Interactive illustrations for visualizing complex three-dimensional objects
David Salesin, Wilmot W. Li · 2008
Illustrations are essential for conveying the internal structure of complex 3D objects. This dissertation describes techniques for creating and viewing interactive digital illustrations that use dynamic cutaway and exploded views to expose important internal parts, while retaining enough context from surrounding structures to help the viewer mentally reconstruct the object. I incorporate these techniques in three prototype illustration systems: the 3D cutaway views system generates dynamic, browsable cutaway illustrations from 3D input models; the image-based exploded views system converts static 2D exploded views into interactive 2.5D illustrations; and the 3D exploded views system generates interactive exploded views from 3D models. The contributions of my work include a formal survey of illustration conventions for creating effective cutaways and exploded views, as well as new algorithmic encodings of these conventions that enable interactive tools for cutting and exploding 3D objects. I also describe techniques for authoring and viewing interactive illustrations. Overall, my work demonstrates that with the right set of tools, it is possible and practical to create interactive cutaway and exploded view illustrations that offer a compelling and dynamic viewing experience.