Emotion editing using finite elements

This paper describes the prototype of a facial expression editor. In contra st 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 C-1-continuous geometry and the high degr ee of abstraction for the expression editing sets this system apart from ot hers. Using finite elements we achieve a better precision in comparison to particle systems. Furthermore, a precomputing of facial action units enable s us to compose facial expressions by a superposition of facial action geom etries 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 sprin gs for facial tissue modeling. It has been used successfully for performing facial surgery simulation. We illustrate features of our system with examp les from the Visible Human Dataset.(TM)