Inter-surface mapping

Abstract: We consider the problem of creating a map between two arbitrary triangle meshes. Whereas previous approaches compose parametrizations over a simpler intermediate domain, we directly create and optimize a continuous map between the meshes. Map distortion is measured with a new symmetric metric, and is minimized during interleaved coarse-to-fine refinement of both meshes. By explicitly favoring low inter-surface distortion, we obtain maps that naturally align corresponding shape elements. Typically, the user need only specify a handful of feature correspondences for initial registration, and even these constraints can be removed during optimization. Our method robustly satisfies hard constraints if desired. Inter-surface mapping is shown using geometric and attribute morphs. Our general framework can also be applied to parametrize surfaces onto simplicial domains, such as coarse meshes (for semi-regular remeshing), and octahedron and toroidal domains (for geometry image remeshing). In these settings, we obtain better parametrizations than with previous specialized techniques, thanks to our fine-grain optimization.