DigitalSculpture: a subdivision-based approach to interactive implicit surface modeling

This paper presents DigitalSculpture, an interactive sculpting framework founded upon iso-surfaces extracted from recursively subdivided, 3D irregular grids. Our unique implicit surface model arises from an interpolatory, volumetric subdivision scheme that is C¹ continuous across the domains defined by arbitrary 3D irregular grids. We assign scalar coefficients and color to each control vertex and allow these quantities to participate in the volumetric subdivision of irregular grids. In the subdivision limit, a virtual sculpture is obtained by extracting the zero-level from the volumetric, scalar field defined over the irregular grid. This novel shape geometry extends concepts from solid modeling, recursive subdivision, and implicit surfaces; facilitates many techniques for interactive sculpting; permits rapid, local evaluation of iso-surfaces; and affords level-of-detail control of the sculpted surfaces.