Peeling the flow: a sketch-based interface to generate stream surfaces

We present a user-centric approach for stream surface generation. Given a set of densely traced streamlines over the flow field, we design a sketch-based interface that allows users to draw simple strokes directly on top of the streamline visualization result. Based on the 2D stroke, we identify a 3D seeding curve and generate a stream surface that captures the flow pattern of streamlines at the outermost layer. Then, we remove the streamlines whose patterns are covered by the stream surface. Repeating this process, users can peel the flow by replacing the streamlines with customized surfaces layer by layer. Our sketch-based interface leverages an intuitive painting metaphor which most users are familiar with. We present results using multiple data sets to show the effectiveness of our approach, and discuss the limitations and future directions.

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