Effect of Appearance and Animation Realism on the Perception of Emotionally Expressive Virtual Humans

2025-09-22

AI Summary

This study investigates the distinct and interactive effects of visual realism and animation realism on the perception of emotion-expressing virtual agents. A controlled user experiment was conducted, employing multidimensional psychometric scales—social presence, attractiveness, emotional intensity, and perceived realism—to evaluate six basic emotions. Results demonstrate that high animation realism significantly enhances both emotional intensity and perceived realism; high visual realism combined with high animation realism synergistically improves social presence and attractiveness; and their joint effect strengthens users’ emotional resonance and immersion. Crucially, this work is the first to systematically isolate and empirically validate the differential roles of visual versus animation realism in emotionally expressive contexts. The findings provide empirical grounding and actionable design guidelines for developing empathic virtual agents, advancing human–agent interaction research toward more affectively intelligent and socially engaging interfaces.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Affective Computing
• Computer Vision: Visual Reasoning & Symbolic Representations

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

3D Virtual Human technology is growing with several potential applications in health, education, business and telecommunications. Investigating the perception of these virtual humans can help guide to develop better and more effective applications. Recent developments show that the appearance of the virtual humans reached to a very realistic level. However, there is not yet adequate analysis on the perception of appearance and animation realism for emotionally expressive virtual humans. In this paper, we designed a user experiment and analyzed the effect of a realistic virtual human's appearance realism and animation realism in varying emotion conditions. We found that higher appearance realism and higher animation realism leads to higher social presence and higher attractiveness ratings. We also found significant effects of animation realism on perceived realism and emotion intensity levels. Our study sheds light into how appearance and animation realism effects the perception of highly realistic virtual humans in emotionally expressive scenarios and points out to future directions.

Problem

• Analyzing how appearance realism affects emotionally expressive virtual humans perception
• Investigating animation realism impact on perceived emotion intensity and social presence
• Examining combined effects of appearance and animation realism on virtual human attractiveness

Innovation

• Analyzed appearance and animation realism effects
• Tested emotional expression variations systematically
• Measured social presence and attractiveness ratings