Analysis and visualization of properties of free-form surfaces

The purposes of this research are to analyze and visualize some properties of aesthetic surfaces and to construct the shapes, which satisfy designers' intentions. To extract and visualize the properties, surface edges of a free-form surface were introduced. The edges are loci of the points that have the extremum values for characteristics of the surfaces such as curvature, height, brightness and so on. By analyzing idea sketches drawn by styling designers, we find that the designers' intentions are closely related to the contour curves and the surface edges. The results of this research give fundamental technology not only to classify features of free-form surfaces but also to generate an aesthetic shape according to the styling designers' feelings.