Volume Morphing

The 3D volume morphing problem can be stated as follows. Given two volumes and , henceforth called the source and target volumes, we must produce a sequence of intermediate volumes, the morphs, meeting the following two conditions:

Realism:

The morphs should be realistic objects which have plausible 3D geometry and which retain the essential features of the source and target.

Smoothness:

The renderings of the morphs must depict a smooth transition from to .

Figure 1: Data flow in a morphing system. Editing comprises retouching and aligning the volumes for cosmetic reasons.

Our solution to 3D morphing attempts to meet both conditions of the morphing problem, while allowing a simple, yet powerful UI. To this end, we create each morph in two steps (see figure 1):

Warping:

and are warped to obtain volumes and . Our warping technique allows the animator to define quickly the exact shape of objects represented in and , thus meeting the realism condition.

Blending:

and are combined into one volume, the morph. Our blending technique provides the user with sufficient control to create a smooth morph.