SCALe‐invariant Integral Surfaces

Extraction of skeletons from solid shapes has attracted quite a lot of attention, but less attention was paid so far to the reverse operation: generating smooth surfaces from skeletons and local radius information. Convolution surfaces, i.e. implicit surfaces generated by integrating a smoothing kernel along a skeleton, were developed to do so. However, they failed to reconstruct prescribed radii and were unable to model large shapes with fine details. This work introduces SCALe‐invariant Integral Surfaces (SCALIS), a new paradigm for implicit modelling from skeleton graphs. Similarly to convolution surfaces, our new surfaces still smoothly blend when field contributions from new skeleton parts are added. However, in contrast with convolution surfaces, blending properties are scale‐invariant. This brings three major benefits: the radius of the surface around a skeleton can be explicitly controlled, shapes generated in blending regions are self‐similar regardless of the scale of the model and thin shape components are not excessively smoothed out when blended into larger ones.     

The Scale Method for Blending Operations in Functionally-Based Constructive Geometry

This paper presents a scale method for developing high dimensional scale functions to blend implicitly defined objects. Scale functions are differentiable on the entire domain except the origin, provide blending range control, and behave like Min/Max operators everywhere, so even a successive composition of blending operations containing overlapped blending regions can be generated smoothly. Because the scale method is a generalized method, implicit or parametric curves, such as cubic Bezier curves, rational conic curves, and implicit conics and hyper‐ellipsoids, can be used to develop scale functions. As a result, it can enhance the flexibility of generating the implicitly blending surfaces in Ricci's constructive geometry, soft objects modeling, and implicit sweep objects. ACM CSS: I.3.5 Computer Graphics—Computational Geometry and Object Modeling ‐ Curve, surface, solid and object representations     

Combining CSG modeling with soft blending using Lipschitz-based implicit surfaces

In this paper a general method is given for combining CSG modeling with soft blending using implicit surfaces. A class of various blending functions sharing some desirable properties like differentiability and intuitive blend control are given. The functions defining the CSG objects satisfy the Lipschitz condition that gives the possibility of fast root finding but can also prove useful in the field of collision detection and adaptive triangulation.     

Space–time blending

Shape transformation between objects of different topology and positions in space is an open modelling problem. We propose a new approach to solving this problem for two given 2D or 3D shapes. The key steps of the proposed algorithm are: increase dimension by converting two input kD shapes into half‐cylinders in (k+1)D space–time, applying bounded blending with added material to the half‐cylinders, and making cross‐sections for getting intermediate shapes under the transformation. The additional dimension is considered as a time coordinate for making animation. We use the bounded blending set operations in space–time defined using R‐functions and displacement functions with the localized area of influence applied to the functionally defined half‐cylinders. The proposed approach is general enough to handle input shapes with arbitrary topology defined as polygonal objects with holes and disjoint components, set‐theoretic objects, or analytically defined implicit surfaces. The obtained unusual amoeba‐like behaviour of the shape combines metamorphosis with the non‐linear motion. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于变分隐式曲面的网格融合

三维物体融合利用三维模型之间的剪贴操作从两个或多个现有的几何模型中光滑融合出新的几何模型.作为一种新的几何造型方法,它正受到越来越多的关注.提出一种基于变分隐式曲面的网格融合新方法.首先利用平面截面切出网格物体的待融合边界,然后通过构造插值待融合网格物体边界的变分隐式曲面并对其进行多边形化,得到待融合网格物体间的过渡曲面,最后通过剪切掉过渡曲面的多余部分及拓扑合并操作以实现过渡网格曲面与原始网格间的光滑融合与现有的直接连接待融合网格物体边界以实现网格融合的算法相比,该方法不仅突破了对待融合物体的拓扑限制,允许多个物体同时进行融合,而且算法计算快速、鲁棒,使用方便,展示出良好的应用前景.     

Smooth blending of subdivision surfaces

A technique for merging freeform objects modeled with subdivision surfaces is proposed. The method takes into consideration the possible distortion of the surfaces while the smoothness of the blending surface connecting the objects is maintained. A blend region between the given object surfaces is located. The topology of the surfaces in the vicinity of the blend region is refined and the boundary curves of the blend region are smoothed to reduce possible distortion in the blending surface. A blend curve between the two surfaces is used for connecting the given surfaces. Vertices on the blend curve are regular whereas extraordinary vertices are restricted to locate along the boundary of the blend region. Locations of the blend vertices are adjusted such that the curvature of the surfaces along the boundaries of the blend region is minimized. This ensures extraordinary vertices on the boundaries to lie on a relatively flat region, and hence, minimizes the distortion of the surfaces in the merging process.     

