CAREER: 3D Sketchpad

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This research targets a suite of tools (called "3D Sketchpad")for creating interactive 3D illustrations. Example applicationsinclude a teacher explaining physics, an archaeologist recreatinga model of an ancient village, a high school student producing aneye-catching animation, and a physician explaining a diagnosis toa patient. The key innovation is to support 3D modeling bydrawing. The resulting content looks like the user's drawing, butis 3D in the sense that the viewpoint can be moved interactively.The long-range impact of this research is fourfold. First, toolsthat let ordinary people create 3D content will dramaticallyexpand the applications of 3D graphics. Second, expert users willdesign content that they would not have undertaken with currenttools because it would be too difficult or time-consuming. Third,these tools support 3D content that is aesthetically closer totraditional illustration than is currently possible. Finally,this technology will propagate synergistically with the growth ofpen-based computing. Tools for creating 3D drawings willultimately be commonplace on tablet PCs, palm devices, and evencell phones.A key challenge is to develop new shape representations andassociated operations that support a drawing-based interface. Theresearchers are developing a new representation, called a"layered mesh", consisting of a multiresolution mesh that isbuilt up incrementally in layers. Each new layer respondsdynamically to changes in the previous layers. Layered meshessupport the addition of new structures (e.g. limbs of a humanfigure) and surface details (bumps or bulges) at anyresolution. They produce piecewise-smooth manifold surfaces ofarbitrary topology. Additional challenges include thedevelopment of new non-photorealistic rendering algorithms, newinteraction techniques based on gestural input, new methods forgenerating animation via sketched input, and pattern synthesistools whereby new shape features, stroke patterns, and motionscan all be generated from provided examples.