THE MASKLE: AUTOMATIC WEIGHTING FOR FACIAL ANIMATION - An Automated Approach the Problem of Facial Weighting for Animation

Alun Evans, Marco Romeo, Marcelo Dematei, Josep Blat

2009

Abstract

Facial animation of 3D characters is frequently a time-consuming and repetitive process that involves either skeleton-rigging or pose-setting for morph targets. A major issue of concern is the necessity to repeat similar tasks for different models, re-creating the same animation system for several faces. Thus there is a need for reusable methods and tools that allow the introduction of automation into these processes. In this paper we present such a method to assist in the process of facial rigging: the Maskle. Based upon the standard bone-weight linear skinning animation technique, the desired distribution of vertex-movement weights for facial animation is pre-programmed into a low-resolution, generic facial mask. This mask, or ‘Maskle’, is then semi-automatically overlaid onto a newly created face model, before the animation-weight distribution is automatically transferred from the Maskle to the model. The result is a weight-painted model, created semi-automatically, and available for the artist to use for animation. We present results comparing Maskle-weighted faces to those weighted manually by an artist, which were treated as the gold standard. The results show that the Maskle is capable of automatically weight-painting a face to within 1.58% of a manually weighted face, with a maximum error of 3.82%. Comparison with standard professional automatic weighting algorithms shows that the Maskle is over three times more accurate.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Evans A., Romeo M., Dematei M. and Blat J. (2009). THE MASKLE: AUTOMATIC WEIGHTING FOR FACIAL ANIMATION - An Automated Approach the Problem of Facial Weighting for Animation . In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2009) ISBN 978-989-8111-67-8, pages 233-240. DOI: 10.5220/0001753602330240

in Bibtex Style

@conference{grapp09,
author={Alun Evans and Marco Romeo and Marcelo Dematei and Josep Blat},
title={THE MASKLE: AUTOMATIC WEIGHTING FOR FACIAL ANIMATION - An Automated Approach the Problem of Facial Weighting for Animation},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2009)},
year={2009},
pages={233-240},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0001753602330240},
isbn={978-989-8111-67-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP, (VISIGRAPP 2009)
TI - THE MASKLE: AUTOMATIC WEIGHTING FOR FACIAL ANIMATION - An Automated Approach the Problem of Facial Weighting for Animation
SN - 978-989-8111-67-8
AU - Evans A.
AU - Romeo M.
AU - Dematei M.
AU - Blat J.
PY - 2009
SP - 233
EP - 240
DO - 10.5220/0001753602330240