Displacement maps are usually images, which are following a simple principle. A white pixel corresponds with heightend levels, while a black pixel means flat levels. The different intermediate shades of gray are representing the different strengths of the elevation in between. This approach makes it easy to paint an elevation map for a landscape in a 2D application like GIMP or Photoshop.

The exported image is imported into a 3D application, a flat plane is built and a displacement modfier is added. By that, the vertexes and the polygons of the plane will move according to the grayscale levels of the imported image. Additional control is given by settings like the strength or the decay of the displacement.

Our technique goes one step ahead. We have chosen faces of real persons as canvas, and by painting them by hand according to principle described above, we achieve a displacement map, which is able to deform a 3D surface in the spacial dimensions of the painted face.

First, unelevated parts of the face are painted black, like the eye sockets and the neck. In a second step, the face is shaded roughly with different grays, according to the spacial dimensions of the anatomy. Step by step, the areas of same heights are painted in representing shades of gray and the borders of these areas are smudged to achieve fine gradients. Many corrections have to be done, so no spot has a wrong levels of brightness, which will mess up the displacement map. This process takes some hours to be finished, because of the work on details, the shaded face must have.

By recording these painted faces in acting motion, we not only get an artistic impression of these people in 3D, but an animated displacement map, which can also move, talk and show emotions.

This technique is able to extend the borders of CG animation, leaving the grounds of the somewhat cold perfection of constructed 3D scenery. The stroke of the brush still keeps being visible.