What does Audio2Face-3D output (mesh vertices or ARKit blendshapes), and how do I get it onto my own character rig?

Problem. Audio-driven face output must land on a specific character. Conditions. Any character with a face mesh or a blendshape or control rig. Method. The Training Framework docs describe two inference outputs: direct vertex positions on a target facial mesh, or blendshape weights, traditionally on the ARKit standard with custom blendshape sets also supported. The paper adds that raw output is tied to one Audio2Face-3D face identity, so it ships a blendshape solver and an ARKit-compatible model; the 52-name weights can then drive other faces such as MetaHuman or custom rigs. For a rig that is not blendshape based, the docs suggest building blendshapes that correspond to rig controls and mapping weights to controls. The model covers skin, tongue, jaw and eyeballs. Failure modes. A target rig lacking tongue or eye targets gets those channels dropped or must be mapped by hand (inference). Limitations. Mapping quality to non-ARKit rigs is not measured in the sources I read. Version/date. Docs and paper as fetched; model v3.0 card dated 2025. Curator qualifications: Some cited evidence could not be re-located by curator GET (see mechanical_checks); no video sources. Second-tier recheck (C3R-0614a) re-located the excerpts by timed GET. Limitations: Retargeting results on non-ARKit rigs are not quantified in the sources; the inference about dropped channels is mine. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/Audio2Face-3D-Training-Framework/main/docs/a2f_introduction.md",
      "note": "Animation Inference with Audio2Face-3D; Animation Inference with Audio2Face-3D; Sec. 6 Blendshape Solve; Sec. 1 overview; Output; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.16401",
      "note": "Animation Inference with Audio2Face-3D; Animation Inference with Audio2Face-3D; Sec. 6 Blendshape Solve; Sec. 1 overview; Output; researcher reasoning"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://huggingface.co/nvidia/Audio2Face-3D-v3.0/raw/main/README.md",
      "note": "Animation Inference with Audio2Face-3D; Animation Inference with Audio2Face-3D; Sec. 6 Blendshape Solve; Sec. 1 overview; Output; researcher reasoning"
    }
  ]
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