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ACM Transactions on Graphics

A visibility algorithm for converting 3D meshes into editable 2D vector graphics

Elmar Eisemann, Sylvain Paris, and Fredo Durand

Bitmap to vector conversion techniques such as LiveTrace (in Illustrator) lack accuracy and lack a layering structure.

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Artists often need to import and embellish 3D models coming from CAD-CAM into 2D vector graphics software to produce, e.g., brochures or manuals. Current automatic solutions tend to result, at best, in a 2D triangle soup and artists often have to trace over 3D renderings. We describe a method to convert 3D models into 2D layered vector illustrations that respect visibility and facilitate further editing. Our core contribution is a visibility method that can partition a mesh into large components that can be layered according to visibility. Because self-occluding objects and objects forming occlusion cycles cannot be represented by layers without being cut, we introduce a new cut algorithm that uses a graph representation of the mesh and curvature-aware geodesic distances.

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Citation

Elmar Eisemann, Sylvain Paris, and Fredo Durand, A visibility algorithm for converting 3D meshes into editable 2D vector graphics, ACM Transactions on Graphics, 28, p. 83, 2009.

BibTex 

@article{bib:eisemann:2009,
    author       = { Eisemann, Elmar and Paris, Sylvain and Durand, Fredo },    
    title        = { A visibility algorithm for converting 3D meshes into editable 2D vector graphics },
    journal      = { ACM Transactions on Graphics },
    volume       = { 28 },
    year         = { 2009 },
    pages        = { 83 },
    doi          = { 10.1145/1531326.1531389 },
    dblp         = { journals/tog/EisemannPD09 },
    url          = { https://publications.graphics.tudelft.nl/papers/363 },
}