Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A 3D Curve Sketching System For Tablets

Posted by timothy on from the no-mention-of-license-terms dept.

dominique_cimafranca writes "The Dynamic Graphics Project of the University of Toronto has released a pretty nifty 3D curve sketching system. Apart from the large drawing area, the tablet software looks very intuitive to artists. From the site: 'The system coherently integrates existing techniques of sketch-based interaction with a number of novel and enhanced features. Novel contributions of the system include automatic view rotation to improve curve sketchability, an axis widget for sketch surface selection, and implicitly inferred changes between sketching techniques. We also improve on a number of existing ideas such as a virtual sketchbook, simplified 2D and 3D view navigation, multi-stroke NURBS curve creation, and a cohesive gesture vocabulary.'"

6 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Serial tautoloprone laminant curveoids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I recall from my multiliniear calculus course that the fundamental zeroid of the Draper function is orthagonal in [n-1/n] hyperspace to the semi-Euclidean plane of the minimal Pascal rectangle. So if you point at one point on the tablet, multiple points are mooted when the gesture constrains pretensioning on its hypothetical "theta" axis. In other words, poo.

    1. Re:Serial tautoloprone laminant curveoids by sexconker · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's the [N+1/N] you fool.

  2. Could be useful for video game artists by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This seems like it could be very useful in bridging the gap between concept art and a fully rendered 3d model. I'll have to remember to point this out to a few of my artist colleagues at work and see what they think about it.

    Of course, I'll probably have to warn them to turn off the sound first. Quick hint to the developers of this cool little toy: Artists get nervous when when programmers start talking about "single view symmetric epipolar method" and other very complicated terms. If you've ever worked with artists before, you know you're starting to get too technical when the eyes start glazing over. I then know to take a step back and try to re-phrase in non-tech.

    All you programmers are now thinking "but... that's exactly what it's describing", and I'll just put my hand to my head and sigh. Different ways of thinking.

    Don't even get me started about trying to get in the heads of game designers.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  3. Define "released" by Communomancer · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Dynamic Graphics Project of the University of Toronto has released a pretty nifty 3D curve sketching system

    I see a video and some links to bios and sample sketches, but no "released" software anywhere.

    --
    "UNIX" is never having to say you're sorry.
  4. Cool. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The UI for open, save, delete, etc. seems gallingly stupid, just use the damn keyboard(yeah, flipping from corner to corner to turn pages will be realy intuitive when there are 500 of them...). The UI for drawing, though, looks amazing. Substantial amounts of the correct automatic stuff happening automatically, just really impressive translation of standard flat pseudo-3D sketching into 3D models. Most impressive.

  5. Demo Presentation by lamarguy91 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks like they are part of the presentation & demo sessions at the UIST (User Interface Software and Technology) being hosted by ACM next week.

    More details here:

    http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2008/

    And a schedule of events:

    http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2008/program/index.html

    I hope to see additional project details and possibly some additional demonstration videos come from this event.