Abstract :
Due to their simplicity and intuitiveness, swept surfaces are widely used in many surface modelling applications.
In this paper, we present a versatile swept surface technique called the boundary constrained swept surfaces. The
most distinct feature is its ability to satisfy boundary constraints, including the shape and tangent conditions at
the boundaries of a swept surface. This permits significantly varying surfaces to be both modelled and smoothly
assembled, leading to the construction of complex objects. The representation, similar to an ordinary swept surface,
is analytical in nature and thus it is light in storage cost and numerically very stable to compute. We also
introduce a number of useful shape manipulation tools, such as sculpting forces, to deform a surface both locally
and globally. In addition to being a complementary method to the mainstream surface modelling and deformation
techniques, we have found it very effective in automatically rebuilding existing complex models. Model reconstruction
is arguably one of the most laborious and expensive tasks in modelling complex animated characters.
We demonstrate how our technique can be used to automate this process
