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The framework described in this blog post was also presented as a talk at SIGGRAPH 2021. In this post, we will describe a deep learning framework for regressing facial animation controls from video that both addresses these challenges and opens us up to a number of future opportunities.
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This is particularly challenging at Roblox, where we support a dizzying array of user devices, real-world conditions, and wildly creative use cases from our developers. Despite numerous research breakthroughs, there are limited commercial examples of real-time facial animation applications. However, animating virtual 3D character faces in real time is an enormous technical challenge.
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Facial expression is a critical step in Roblox’s march towards making the metaverse a part of people’s daily lives through natural and believable avatar interactions.
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