A system for sculpting 3-D data

Abstract

A major research area in 3-D computer graphics is the inputting of complex descriptions. This paper describes our current attempt at solving that problem: creation of a sculptor's studio-line environment in which the user is provided with various tools to shape, cut and join objects. The emphasis of the implementation has been on naturalness and habitability. The issues involved in designing such a system, especially in a minicomputer-based color raster-scan animation environment, are discussed. The basic algorithms are described in some detail and a fast efficient implementation of a hidden-line algorithm is explained.