English

ID-Consistent, Precise Expression Generation with Blendshape-Guided Diffusion

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition 2025-10-07 v1

Abstract

Human-centric generative models designed for AI-driven storytelling must bring together two core capabilities: identity consistency and precise control over human performance. While recent diffusion-based approaches have made significant progress in maintaining facial identity, achieving fine-grained expression control without compromising identity remains challenging. In this work, we present a diffusion-based framework that faithfully reimagines any subject under any particular facial expression. Building on an ID-consistent face foundation model, we adopt a compositional design featuring an expression cross-attention module guided by FLAME blendshape parameters for explicit control. Trained on a diverse mixture of image and video data rich in expressive variation, our adapter generalizes beyond basic emotions to subtle micro-expressions and expressive transitions, overlooked by prior works. In addition, a pluggable Reference Adapter enables expression editing in real images by transferring the appearance from a reference frame during synthesis. Extensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations show that our model outperforms existing methods in tailored and identity-consistent expression generation. Code and models can be found at https://github.com/foivospar/Arc2Face.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.04706,
  title  = {ID-Consistent, Precise Expression Generation with Blendshape-Guided Diffusion},
  author = {Foivos Paraperas Papantoniou and Stefanos Zafeiriou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.04706},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

ICCVW 2025, Code: https://github.com/foivospar/Arc2Face