This was an experimental project that I was playing with in the 1980s. The idea was to create a system that could animate realistic (but not necessarily photorealistic) faces using minimal processing power.
The system was designed to isolate differences between faces and store the differences as morph files or expression files, so an expression edited onto one face template could be applied to all others, in variable proportions and mixtures, the idea being to build up a substantial facial expression library.
Although 2D, the program had some features that were nicely nuanced, for instance, the eyelid meshes would recalculate not just when they were opened and closed, but would also be tugged and distorted by by eye and eyebrow motion.
Although the programme was pretty cool, there wasn't an obvious way to monetise it.
