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Published March 2001 | public
Book Section - Chapter

Surface drawing: creating organic 3D shapes with the hand and tangible tools

Abstract

Surface Drawing is a system for creating organic 3D shapes in a manner which supports the needs and interests of artists. This medium facilitates the early stages of creative design which many 3D modeling programs neglect. Much like traditional media such as line drawing and painting, Surface Drawing lets users construct shapes through repeated marking. In our case, the hand is used to mark 3D space in a semi-immersive virtual environment. The interface is completed with tangible tools to edit and manipulate models. We introduce the use of tongs to move and scale 3D shapes and demonstrate a magnet tool which is comfortably held without restricting hand motion. We evaluated our system through collaboration with artists and designers, exhibition before hundreds of users, our own extensive exploration of the medium, and an informal user study. Response was especially positive from users with an artistic background.

Additional Information

© 2001 ACM. This work was supported in part by NSF (DMS-9872890, ACI-9721349); other support was provided by Alias|Wavefront, the Packard Foundation, Pixar, Intel, and DesignWorks/USA. We especially wish to thank davidkremers, Cici Koenig, Gary Fitzgerald, Andy Logan, Jim Barry, Jen Grey, and Sheriann Ki Sun Bernham.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023