Rapid Generation of C 2 Continuous Blending Surfaces

Abstract

Most surface-blending methods are able to blend surfaces with tangent continuity. However, curvature continuity has become increasingly important in geometric modelling and its applications, such as computer animation, computer-aided design and virtual reality. In this paper, we present a method which is able to achieve C 2 continuity based on the use of partial differential equations (PDE). A sixth order partial differential equation with one vector-valued parameter is introduced to produce such blending surfaces. Since computational efficiency is crucial for interactive computer graphics applications, we have developed a unified closed form (analytical) method for the resolution of this sixth order PDE. Therefore blending surfaces of up to C 2 smoothness can be generated in real time.Key Wordssurface blendingC2 continuitysixth order partial differential equationclosed form solution