We propose to generate novel animations from a set of elementary examples of video-based surface motion capture, under user-specified constraints. 4D surface capture animation is motivated by the increasing demand from media production for highly realistic 3D content. To this aim, data driven strategies that consider video-based information can produce animation with real shapes, kinematics and appearances. Our animations rely on the combination and the interpolation of textured 3D mesh data, which requires examining two aspects: (1) Shape geometry and (2) appearance. First, we propose an animation synthesis structure for the shape geometry, the Essential graph, that outperforms standard Motion graphs in optimality with respect to quantitative criteria, and we extend optimized interpolated transition algorithms to mesh data. Second, we propose a compact view-independent representation for the shape appearance. This representation encodes subject appearance changes due to viewpoint and illumination, and due to inaccuracies in geometric modelling independently. Besides providing compact representations, such decompositions allow for additional applications such as interpolation for animation.