A method of transferring a facial expression from a subject to a computer generated character that includes receiving a plate with an image of the subject's facial expression, a three-dimensional parameterized deformable model of the subject's face where different facial expressions of the subject can be obtained by varying values of the model parameters, a model of a camera rig used to capture the plate, and a virtual lighting model that estimates lighting conditions when the image on the plate was captured. The method can solve for the facial expression in the plate by executing a deformation solver to solve for at least some parameters of the deformable model with a differentiable renderer and shape from shading techniques, using, as inputs, the three-dimensional parameterized deformable model, the model of the camera rig and the virtual lighting model over a series of iterations to infer geometry of the facial expression and generate a final facial mesh using the set of parameter values of the deformable model which result in a facial expression that closely matches the expression of the subject in the plate. Initial Facial Mesh 502 , 510 [APlate and Additional Inputs 0 Solve Deformation 506 from Plate Differentiable Renderer Final Facial Mesh ------------- - 510 Solver 1 Solver 2 Solver 3 I = Solver M
ON-SET FACIAL PERFORMANCE CAPTURE AND TRANSFER TO A THREE-DIMENSIONAL COMPUTER-GENERATED MODEL