title: Region-based line field design using harmonic functions.
abstract: Field design has wide applications in graphics and visualization. One of the main challenges in field design has been how to provide users with both intuitive control over the directions in the field on one hand and robust management of its topology on the other hand. In this paper, we present a design paradigm for line fields that addresses this challenge. Rather than asking users to input all singularities as in most methods that offer topology control, we let the user provide a partitioning of the domain and specify simple flow patterns within the partitions. Represented by a selected set of harmonic functions, the elementary fields within the partitions are then combined to form continuous fields with rich appearances and well-determined topology. Our method allows a user to conveniently design the flow patterns while having precise and robust control over the topological structure. Based on the method, we developed an interactive tool for designing line fields from images, and demonstrated the utility of the fields in image stylization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, No. 1, University Rd., Tainan 701, Taiwan. cyuan.yao@gmail.com
authors.forename: Chih-Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Ming-Te
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Tong-Yee
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ju