A FACS validated 3D human facial model

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) [Ekman et al. 2002] has become a popular reference for creating fully controllable facial models that allow the manipulation of single actions or so-called Action Units (AUs). For example, realistic 3D models based on FACS have been used for investigating the perceptual effects of moving faces, and for character expression mapping in recent movies. However, since none of the facial actions (AUs) in these models are validated by FACS experts it is unclear how valid the model would be in situations where the accurate production of an AU is essential [Krumhuber and Tamarit 2010]. Moreover, previous work has employed motion capture data representing only sparse 3D facial positions which does not include dense surface deformation detail.