Software system creates 3D shapes automatically from sketches
A graphics system developed at the University of British Columbia is said to allow complex 3D shapes to be produced from simple professional sketches.
The package, called True2Form, was unveiled at the recent SIGGRAPH 2014 Conference. According to the university, the technology has the potential to simplify how designers and artists can develop new product ideas.
"In line-drawings, designers and artists use descriptive curves and informative viewpoints to convey the full shape of an object," said Professor Alla Sheffer, from UBC's Department of Computer Science. "Our system mimics the results of human 3D shape inference to lift a sketch curve network into 3D, whilst preserving fidelity to the original sketch."
The researchers say that converting an idea into a 3D model using current commercial tools can be a complicated and painstaking process. True2Form uses powerful mathematics to interpret artists' strokes automatically lifting drawings off of the page. It produces complex 3D shapes computed from individual sketches, automatically corrected to account for inherent drawing inaccuracy.
The software is designed to render a wider range of geometric complexity than current sketch based modelling frameworks.
