Course Title

Using Subdivision

Materials

 Course notes
Sample subdivision code at NYU.

Links

 Subdivision research at NYU.
Subdivision research at Caltech.

Summary

 This tutorial provides an introduction to subdivision, an efficient technique for generating smooth surfaces from polygonal meshes. The use of subdivision has been growing explosively recently and subdivision is becoming the preferred way for representing smooth free-form surfaces in computer graphics. More importantly subdivision schemes permit the efficient representation of highly detailed surfaces through multiresolution extensions. The course will cover the basic ideas behind subdivision as well as commonly used subdivision algorithms. Heavy emphasis will be placed on implementation aspects of subdivision and multiresolution surfaces such as adaptive level of detail, filtering, rendering, texturing, animation and fast data structures. Additionally issues associated with future hardware support for subdivision and multiresolution surfaces will be covered.

Course Presenters

Organizers

Denis Zorin
Media Research Laboratory
715 Broadway, Rm 1201
New York University
New York, NY 10003
email: dzorin@mrl.nyu.edu
 Peter Schröder
Caltech Multi-Res Modeling Group
Computer Science Dept. 256-80
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125
email: ps@cs.caltech.edu

Speakers
Henry Moreton
NVIDIA
3535 Monroe Street
Santa Clara, CA 95051
email: moreton@nvidia.com
 Steven Junkins
IAL Graphics and 3D Technologies
Intel, Suite 206
1011 SW Emkay Drive
Bend, OR 97702
email: stephen.junkins@intel.com

Course Syllabus

Morning:

The morning section focuses on the foundations of subdivision, starting with subdivision curves and moving on to surfaces. We review and compare a number of different schemes and discuss the relation between subdivision and splines. The emphasis is on properties of subdivision most relevant for applications.
  • Introduction and overview
  • Foundations I: Basic Ideas (Schröder)
  • Foundations II: Subdivision Schemes for Surfaces (Zorin).

Afternoon:

The afternoon session focuses on applications of subdivision and the algorithmic issues practitioners need to address to build efficient, well behaving systems for modeling and animation with subdivision surfaces.
  • Applications and Algorithms:
    • Multiresolution Subdivision Surfaces (Zorin)
    • Implementing Subdivision: Data Structures and Performance Issues (Junkins)
    • Displaced Subdivision Surfaces (Moreton)
    • Compression and Progressive Transmission of Subdivision Surfaces with Details (Schröder)
  • Summary and Wrapup: (all speakers)

Lecturer's Biographies
Denis Zorin is an assistant professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. He received a BS degree from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a MS degree in Mathematics from Ohio State University and a PhD in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology. In 1997-98, he was a research associate at the Computer Science Department of Stanford University. His research interests include multiresolution modeling, the theory of subdivision, and applications of subdivision surfaces in Computer Graphics and CAGD. He co-organized the Siggraph course on subdivision surfaces for the past three years.

Peter Schröder is an associate professor of computer science and applied mathematics at Caltech, Pasadena, where he directs the Multi-Res Modeling Group. He received a Master's degree from the MIT Media Lab and a PhD from Princeton University. For the past 8 years his work has concentrated on exploiting wavelets and multiresolution techniques to build efficient representations and algorithms for many fundamental computer graphics problems. His current research focuses on subdivision as a basic paradigm for geometric modeling and rapid manipulation of large, complex geometric models. The results of his work have been published in venues ranging from Siggraph to special journal issues on wavelets and WIRED magazine, and he is a frequent consultant to industry. Most recently his work was honored when he was named a Packard Foundation Fellow. He has been the co-organizer of the Siggraph course on subdivision surfaces for the past three years.

Stephen Junkins is a senior software architect in the Graphics and 3D Technologies group in the Intel Architecture Labs. He has spent the past year as a senior contributor to the Shockwave 3D joint effort between Macromedia and Intel. Previously, he was the lead architect of the Intel 3D Software Toolkit, releases 1 and 2. His specific algorithm contributions include the Toolkit's Multi-Resolution Mesh (MRM) Technology currently being used by Valve Software, Pandemic Studios, and many other immersive 3D game developers. He also contributed the real time Subdivision Surface implementation. In previous lives, he has worked for the Los Alamos National Labs's Advanced Computing Laboratory, Siemens Corporation's Medical Imaging Group, Software Architects Inc., and Clemson University's Virtual Reality Center.

Henry Moreton joined NVIDIA in the fall of 1998 as a member of the architecture group. From 1984 to 1998 he worked at Silicon Graphics. In 1992 he received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He has published in the areas of curve and surface modeling, rendering, texture mapping, video and image compression, and unmanned submarine control. He has patents issued and pending in the areas of optics, video compression, system and CPU architecture, and curve and surface modeling and rendering. Previous occupations include jackhammer operator and shotgun salesman. Other interests include skiing, squash and excavation.