M. Sanchez, O. Fryazinov, T. Vilbrandt and A. Pasko, Morphological Shape Generation through User-Controlled Group Metamorphosis, Computers & Graphics, Volume 37, Issue 6, October 2013, pages 620-627 PDF (preprint)

Abstract: Morphological shape design is interpreted in this paper as a search for new shapes from a particular application domain represented by a set of selected shape instances. This paper proposes a new foundation for morphological shape design and generation. In contrast to existing generative procedures, an approach based on a user-controlled metamorphosis between functionally based shape models is presented. A formulation of the pairwise metamorphosis is proposed with a variety of functions described for the stages of deformation, morphing and offsetting. This formulation is then extended to the metamorphosis between groups of shapes with user-defined, dynamically correlated and weighted feature elements. A practical system was implemented in the form of plugin to Maya and tested by an industrial designer on a group of representative shapes from a particular domain.