Data-Driven 3D Neck Modeling and Animation

In this article, we present a data-driven approach for modeling and animation of 3D necks. Our method is based on a new neck animation model that decomposes the neck animation into local deformation caused by larynx motion and global deformation driven by head poses, facial expressions, and speech. A skinning model is introduced for modeling local deformation and underlying larynx motions, while the global neck deformation caused by each factor is modeled by its corrective blendshape set, respectively. Based on this neck model, we introduce a regression method to drive the larynx motion and neck deformation from speech. Both the neck model and the speech regressor are learned from a dataset of 3D neck animation sequences captured from different identities. Our neck model significantly improves the realism of facial animation and allows users to easily create plausible neck animations from speech and facial expressions. We verify our neck model and demonstrate its advantages in 3D neck tracking and animation.