
Mesh Deformation

# Mesh Deformation

This tour explores deformation of 2D mesh using Laplacian interpolation. The dense deformation field is obtained from a sparse set of displaced anchor point by computing harmonic interpolation.

## Installing toolboxes and setting up the path.

You need to download the following files: signal toolbox, general toolbox and graph toolbox.

You need to unzip these toolboxes in your working directory, so that you have toolbox_signal, toolbox_general and toolbox_graph in your directory.

For Scilab user: you must replace the Matlab comment '%' by its Scilab counterpart '//'.

Recommandation: You should create a text file named for instance numericaltour.sce (in Scilab) or numericaltour.m (in Matlab) to write all the Scilab/Matlab command you want to execute. Then, simply run exec('numericaltour.sce'); (in Scilab) or numericaltour; (in Matlab) to run the commands.

Execute this line only if you are using Matlab.

getd = @(p)path(p,path); % scilab users must *not* execute this


Then you can add the toolboxes to the path.

getd('toolbox_signal/');
getd('toolbox_general/');
getd('toolbox_graph/');


## Mesh Creation

We create a simple mesh with fine scale details.

We generate point on a square.

p = 150;
[Y,X] = meshgrid(linspace(-1,1,p),linspace(-1,1,p));
vertex0 = [X(:)'; Y(:)'; zeros(1,p^2)];
n = size(vertex0,2);


We generate a triangulation of a square.

I = reshape(1:p^2,p,p);
a = I(1:p-1,1:p-1); b = I(2:p,1:p-1); c = I(1:p-1,2:p);
d = I(2:p,1:p-1); e = I(2:p,2:p); f = I(1:p-1,2:p);
faces = cat(1, [a(:) b(:) c(:)], [d(:) e(:) f(:)])';


Width and height of the bumps.

sigma = .03;
h = .35;
q = 8;


Elevate the surface using bumps.

t = linspace(-1,1,q+2); t([1 length(t)]) = [];
vertex = vertex0;
for i=1:q
for j=1:q
d = (X(:)'-t(i)).^2 + (Y(:)'-t(j)).^2;
vertex(3,:) = vertex(3,:) + h * exp( -d/(2*sigma^2)  );
end
end


Display the surface.

clf;
plot_mesh(vertex,faces);
view(3);


Compute its geometric (cotan) Laplacian

W = sparse(n,n);
for i=1:3
i1 = mod(i-1,3)+1;
i2 = mod(i  ,3)+1;
i3 = mod(i+1,3)+1;
pp = vertex(:,faces(i2,:)) - vertex(:,faces(i1,:));
qq = vertex(:,faces(i3,:)) - vertex(:,faces(i1,:));
% normalize the vectors
pp = pp ./ repmat( sqrt(sum(pp.^2,1)), [3 1] );
qq = qq ./ repmat( sqrt(sum(qq.^2,1)), [3 1] );
% compute angles
ang = acos(sum(pp.*qq,1));
u = cot(ang);
u = clamp(u, 0.01,100);
W = W + sparse(faces(i2,:),faces(i3,:),u,n,n);
W = W + sparse(faces(i3,:),faces(i2,:),u,n,n);
end


Compute the symmetric Laplacian matrix.

d = full( sum(W,1) );
D = spdiags(d(:), 0, n,n);
L = D - W;


## Boundary Modification

We modify the domain by modifying its boundary.

Select boundary indexes.

I = find( abs(X(:))==1 | abs(Y(:))==1 );


Compute the deformation field (zeros outsize the handle, proportional to the normal otherwise).

Delta0 = zeros(3,n);
d = ( vertex(1,I) + vertex(2,I) ) / 2;
Delta0(3,I) = sign(d) .* abs(d).^3;


Modify the Laplacian to take into account the fixed handles.

L1 = L;
L1(I,:) = 0;
L1(I + (I-1)*n) = 1;


Compute the full deformation by solving for Laplacian=0 on each coordinate.

Delta = ( L1 \ Delta0' )';


Compute the deformed mesh.

vertex1 = vertex+Delta;


Display it.

clf;
plot_mesh(vertex1,faces);
view(-100,15);


Exercice 1: (check the solution) Perform a more complicated deformation of the boundary.

exo1;


Exercice 2: (check the solution) Move both the inside and the boundary.

exo2;


Exercice 3: (check the solution) Apply the mesh deformation method to a real mesh, with both large scale and fine scale details.

exo3;


## Non-linear Deformation

Linear methods give poor results for large deformation.

It is possible to obtain better result by applying the linear deformation only to a low pass version of the mesh (coarse scale modifications). The remaining details are then added in the direction of the normal, in a local frame that is rotated to match the deformation of the coarse surface.

Exercice 4: (check the solution) Apply the deformation to the coarse mesh vertex0 to obtain vertex1. Important: you need to compute and use the cotan Laplacian of the coarse mesh, not of the original mesh!

exo4;


Compute the residual vector contribution along the normal (which is vertical).

normal = compute_normal(vertex0,faces);
d = repmat( sum(normal .* (vertex-vertex0)), [3 1]);


Exercice 5: (check the solution) Add the normal contribution d.*normal to vertex1, but after replacing the normal of vertex0 by the normal of vertex1.

exo5;


Exercice 6: (check the solution) Try on other surfaces. How can you compute vertex0 for an arbitrary surface ?

exo6;


## Bi-Laplacian Deformation

To take into account the bending of the surface, one can use higher order derivative to interpolate the deformation field.

The bi-laplacian LL corresponds to 4th order derivatives. It is the square of the Laplacian LL=L*L.

Exercice 7: (check the solution) Compute the bi-laplacian deformation of the coarse shape vertex0 by using LL instead of L. What do you observe ?

exo7;


Exercice 8: (check the solution) Compute the deformation obtained by moving from the Laplacian to the bi-laplacian, i.e. with t*L+(1-t)*LL for varying t.

exo8;


Exercice 9: (check the solution) Apply the full model (Laplacian, bi-Laplacian and non-linear deformation) to the deformation of a complicated mesh.

exo9;