Line Drawings from 3D Models

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive tutorial on generating line drawings from 3D models, detailing algorithms for occluding contours, visibility, and stylized rendering, along with a survey of non-photorealistic 3D rendering techniques.

Contribution

It consolidates scattered literature, offers novel explanations and implementation tips, and compares exact and hardware-accelerated methods for contour extraction.

Findings

Detailed algorithms for contour extraction and visibility computation

Comparison of exact and hardware-accelerated methods

Survey of non-photorealistic 3D rendering techniques

Abstract

This tutorial describes the geometry and algorithms for generating line drawings from 3D models, focusing on occluding contours. The geometry of occluding contours on meshes and on smooth surfaces is described in detail, together with algorithms for extracting contours, computing their visibility, and creating stylized renderings and animations. Exact methods and hardware-accelerated fast methods are both described, and the trade-offs between different methods are discussed. The tutorial brings together and organizes material that, at present, is scattered throughout the literature. It also includes some novel explanations, and implementation tips. A thorough survey of the field of non-photorealistic 3D rendering is also included, covering other kinds of line drawings and artistic shading.