Surfaces and Curves

Introduction
• Graphics scenes can contain many different kinds of
objects
• No one method can describe all these objects
• Accurate models produce realistic displays of scenes
• Polygon and quadric surfaces
• Spline surfaces and construction techniques
• Procedural methods
• Physically-based modeling methods
• Octree encodings
• Boundary representations (B-reps)
• Space-partitioning representations
 Polygon Surfaces
• The most commonly used boundary representation
• All surfaces are described with linear equations
• Simplify and speed up surface rendering and display of
objects
• Precisely define a polyhedron
• For non-polyhedron objects, surfaces are used
• Commonly used in design and solid modeling
• The wireframe outline can be display quickly
 Polygon Tables

• Specify a polygon surface

• Geometric tables
• Vertex coordinates
• Spatial orientation of the polygon
• Attribute tables
• Degree of transparency
• Surface reflectivity
• Texture
 Polygon Tables
• Convenient organization for geometric data
• Vertex Table v1
• Edge Table
• Polygon Table
E1 S E3 E6
1

v3 S2 v5
E2
E4 E5
v2
v4
Polygon Tables
 Plane Equations
• The equation for a plane surface
• Ax + By + Cz +D = 0
• By Cramer’s rule:

Values of A,B,C and D are computed for each

polygon and stored with the other polygon data
Plane Equations

N=(A,B,C)
 Plane Equations
• Identify a point (x, y, z) as either inside or outside a plane
surface
• In a right-handed coordinate system, the plane
parameters A, B, C, and D were calculated using vertices
selected in a counterclockwise order when viewing the
surface in an outside-to-inside direction.

If Ax+By+Cz+D<0, the point(x,y,z) is inside the surface

If Ax+By+Cz+D>0, the point(x,y,z) is outside the surface
 Curves
• Although used for display, bit maps are not appropriate
for most computational tasks, which need a three-
dimensional representation of the objects composing
the image.
• Represented skeletally as a wire-frame image, the Utah
Teapot is composed of many small polygons. However,
even with hundreds of polygons, the image is not
smooth.
• Smoother representations can be provided by Bezier
curves, which have the further advantage of requiring
less computer memory.
• Bezier curves are described by cubic equations;
a cubic curve is determined by four points or,
equivalently, by two points and the curve’s slopes
at those points.
• Two cubic curves can be smoothly joined by giving
them the same slope at the junction.
• Bezier curves, and related curves known as B-
splines, were introduced in computer-aided design
programs for the modeling of automobile bodies.
 Spline
• To produce a smooth curve through a
designed set of points, a flexible strip called
spline is used.
• Such a spline curve can be mathematically
described with a piecewise cubic polynomial
function .
 Big Idea
• User specifies control points
• Defines a smooth curve

Curve

Control Control
Points Points
 Interpolation Vs Approximation
• A spline curve is specified using a
set of control points
• There are two ways to fit a curve to
these points:
– Interpolation - the curve passes
through all of the control points
– Approximation - the
curve does not pass
through all of the control
points
 Bézier Spline Curves
• A spline approximation method developed by
the French engineer Pierre Bézier (1962)for
use in the design of Renault car bodies
• A Bézier curve can be fitted to any number of
control points – although usually 4 are used
• Bezier splines :useful and convenient for curve
and surface design
• A Bezier curve is a parametric curve frequently
used in computer graphics and related fields.
• Generalizations of Bezier curves to higher
dimensions are called Bezier surfaces, of which
the Bezier triangle is a special case.
• Bezier curves are used to model smooth
curves that can be scaled indefinitely.
 Bézier Spline Curves (cont…)
• Consider the case of n+1 control points
denoted as pk=(xk, yk, zk) where k varies
from 0 to n
• The coordinate positions are blended to
produce the position vector P(u) which
describes the path of the Bézier polynomial
function between p0 and pn
n
P (u )  pk BEZ k , n (u ), 0 u 1
k 0
 Bézier Spline Curves (cont…)
• The Bézier blending functions BEZk,n(u) are
the Bernstein polynomials
k n k
BEZ k ,n (u ) C (n, k )u (1  u )

• where parameters C(n,k) are the binomial

coefficients
n!
C (n, k ) 
k!(n  k )!
 Bézier Spline Curves (cont…)
• So, 3 parametric equations for the
individual curve coordinates
n
x(u )  xk BEZ k ,n (u )
k 0
n
y (u )  yk BEZ k ,n (u )
k 0
n
z (u )  z k BEZ k ,n (u )
k 0
Bezier curve is polynomial of degree 1 less than number of control points
used.
3 points generate parabola,4 points give cubic curve and so on

2d Bezier curves generated from 3,4 and 5 control points.

