Animating human face under arbitrary illumination

Abstract

The authors present a method to animate a human face under arbitrary lighting conditions. We first acquire the reflectance models of a human face in various expressions by employing a robot to precisely control the light position. By developing a relighting tool, named LUXMASTER, we achieve great freedom to change the illumination condition and get a variety of photorealistic novel renderings of the human face. Then, we introduce morphing techniques to add the time dimension and produce a clip of facial animation with varying illumination and expression. In order to make the morphing work easily, we design an expressive, intuitive and efficient tool, called FLUIDMAN, which at the same time enables an enormous possibility of visual effects.