Non-Photorealistic Computer Graphics Library

Surfaces To Lines: Rendering Rich Line Drawings

Author(s): Stefan Schlechtweg, Bert Schönwälder, Lars Schumann, Thomas Strothotte.
Proceedings: The Sixth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics and Visualization'98 (WSCG'98), University of West Bohemia, Campus Bory, Plzen - Bory, Czech Republic, February 9-13, 1998.
[BibTeX]

Abstract:
Rendering algorithms have tended to restrict themselves to represent the effect of light sources on scenes as could be observed by the human eye. For certain applications, like teaching surgery and anatomy, somewhat more schematic renditions are called for. Such graphics tend to be line-oriented and encode other information than just the effect of light. In the lack of appropriate computer-based tools, such images are practically always drawn by hand by a scientific illustrator. In this paper, we study techniques for rendering what we call rich line drawings. We develop tools for selectively mapping attributes of surfaces of an object onto lines which depict it. This enables us to render images which encode only those properties which are needed for the application at hand.