Multisided generalisations of Gregory patches

We propose two generalisations of Gregory patches to faces of any valency by using generalised barycentric coordinates in combination with two kinds of multisided Bézier patches. Our first construction builds on S-patches to generalise triangular Gregory patches. The local construction of Chiyokura and Kimura providing G1 continuity between adjoining Bézier patches is generalised so that the novel Gregory S-patches of any valency can be smoothly joined to one another. Our second construction makes a minor adjustment to the generalised Bézier patch structure to allow for cross-boundary derivatives to be defined independently per side. We show that the corresponding blending functions have the inherent ability to blend ribbon data much like the rational blending functions of Gregory patches. Both constructions take as input a polygonal mesh with vertex normals and provide G1 surfaces interpolating the input vertices and normals. Due to the full locality of the methods, they are well suited for geometric modelling as well as computer graphics applications relying on hardware tessellation

Arbitrary topology meshes in geometric design and vector graphics

Meshes are a powerful means to represent objects and shapes both in 2D and 3D, but the techniques based on meshes can only be used in certain regular settings and restrict their usage. Meshes with an arbitrary topology have many interesting applications in geometric design and (vector) graphics, and can give designers more freedom in designing complex objects. In the first part of the thesis we look at how these meshes can be used in computer aided design to represent objects that consist of multiple regular meshes that are constructed together. Then we extend the B-spline surface technique from the regular setting to work on extraordinary regions in meshes so that multisided B-spline patches are created. In addition, we show how to render multisided objects efficiently, through using the GPU and tessellation. In the second part of the thesis we look at how the gradient mesh vector graphics primitives can be combined with procedural noise functions to create expressive but sparsely defined vector graphic images. We also look at how the gradient mesh can be extended to arbitrary topology variants. Here, we compare existing work with two new formulations of a polygonal gradient mesh. Finally we show how we can turn any image into a vector graphics image in an efficient manner. This vectorisation process automatically extracts important image features and constructs a mesh around it. This automatic pipeline is very efficient and even facilitates interactive image vectorisation