Harmonic guidance for surface deformation

We present an interactive method for applying deformations to a surface mesh while preserving its global shape and local properties. Two surface editing scenarios are discussed, which conceptually differ in the specification of deformations: Either interpolation constraints are imposed explicitly, e.g., by dragging a subset of vertices, or deformation of a reference surface is mimicked. The contribution of this paper is a novel approach for interpolation of local deformations over the manifold and for efficiently establishing correspondence to a reference surface from only few pairs of markers. As a general tool for both scenarios, a harmonic field is constructed to guide the interpolation of constraints and to find correspondence required for deformation transfer We show that our approach fits nicely in a unified mathematical framework, where the same type of linear operator is applied in all phases, and how this approach can be used to create an intuitive and interactive editing tool.