Computer generated animation of faces

This paper describes the representation, animation and data collection techniques that have been used to produce "realistic" computer generated half-tone animated sequences of a human face changing expression. It was determined that approximating the surface of a face with a polygonal skin containing approximately 250 polygons defined by about 400 vertices is sufficient to achieve a realistic face. Animation was accomplished using a cosine interpolation scheme to fill in the intermediate frames between expressions. This approach is good enough to produce realistic facial motion. The three-dimensional data used to describe the expressions of the face was obtained photogrammetrically using pairs of photographs.