorption and covalent immobilization, respectively, were obtained. Stability and reusability of the immobilized preparations were also evaluated. A noteworthy decolorization level (similar to 90%) with immobilized HRP was achieved. Phytotoxicity testing using Mung bean seeds and acute toxicity assay with Artemia salina has confirmed the applicability of the obtained immobilized preparation in industrial wastewater plants for the treatment of colored wastewater