FREE-FORM SOLID MODELING USING DEFORMATIONS

                                  Ugur Gudukbay and Bulent Ozguc

                                       Bilkent University
                  Department of Computer Engineering and Information Sciences 
                                         Ankara, Turkey


Abstract - One  of  the  most important problems of available  solid  modeling systems is  that the 
range of shapes generated is limited. It is not easy to model objects with free-form  surfaces in a 
conventional solid modeling system. Such objects can be defined arbitrarily, but then operations on 
them are not  transparent and  complications occur. A method  for achieving free-form  effect is to 
define regular objects or surfaces, then  deform them. This keeps various properties of  the  model 
intact while achieving  the  required visual appearance. This paper discusses a number of geometric 
modeling techniques  with deformations applied  to them in  attempts to  combine various approaches 
developed so far.