Mimicing 3D transformations of emotional stylized animation with minimal 2D input

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a novel approach to assist a graphical artist throughout the creation of traditional facial animation. We focus on eliminating the time-consuming process of drawing all the emotions of a character, which has to be seen from different viewpoints. Furthermore, we aim at preserving the animator's freedom of expressing the the artistic style he is bearing in mind. To establish these goals, we introduce the concept of facial emotion channels, of which each represents a facial part expressing an emotion. Furthermore,wepresent a novel approach through which an emotionally meaningful 2D facial expression from one point of view can be created from a reference expression from another point of view. The provided solution is easy to use and empowers a much quicker cartoon production, without hampering the animation artists' creativity.