Emotion Editing using Finite Elements

This paper describes the prototype of a facial expression editor. In contrast to existing systems the presented editor takes advantage of both medical data for the simulation and the consideration of facial anatomy during the definition of muscle groups. The Cl-continuous geometry and the high degree of abstraction for the expression editing sets this system apart from others. Using finite elements we achieve a better precision in comparison to particle systems. Furthermore, a precomputing of facial action units enables us to compose facial expressions by a superposition of facial action geometries in real-time. The presented model is based on a generic facial model using a thin plate and membrane approach for the surface and elastic springs for facial tissue modeling. It has been used successfully for performing facial surgery simulation. We illustrate features of our system with examples from the Visible Human Dataset.™