Impressions of the Face of Female Character Produced in Computer Graphics

In recent decades, Japanese video games and anime, called Cool Japan Content, became very popular in the world. In the content, cute female characters, called "moe" or "kawaii" characters, frequently appear as well as beautiful matured females. The cases where the characters are produced using Computer Graphics (CG) increased recently. Especially, the facial parts are important to determine the impressions of the characters. Using CG models, it is easy to change the parameters of the parts of the face and they allow production of various faces including the faces with extreme balances. Many researchers investigated the relations between the parts of the face and the impressions in terms of real faces, but the perception of the faces was rarely investigated in terms of CG models. A study determined the best proportions of width to the length of the face, the eye opening to the width of the eye and so on, for the female faces which was perceived as "moe" and "beautiful" respectively, using a CG model. The results showed that the face of the female characters with the best "moe" and "beautiful" proportions looked young girl and matured woman, respectively. Another study showed that the angle of the eyes and eyebrows is an important factor for determining the impressions of the female characters. In the present study, two CG models; VRoid and Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis (PSO2) were used. VRoid allows to designate female characters in anime-like touch, while PSO2 designate realistic characters. The angle of the eyes and eyebrows were set at three levels; slanted, intermediate and droopy eyes. Two types of hair styles (long hair and short hair) were prepared. The other features were also set at three levels; young girl (moe), intermediate and matured (beautiful) according the results of the previous study. In total 36 stimuli were synthesized and presented on a computer display. Ten participants watched each stimulus and were requested to rate their impressions using semantic differential method with 21 semantic scales. The results of the factor analysis showed that the impressions of the faces were spanned by there factors; activity, potency and evaluation. The activity was largely affected by the maturity: The faces with the parameters of the young girls were perceived as active and cheerful and the faces with the parameters of the matured beautiful females were perceived as inactive and gloomy. The potency was largely affected by the angles od the eyes and eye brows: the faces with slanted eyes and eyebrows were perceived as powerful and droopy eyes and eyebrows were perceived as powerless. The evaluation was almost determined by the CG model: the anime-like touch faces produced by VRoid were perceived as pleasant and beautiful, whereas the realistic faces by PSO2 were perceived as unpleasant and ugly. The parameters used in the present study may be valid for the anime-touch faces.