An apparatus for animating-rendering an avatar, comprising: one or more processors; and a tongue-out detector to be operated by the one or more processors to detect a tongue-out condition in an image frame, including a mouth region detector to identify locations of a plurality of facial landmarks associated with identifying a mouth in the image frame, a mouth region extractor to extract a mouth region from the image frame, based at least in part on the locations of the plurality of facial landmarks identified, and a tongue classifier to analyze a plurality of sub-windows within the mouth region extracted to detect for tongue-out, the apparatus further comprising, one or more facial expression engines to receive video input and generate a plurality of animation messages having facial expression parameters that depict facial expressions for a plurality of avatars based at least in part on the video input received, wherein the one or more facial expression engines comprise a video driven facial expression engine that includes the tongue-out detector to detect a tongue-out condition in an image frame; an animation-rendering engine coupled with the one or more facial expression engines to receive the one or more animation messages, and drive a plurality of avatar models, in accordance with the plurality of animation messages, to animate and render the plurality of avatars with the facial expressions depicted; and a video generator coupled with the animation-rendering engine to capture the animation and rendering of the plurality of avatars, and generate a video based at least in part on the animation and rendering captured. one or more processors; and a tongue-out detector to be operated by the one or more processors to detect a tongue-out condition in an image frame, including a mouth region detector to identify locations of a plurality of facial landmarks associated with identifying a mouth in the image frame, a mouth region extractor to extract a mouth region from the image frame, based at least in part on the locations of the plurality of facial landmarks identified, and a tongue classifier to analyze a plurality of sub-windows within the mouth region extracted to detect for tongue-out, the apparatus further comprising, a mouth region detector to identify locations of a plurality of facial landmarks associated with identifying a mouth in the image frame, a mouth region extractor to extract a mouth region from the image frame, based at least in part on the locations of the plurality of facial landmarks identified, and a tongue classifier to analyze a plurality of sub-windows within the mouth region extracted to detect for tongue-out, the apparatus further comprising, one or more facial expression engines to receive video input and generate a plurality of animation messages having facial expression parameters that depict facial expressions for a plurality of avatars based at least in part on the video input received, wherein the one or more facial expression engines comprise a video driven facial expression engine that includes the tongue-out detector to detect a tongue-out condition in an image frame; an animation-rendering engine coupled with the one or more facial expression engines to receive the one or more animation messages, and drive a plurality of avatar models, in accordance with the plurality of animation messages, to animate and render the plurality of avatars with the facial expressions depicted; and a video generator coupled with the animation-rendering engine to capture the animation and rendering of the plurality of avatars, and generate a video based at least in part on the animation and rendering captured.