Virtual Sculpting Using Implicit Surfaces with Scattered Data Interpolation

Abstract

This paper presents a virtual sculpting system that shows an approach to the interactive deformation of soft objects. The soft objects are represented by implicit surfaces which are visualized using a constrained particle method. Those particles are arranged in an efficient cubical structure in which its processing speed is faster than some other surface sampling algorithms. The sculpted result can be stored in a compact form by interpolating the constrained particles using scattered data interpolation. The user can control the complexity of the sculpted shape by specifying the sampling density. In addition, the way in which the tool deforms the clay can be controlled explicitly by some control parameters. The surfaces are displayed with a stereoscopic viewer and the virtual tools are manipulated using a spaceball with 6 degrees of freedom.