modeled

 as  forces  deforming  the  spring  mesh.  Expressions  can  be  generated  by  the  

combination  of  the  contractions  of  a  set  of  facial  muscles  (Waters,  1987).  

While  the  complexity  of  muscle-­‐based  facial  structures  makes  them  computationally  

expensive,  they  are  not  prone  to  the  same  unexpected  anomalies  common  among  morphing  

systems.  Additionally  they  can  be  extended,  and  combined  to  produce  hybrid  expressions,  

such  as  a  combination  of  surprise  and  happiness.  Expressions  can  also  be  exaggerated  

and/or  combined  with  specified  mouth  shapes.  

ANIMATION  CONTROLS  
The  mathematical  models  and  underlying  data  representations  can  produce  animations  

with  varying  degrees  of  fidelity,  with  a  range  of  computational  efficiencies.    However,  there  

is  a  second  consideration.    Crucial  to  time-­‐efficient  creation  of  convincing  animation  is  the  

choice  of  controls  at  the  artist’s  disposal.  This  section  surveys  the  approaches  to  animation  

interfaces.  

A  very  accurate,  yet  tedious  control  option  is  to  manually  manipulate  vertices  or  

vertex  groups.  This  method  is  usually  too  cumbersome  to  produce  large  animations,  but  is  

useful  when  initially  setting  up  a  parameterized  model.  

A  parameterized  facial  model  affords  the  animator  a  great  degree  of  consistency  and  

detailed  control.  Either  muscle  groups  or  discrete  facial  expressions  are  each  associated  

with  a  control,  which  can  be  incrementally  manipulated  to  produce  the  desired  appearance  

and  expression.  

To  animate  the  mouths  of  speaking  characters,  animators  have  identified  and  

created  poses  for  visemes,  or  mouth  shapes  that  correspond  to  phonemes  of  the  spoken  

language  (Osipa,  2003).  An  animation  system  driven  by  audio  input  usually  involves  the  

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