Method of modeling objects to synthesize three-dimensional, photo-realistic animations

摘要

A method for modeling three-dimensional objects to create photo-realistic animations using a data-driven approach. The three-dimensional object is defined by a set of separate three-dimensional planes, each plane enclosing an area of the object that undergoes visual changes during animation. Recorded video is used to create bitmap data to populate a database for each three-dimensional plane. The video is analyzed in terms of both rigid movements (changes in pose) and plastic deformation (changes in expression) to create the bitmaps. The modeling is particularly well-suited for animations of a human face, where an audio track generated by a text-to-speech synthesizer can be added to the animation to create a photo-realistic "talking head".