Modeling by Drawing with Shadow Guidance

Modeling 3D objects is difficult, especially for the user who lacks the knowledge on 3D geometry or even on 2D sketching. In this paper, we present a novel sketch-based modeling system which allows novice users to create 3D custom models by assembling parts based on a database of pre-segmented 3D models. Different from previous systems, our system supports the user with visualized and meaningful shadow guidance under his strokes dynamically to guide the user to convey his design concept easily and quickly. Our system interprets the user’s strokes as similarity queries into database to generate the shadow image for guiding the user’s further drawing and returns the 3D candidate parts for modeling simultaneously. Moreover, our system preserves the high-level structure in generated models based on prior knowledge pre-analyzed from the database, and allows the user to create custom parts with geometric variations. We demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of our modeling system with human subjects and present various models designed using our system.