Facial expressions for 3D game applications

Morphing is a process of smoothly transforming from one shape into another. In this paper we present a feature-based method of employing mesh morphing to compute two homeomorphic facial meshes for animating 3D facial expressions in virtual worlds. We divide the method into five steps, including mesh parameterization, feature specification, vertex correspondence, and point interpolation. Relying on sparse sets of user specified feature points, a semi-automatic ripple searching algorithm is proposed to cope with the problem of establishing a one-to-one correspondence between source and target meshes. After the operation of correspondence establishment, we employ Bezier interpolation with four data control points to transform from the source mesh to the target mesh. Finally, three pairs of facial meshes with surface textures are demonstrated to produce a series of facial expressions by using the proposed method.