1. A method of video conferencing, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of: detecting a human face of a video conference participant depicted in portions of a video stream; creating, by explicitly modeling, one or more explicit object models to model the face of the video conference participant; generating one or more implicit object models relative to parameters obtained from the explicit object models to facilitate creation of a compact encoding of the video conference participant's face; and using the implicit object models, creating a photorealistic avatar representation of the video conference participant, wherein creating a photorealistic avatar representation of the video conference participant further includes enabling the video conference participant to adjust a gaze of their respective photorealistic avatar representation.