Dashed lines connect control point positions
 Important Properties Of Bézier Curves
1. The curve passes through the first, P 0 and last vertex points, Pn
or first and last control points are the first and last point on the curve
1. P(0) = p0
2. P(1) = pn
The points Pi are called control points for the Bézier curve.
The polygon formed by connecting the Bézier points with lines, starting with
P0 and finishing with Pn, is called the Bézier polygon.
2. The convex hull(convex polygon boundary) of the Bézier polygon
contains the Bézier curve.The curve lies within the convex hull of control
points. Bézier blending functions are all positive and sum to 1
n

 BEZ
k 0
k ,n (u ) 1
Means curve position is weighted sum of control points positions. It ensures
that polynomial smoothly follows control points without oscillations.
 Convex Hull Property
• The properties of the Bernstein polynomials ensure
that all Bezier curves lie in the convex hull of their
control points.
• Hence, even though we do not interpolate all the data,
we cannot be too far away.
p1 p2
convex hull
Bezier curve

p0 p3
 Bezier Curves
• The degree of the Bezier polynomial
• One less than the number of control points used.
• The relative position of control points
• With certain placements, we obtain degenerate
Bezier polynomials.
Design Techniques Using Bezier Curves
• Closed Bezier curves
• Specifying the first and last control points at the same
position.
• Multiple control points
• Specifying multiple control points at a single
coordinate position gives more weight to that
position.
 Cubic Bezier Curves
• Four blending functions for cubic Bezier curves
BEZ 0,3 (u ) (1  u )3
2
BEZ1,3 (u ) 3u(1  u )
BEZ 2,3 (u ) 3u 2 (1  u )
3
BEZ 3,3 (u ) u

• Blending function BEZ 1,3 is maximum at u = 1/3.

• Blending function BEZ 2,3 is maximum at u = 2/3.
• Bezier curves do not allow for local control of the curve shape.
Cubic Bezier Curves
Cubic Bezier Curves
 Bezier Surfaces
m n
• The Bezier P (u, v )  p j ,k BEZ j ,m ( v )BEZ k ,n (u )
surface j 0 k 0

• Its parametric
vector function
is formed as
the Cartesian
product of
Bezier
blending
functions
• The form of blending function determine how the control
points influence shape of curve for values of parameter u
over range from 0 to 1.
• At u=0, blending function is BEZ 0,3 ,which has value 1.
• At u=1, blending function is BEZ 3,3 ,which has value of 1 at
that point.
• So, Cubic bezier curve will always pass through control
points p0 and p3.
• Other fuctions BEZ 1,3 and BEZ 2,3 influence shape of curve
at intermediate values of parameter u,so curve tends
towards points p1 and p2.
• Blending function BEZ 1,3 is maximum at u = 1/3.
• Blending function BEZ 2,3 is maximum at u = 2/3.
 Disadvantages

• The degree of the Bezier curve depends on the number of

control points.

• The Bezier curve lacks local control. Changing the

position of one control point affects the entire curve.
 Summary
• Today we had a look at spline curves and in
particular Bézier curves
• The whole point is that the spline functions
give us an approximation to a smooth curve
 Problem
• Find equation of bezier curve which passes through points
(0,0) and (-2,1) and is controlled through points (7,5) and
(2,0).
 B-Spline Curves
• B-splines have two advantages over Bezier
splines:
• The degree is independent of the number of control
points.
• Allow local control of the shape.
• Blending function formulation
n
P (u )  pk Bk ,d (u ) umin u umax 2 d n  1
k 0

• The range of parameter u depends on how we choose

the B-spline parameters.
• B k,d are polynomials of degree d - 1.
 B-Spline Curves
• B-spline blending functions
• Cox-deBoor recursion formulas:

• Knot vector: The selected set of subinterval endpoints u j.

