Autodesk, Inc.

Robert Bolter

Hooman Shayani

Xuejun Sheng

In various embodiments of the present invention, a blending engine blends multiple surfaces included in a three-dimensional (3D) model of an object. First, the blending engine trims off portions of the surfaces that are targeted for blending at trimming curves to generate trimmed surfaces. The blending engine then constructs a single parametric blending surface via a unified parametrization for the trimming curves. Notably, to achieve the unified parametrization, the blending engine performs one or more spherical parametrization operations that generate parametrized curves based on the trimming curves and a fundamental sphere. After constructing the parametric blending surface based on the parametrized curves, the blending engine joins the parametric blending surface to the trimmed surfaces to produce a final, smooth intersection between the surfaces. Advantageously, because the blending engine creates a single parametric blending surface, the blending engine can blend arbitrary pipe surfaces and is compatible with computer-aided design modeling subsystems.

Robustly blending surfaces via spherical parametrization

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for rendering zebra stripes on a three dimensional (3D) object. In one aspect, a method includes rendering an image of an object from the perspective of a camera For each pixel of a plurality of pixels of the image, a point on the surface of the object corresponding to the pixel is determined. An angle between a surface normal at the point and a line between the point and the light source is determined. A zebra light color for the pixel is determined using a stripe function and the angle, the stripe function specifying alternating high and low intensities for various angles. A blended pixel color for the pixel is determined by blending a material color for the point with the zebra light color.

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Cambridge, United Kingdom

Robert Bolter