Realistic speech animation of synthetic faces

Abstract

In this study, physically-based modeling and parameterization are combined to generate realistic speech animation on synthetic faces. Physically-based modeling is used for muscles which are modeled as forces deforming the mesh of polygons. Parameterization technique is used for generating mouth shcipes lor speech animation. Each meaningful part of a text, a letter in our case, corresponds to a specific mouth shai^e, and this shape is generated by setting a set of parameters used for representing the muscles and jaw rotation. A mechanism has also been developed to generate and synchronize facial expressions while speaking. Tags specifying facial expressions are inserted into the input text together with the degree of the expression. In this way, the facial expression with the specified degree is generated and synchronized with speech animation.