Face Off

Faces are the most recognized conduit of emotion. To quote John Cleese's BBC documentary Faces, 'We don't put photos of our loved one's feet on our walls and desks, we put pictures of their faces." For a long time it has therefore been the target of computer graphics research to solve being able to produce CG photoreal faces. In this article we will explore the area of digital faces, focusing primarily on the work done by the team at USC ICT and the various companies and films they have been involved with and influenced. We discuss rendering and modeling but also a key part of believable faces has been solving their incredibly complex animation, especially with the growth of the Light Stage. ICT has a long history now of innovation. From their early work on relighting with natural light to today's character work, the team headed by Paul Debevec has made a huge impact on computer graphics.