• We can choose any value for the subinterval endpoints
satisfying the relation u j+1  u j
B-Spline Curves
 B-Spline Curves
• Values for umin and umax depend on:
• The number of control points we select.
• The value we choose for parameter d.
• How we set up the subintervals.
 B-Spline Curves
• Properties of B-spline curves
• Have degree d - 1 and C d-2 continuity over the range
of u.
• For n + 1 control points, the curve is described with n
+ 1 blending functions.
• Each B k,d is defined over d subintervals, starting at
knot value u k.
• The range of parameter u is divided into n + d
subintervals by n + d + 1 knot values.
• With knot values {uo, u1, ..., u n+d}, the resulting B-
spline curve is defined from u d-1 to u n+1.
• Any one control point can affect the shape of at most
d curve sections.
 B-Spline Curves
• Convex Hull property
• The B-spline curve holds the property.
• For any parameter value of u in the interval from knot
value u d-1 to u n+1, the sum over all basis functions is 1.

B
k 0
k ,d (u ) 1

• For different knot vectors, there are three

classes:
• Uniform
• Open uniform
• Non-uniform
 Uniform, Periodic B-Splines
• Uniform B-spline
• The spacing between knot values is constant.
{-1.5,-1.0,-0.5,0.0,0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0}
• Often normalized to the range between 0 and 1.
{0.0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1.0}
• Uniform B-splines have periodic blending functions.
• Periodic blending function
• For given values of n and d, all blending functions
have the same shape.
• Each successive blending function is simply a shifted
version of the previous function:
Bk ,d (u )  Bk 1,d (u  u )  Bk 2,d (u  2u )
Uniform, Periodic B-Splines
Uniform, Periodic B-Splines
 Uniform, Periodic B-Splines
• Example: d = n = 3
Knot vector = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
p1 p2 Pstart =1/2(P0+P1)
Pend =1/2(P2+P3)

P’start = P1 -P0
p0
p3 P’end = P3 -P2

• The slope at the start position is parallel to the line

joining the first two control points.
• The slope at the end position is parallel to the line
joining the last two control points.
 Cubic, Periodic B-Splines
• For cubics, d = 4 and each blending function spans four
subintervals. If we are to fit the cubic control points,then
we could use the integer vector
{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7}
• An alternate formulation:
• start with the boundary conditions,
• normalized interval u[0,1]
1
p(0)  ( p0  4 p1  p2 )
6
1
p(1)  ( p1  4 p2  p3 )
6
1
p' (0)  ( p2  p0 )
2
1
p' (1)  ( p3  p1 )
2
 Cubic, Periodic B-Splines
• A matrix formulation for a cubic periodic B-spline with
four control points
 P0   1 3  3 1
P  0

p (u )  u 3 u 2 
u 1 MB  1
 P2 
MB 
1 3  6 3
6  3 0 3

0
   
 P3   1 4 1 0
1
B0,3 (u )  (1  u )3
6
1
B1,3 (u )  (3u 3  6u 2  4)
6
1
B2,3 (u )  (  3u 3  3u 2  3u  1)
6
1 3
B3,3 (u )  u
6
 Cubic, Periodic B-Splines
• Example:
A closed, periodic, piecewise, cubic B-spline constructed
with cyclic specification of the six control points.
 Open, Uniform B-Splines
• A class between uniform and nonuniform B-
splines
• Knot spacing is uniform except at the ends where
knot values are repeated d times.
• Example:
{0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 3}, for d = 2 and n = 3
{0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2}, for d = 4 and n = 4
• For any d and n, the knot vector
 Open, Uniform B-Splines
• Characteristics are very similar to Bezier
splines
• When d = n + 1, open B-splines reduce to Bezier
splines, all knot values are either 0, or 1.
• Example: a cubic, open B-splines (d = 4)
Knot vector = {0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1}
• An open B-spline passes through the first and last
control points.
• Specifying multiple control points at the same
coordinate position pulls curve closer.
 Nonuniform B-Splines
• Nonuniform B-splines
• We can specify any values and intervals for the knot
vector.
{0, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4}
{0, 2, 2, 3, 3, 6}
{0, 0.2, 0.6, 0.9, 1.0}
• Provides increased flexibility in controlling a curve
shape.
• Multiple knot values reduce the continuity by 1 for
each repeat of a particular value.
 B-Spline Surfaces

• The Cartesian product of B-spline blending

functions in the form:
n1 n2
P (u, v )    pk1 ,k2 Bk1 ,d1 (u )Bk2 ,d 2 ( v )
k1 0 k 2 0

Where pk1 ,k2 are (n1 + 1) by (n2 + 1) control points

Bezier vs. B-Spline