Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Creative tools for producing realistic 3D facial expressions and animation. / Tsekleves, Emmanuel; Constantinides, Ricky; Cosmas, John.
In: International Journal of Creative Computing, Vol. 1, No. 2-4, 2016, p. 199-230.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Creative tools for producing realistic 3D facial expressions and animation
AU - Tsekleves, Emmanuel
AU - Constantinides, Ricky
AU - Cosmas, John
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Creative exploration of realistic 3D facial animation is a popular but very challenging task due to the high level knowledge and skills required. This forms a barrier for creative individuals who have limited technical skills but wish to explore their creativity in this area. This paper proposes a new technique that facilitates users' creative exploration by hiding the technical complexities of producing facial expressions and animation. The proposed technique draws on research from psychology, anatomy and employs Autodesk Maya as a use case by developing a creative tool, which extends Maya's Blend Shape Editor. User testing revealed that novice users in the creative media, employing the proposed tool can produce rich and realistic facial expressions that portray new interesting emotions. It reduced production time by 25% when compared to Maya and by 40% when compared to 3DS Max equivalent tools.
AB - Creative exploration of realistic 3D facial animation is a popular but very challenging task due to the high level knowledge and skills required. This forms a barrier for creative individuals who have limited technical skills but wish to explore their creativity in this area. This paper proposes a new technique that facilitates users' creative exploration by hiding the technical complexities of producing facial expressions and animation. The proposed technique draws on research from psychology, anatomy and employs Autodesk Maya as a use case by developing a creative tool, which extends Maya's Blend Shape Editor. User testing revealed that novice users in the creative media, employing the proposed tool can produce rich and realistic facial expressions that portray new interesting emotions. It reduced production time by 25% when compared to Maya and by 40% when compared to 3DS Max equivalent tools.
KW - computer-aided animation
KW - creative computing
KW - facial expressions
KW - facial animation
KW - digital entertainment
KW - digital creativity
KW - usability
KW - creative tools
KW - 3D expressions
KW - psychology
KW - anatomy
KW - novice users
KW - emotions
U2 - 10.1504/IJCRC.2016.076052
DO - 10.1504/IJCRC.2016.076052
M3 - Journal article
VL - 1
SP - 199
EP - 230
JO - International Journal of Creative Computing
JF - International Journal of Creative Computing
SN - 2043-8346
IS - 2-4
ER -