Depicting 3D shape using lines

Doug DeCarlo
2012 Human Vision and Electronic Imaging XVII  
Over the last few years, researchers in computer graphics have developed sophisticated mathematical descriptions of lines on 3D shapes that can be rendered convincingly as strokes in drawings. These innovations highlight fundamental questions about how human perception takes strokes in drawings as evidence of 3D structure. Answering these questions will lead to a greater scientific understanding of the flexibility and richness of human perception, as well as to practical techniques for
more » ... ing clearer and more compelling drawings. This paper reviews what is known about the mathematics and perception of computer-generated line drawings of shape and motivates an ongoing program of research to better characterize the shapes people see when they look at such drawings. Based on available code written by Kolomenkin and colleagues, the scaling factor averages around 25 (where σ ≈ 0.9). † † Of the six third-order surface invariants described by Gravesen and Ungstrup, 32 the numerator is Λ 4 and the denominator is Λ 2 .
doi:10.1117/12.916463 dblp:conf/hvei/DeCarlo12 fatcat:hpe64rmfnfd6dluu66q3lv63ca