Implicit Representations of Rough Surfaces

Implicit surface techniques provide useful tools for modeling and rendering smooth surfaces. Deriving implicit formulations for fractal representations extends the scope of implicit surface techniques to rough surfaces. Linear fractals modeled by recurrent iterated function systems may be defined implicitly using either geometric distance or escape time. Random fractals modeled using Perlin's noise function are already defined implicitly when described as "hypertexture."
Deriving new implicit formulae is only the first step. Unlike their smooth counterparts, rough implicit surfaces require special rendering techniques that do not rely on continuous differentiation of the defining function. Preliminary experiments applying blending operations to rough surfaces have succeeded in an initial attempt to overcome current challenges in natural modeling. The grafting of a stem onto the base of a linear fractal leaf continuously blends smooth detail into rough detail. The blend of two textured cylinders interpolates geometric bark across branching points in a tree.     

Blending multiple parametric normal ringed surfaces using implicit functional splines and auxiliary spheres

First presented by Hartmann, closings (implicit surfaces sealing the inlets or outlets of pipes) can bridge the gap between parametric pipe surfaces and implicit functional splines (a powerful tool for blending several implicit surfaces). This paper proposes auxiliary spheres instead of the initial pipe surfaces as the base surfaces in constructing closings, so that the closing based algorithm of two steps (constructing a closing for each pipe and blending the closings) can G¹-continuously connect multiple parametric normal ringed surfaces with freeform directrices and variable radii. The basic theory of an auxiliary sphere tangent to the normal ringed surface is addressed. Either one or two (yielding more design parameters) auxiliary spheres can be added. How the parameters influence the closing configuration is discussed. In addition, the blending shape can be optimized by genetic algorithm after assigning some fiducial points on the blend. The enhanced algorithm is illustrated with four practical examples.     

Adaptive Sampling of Implicit Surfaces for Interactive Modelling and Animation

This paper presents a new adaptive sampling method for implicit surfaces that can be used in both interactive modelling and animation. The algorithm samples implicit objects composed of blending primitives and efficiently maintains this sampling over time, even when their topology changes (during fractures and fusions). It provides two complementary modes of immediate visualization: displaying “scales” lying on the surface, or a “primitive-wise” polygonization. The sampling method efficiently avoids unwanted blending between different parts of an object. Moreover, it can be used for partitioning an implicit surface into local bounding boxes that will accelerate collision detection during animation and ray-intersections during final rendering.     

基于多面体的过渡操作

过渡操作在实体造型中具有重要的实用意义。本文给出一种多面体实体过渡操作的定义和实现方法。其基本原理是用可变半径的圆柱面代替多面体上的被操作边，并对这些圆柱面进行交和离散化。利用这种过渡操作可以生成多面体指定棱边或指定边环的过渡平角或过渡圆角。     

Metaball重叠区域作用效果混合

在表现隐式曲面或曲面变形时，多个Metaball作用的重叠区域常会出现肿胀、褶皱、撕裂等缺陷。前人虽曾通过调整Metaball参数、简单叠加、直接合并等来解决这些问题，但未能得到效果好，且效率高的满意结果，为此，在分析、研究了Metaball单独作用、作用范围重叠的基础上，分别针对点骨架、直线段、曲线段骨架，提出了线性加权和、代数混合、指数加权和方法，用以处理多个Metaball在重叠区域的作用效果混合。实验表明。这些混合方法不但可与曲面的表示方法以及Metaball势函数的形式无关，而且在边界处的过渡较平滑，其效果与效率也得到了实例验证。     

An Eulerian approach for constructing a map between surfaces with different topologies

3D objects of the same kind often have different topologies, and finding correspondence between them is important for operations such as morphing, attribute transfer, and shape matching. This paper presents a novel method to find the surface correspondence between topologically different surfaces. The method is characterized by deforming the source polygonal mesh to match the target mesh by using the intermediate implicit surfaces, and by performing a topological surgery at the appropriate locations on the mesh. In particular, we propose a mathematically well‐defined way to detect the topology change of surface by finding the non‐degenerate saddle points of the velocity fields that tracks implicit surfaces. We show the effectiveness and possible applications of the proposed method through several experiments.     

