Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics Library

A Procedural Approach to Style for NPR Line Drawing from 3D models

Author(s): Stephane Grabli, Frédo Durand, Emmanuel Turquin, François X. Sillion.
Technical Report: INRIA, No. 4724, February, 2003.
[BibTeX]

Abstract:
This paper introduces a procedural approach to non-photorealistic line drawing from 3D models. The approach is inspired both by procedural shaders in classical rendering and by the power of procedural modeling. We propose a new image creation model where all operations are controlled procedurally. A view map describing all relevant support lines in the drawing is first created from the 3d model; a number of style modules operate on this map, by procedurally selecting and chaining lines before creating strokes and assigning drawing attributes. Two different levels of user control are provided, ranging from a low-level programming API to a parameterized building-block assembly mechanism. The resulting drawing system allows very flexible control of all elements of drawing style: first, different style modules can be applied to different types of lines in a view; second, stroke attributes are assigned procedurally and can be correlated at will with various scene or view properties. We illustrate the components of our system and show results of its application.