Flexible face animation using MPEG-4/SNHC parameter streams

We describe a new approach to animating generic 3D wireframe models of human heads using MPEG-4 synthetic/natural hybrid coding (MPEG4/SNHC) facial definition parameters (FDP) points and facial animation parameters (FAP) streams. The FDP points are used to partition a head model into sections that have approximately conforming motion with human muscles. Using the borders of these sections as features, a 3D morphing algorithm is developed to morph vertices from one frame to the next while preserving the qualities of facial expressions such as those of human visual speech. A comparison is made with the facial animation table (FAT) approach proposed in MPEG-4/SNHC. Experimental results on standard FAP sequences and on a proprietary system are shown.