Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics Library

High Quality Hatching

Author(s): Johannes Zander, Tobias Isenberg, Stefan Schlechtweg, Thomas Strothotte.
Article: Computer Graphics Forum (EG'04), Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 421--430, September, 2004.
[BibTeX]

Abstract:
Hatching lines are often used in line illustrations to convey tone and texture of a surface. In this paper we present methods to generate hatching lines from polygonal meshes and render them in high quality either at interactive rates for on-screen display or for reproduction in print. Our approach is based on local curvature information that is integrated to form streamlines on the surface of the mesh. We use a new algorithm that provides an even distribution of these lines. A special processing of these streamlines ensures high quality line rendering for both intended output media later on. While the streamlines are generated in a preprocessing stage, hatching lines are rendered either for vector-based printer output or on-screen display, the latter allowing for interaction in terms of changing the view parameters or manipulating the entire line shading model at run-time using a virtual machine.