Morphing, the transformation of one object into another, is a process that has been widely employed in visual effects for film, commercials and other media. Initially, its application was restricted to images, but techniques to morph fully three-dimensional shapes soon followed. In spite of its long history, existing morphing techniques have significant drawbacks and limitations. 3D morphing methods can be categorized as mesh-based or volumetric techniques. The former cannot produce transformations with changes in genus, while the latter has suffered from offering little to no user control. The process of creating a desirable morph between two three-dimensional shapes continues to be challenging. This dissertation describes a novel 3D morphing algorithm based on the volumetric implicit surface representation implemented by level set methods. The new technique leverages the unique properties that level sets provide, such as supporting arbitrary topological changes and not suffering from self-intersections. In combination with a user-driven warp transformation, the method is capable of producing morphs that were not previously realizable. Users can control the morph by specifying feature correspondences between the source and the target models. The warp transformation, derived from the user-placed features, makes the level set morphing art-directable. In addition to the feature correspondences, the method provides users with independent time controls for each of the two processes, level set morphing and warp transformation, that allows for finer-grained control of the morph's dynamics.
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Details
Title
Feature-based 3D level set morphing
Creators
Rafael Campos - DU
Contributors
David E. Breen (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
Awarding Institution
Drexel University
Degree Awarded
Master of Science (M.S.)
Publisher
Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Resource Type
Thesis
Language
English
Academic Unit
Computer Science (Computing) [Historical]; College of Computing and Informatics (2013-2026); Drexel University