基于推广B 样条细分方法的曲面混合

提出用推广B 样条细分曲面来混合多张曲面的方法,既适用于一般网格曲面,又适 用于推广B 样条参数曲面混合。根据需要选择阶数和张力参数,可全局调整整张混合曲面的形状。 中心点和谷点的计算都设置了形状参数,可局部调整混合部分形状。推导出二次曲面细分初始网 格计算公式,并将3 阶推广B 样条细分曲面混合方法用于多张二次曲面混合,与已有的二次曲面 混合方法相比具有明显的优势。     

基于结式方法的代数曲面拼接

以同伦连续映射理论为基础,构造代数曲面拼接应该满足的代数方程组。然后,利用结式方法消去相关变元得到拼接曲面方程。两代数曲面拼接时,方程组是两个关于单位区间变元的方程。利用Sylvester结式消去该变元即可得到曲面拼接方程。对于多代数曲面,拼接过程可以考虑为不同种的连续映射。由此得到三种不同的曲面拼接方法,即串接法、过渡法和提升法。串接法可得到较低次的拼接曲面,但适用于代数曲面两两拼接且过渡曲面不相交的情况;过渡法适用于所有情况,但得到拼接曲面比较复杂;提升法是一种较好的算法,拼接时逐个将代数曲面并入拼接曲面中。该算法既可得到最低次拼接方程又适用于一般情况。上述方法的优点是无需考虑代数曲面方程中的变元,仅考虑对新增单位区间变元的处理。因此,算法的计算量小,并且能够预先得到拼接曲面时的计算量。     

基于径向基函数的图像修复技术

图像修复是指恢复图像中破损区域的颜色信息或者去除图像中的多余物体。本文提出了一种新的基于径向基函数的图像修复算法，由用户交互地指定需要修复的区域，算法自动地计算破损区域的轮廓并沿轮廓法向扩张，确定合适的径向基函数重构区域，将该区域内图像的颜色值看作规则采样点上的高度场，把二维图像修复问题转化为三维散乱点重建问题，利用径向基函数曲面重建的优势来修补破损的图像。实验表明，该算法能正确、稳定地处理各种破损区域。     

Controlled Metamorphosis Between Skeleton‐Driven Animated Polyhedral Meshes of Arbitrary Topologies

Enabling animators to smoothly transform between animated meshes of differing topologies is a long‐standing problem in geometric modelling and computer animation. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid approach built upon the advantages of scalar field‐based models (often called implicit surfaces) which can easily change their topology by changing their defining scalar field. Given two meshes, animated by their rigging‐skeletons, we associate each mesh with its own approximating implicit surface. This implicit surface moves synchronously with the mesh. The shape‐metamorphosis process is performed in several steps: first, we collapse the two meshes to their corresponding approximating implicit surfaces, then we transform between the two implicit surfaces and finally we inverse transition from the resulting metamorphosed implicit surface to the target mesh. The examples presented in this paper demonstrating the results of the proposed technique were implemented using an in‐house plug‐in for Maya?.     

Proximity Queries Between Convex Objects: An Interior Point Approach for Implicit Surfaces

This paper presents a general method for exact distance computation between convex objects represented as intersections of implicit surfaces. Exact distance computation algorithms are particularly important for applications involving objects that make intermittent contact, such as in dynamic simulations and in haptic interactions. They can also be used in the narrow phase of hierarchical collision detection. In contrast to geometric approaches developed for polyhedral objects, we formulate the distance computation problem as a convex optimization problem. We use an interior point method to solve the optimization problem and demonstrate that, for general convex objects represented as implicit surfaces, interior point approaches are globally convergent, and fast in practice. Further, they provide polynomial-time guarantees for implicit surface objects when the implicit surfaces have self-concordant barrier functions. We use a primal-dual interior point algorithm that solves the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions obtained from the convex programming formulation. For the case of polyhedra and quadrics, we establish a theoretical time complexity of O(n^1.5), where n is the number of constraints. We present implementation results for example implicit surface objects, including polyhedra, quadrics, and generalizations of quadrics such as superquadrics and hyperquadrics, as well as intersections of these surfaces. We demonstrate that in practice, the algorithm takes time linear in the number of constraints, and that distance computation rates of about 1 kHz can be achieved. We also extend the approach to proximity queries between deforming convex objects. Finally, we show that continuous collision detection for linearly translating objects can be performed by solving two related convex optimization problems. For polyhedra and quadrics, we establish that the computational complexity of this problem is also O(n^1.5).     

隐式磨光曲面的保凸性研究

对隐式代数磨光曲面的保凸性进行了研究。证明了如果两个隐式代数曲面是凸的,则它们光滑拼接后,得到的磨光曲面在一定条件下仍然是凸的。以凸三面角为例,提出了利用代数样条磨光的方法并证明了利用这种磨光方法得到的磨光曲面具有保凸性。     

Blending Canal Surfaces Based on PH Curves

In this paper, a new method for blending two canal surfaces is proposed. The blending surface is itself a generalized canal surface, the spine curve of which is a PH (Pythagorean-Hodograph) curve. The blending surface possesses an attractive property - its representation is rational. The method is extensible to blend general surfaces as long as the blending boundaries are well-defined.