3-D Morphing between Objects with Different Topologies Using Deformable Models

Abstract

3-D morphing is shape transformation from one object to another. This paper presents a new method of morphing objects with different topologies. The basic idea behind our method is to generate an approximate model of a given object by using a deformable model, called the Active Balloon Model (ABM). Since the data structure for each object is similar to that of the original ABM, it is easy to find correspondence between two models by utilizing ABMs. We also propose a new method of generating intermediate models during morphing. This method uses various kinds of time functions according to the types of topological changes. These time functions enable us to control topological changes arbitrarily.