Simplified Facial Animation Control Utilizing Novel Input Devices

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In this project, Nikolaus Bee, Bernhard Falk and Elisabeth Andre at the University of Augsburg were experimenting with new types of imput devices for facial animation. One of the more traditional controls for facial animation are sliders. However with sliders, the user can only manipulate one feature at a time. This study looks at using an xbox 360 controller and a data glove as new forms of control.

For the xbox 360 controller, the user uses the directional pad to control which portion of the face he or she is controlling: upper, middle or lower. Then the analog sticks and the trigger buttons are used to control different features on that part of the face. The data glove mapped facial movements to the fingers and different areas of the face could be selected using the buttons on the data glove. The user study showed that users were able to work much more quickly were much more comfortable using the xbox 360 controller than the data glove or traditional sliders.


I would love to try this out. I've always been into modeling and animation. This sounds like an easy and quick way to make the poses you want. I didn't really like the idea of using the data glove to control the face though. That just sounds as though it would be difficult to control and get the hang of.