Interactive Design of Botanical Trees Using Freehand Sketches and Example-based Editing

Abstract

We present a system for quickly and easily designing three-dimensional (3D) models of botanical trees using free-hand sketches and additional example-based editing operations. The system generates a 3D geometry from a two-dimensional (2D) sketch using the assumption that trees spread their branches so that the distances between the branches are as large as possible. The user can apply additional gesture-based editing operations such as adding, cutting, and erasing branches. Our system also supports example-based editing modes in which many branches and leaves are generated by using a manually designed tree as an example. User experience demonstrates that our interface lets novices design a variety of reasonably natural-looking trees interactively and quickly.