Vectorization of Line Drawings via Polyvector Fields

Image tracing is a foundational component of the workflow in graphic design, engineering, and computer animation, linking hand-drawn concept images to collections of smooth curves needed for geometry processing and editing. Even for clean line drawings, modern algorithms often fail to faithfully vectorize junctions, or points at which curves meet; this produces vector drawings with incorrect connectivity. This subtle issue undermines the practical application of vectorization tools and accounts for hesitance among artists and engineers to use automatic vectorization software. To address this issue, we propose a novel image vectorization method based on state-of-the-art mathematical algorithms for frame field processing. Our algorithm is tailored specifically to disambiguate junctions without sacrificing quality.

[1]  Tim Weyrich,et al.  Digitally reconstructing the Great Parchment Book: 3D recovery of fire-damaged historical documents , 2016, Digit. Scholarsh. Humanit..

[2]  Florent Lafarge,et al.  Recovering Line-Networks in Images by Junction-Point Processes , 2013, 2013 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[3]  Olga Sorkine-Hornung,et al.  Frame fields , 2014, ACM Trans. Graph..

[4]  Ralph R. Martin,et al.  Vectorizing Cartoon Animations , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[5]  J. Sethian,et al.  A Fast Level Set Method for Propagating Interfaces , 1995 .

[6]  Alla Sheffer,et al.  Modeling Character Canvases from Cartoon Drawings , 2015, ACM Trans. Graph..

[7]  Andrew P. Witkin,et al.  Analyzing Oriented Patterns , 1985, IJCAI.

[8]  Seungyong Lee,et al.  Coherent line drawing , 2007, NPAR '07.

[9]  Philip J. Farrugia,et al.  Scribbles to Vectors: Preparation of Scribble Drawings for CAD Interpretation , 2007, SBIM.

[10]  Richard Szeliski,et al.  Computer Vision - Algorithms and Applications , 2011, Texts in Computer Science.

[11]  Karl Tombre,et al.  Robust and accurate vectorization of line drawings , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[12]  Aaron Hertzmann,et al.  Illustrating smooth surfaces , 2000, SIGGRAPH.

[13]  Christopher G. Harris,et al.  A Combined Corner and Edge Detector , 1988, Alvey Vision Conference.

[14]  Pierre Alliez,et al.  An Optimal Transport Approach to Robust Reconstruction and Simplification of 2d Shapes , 2022 .

[15]  Andrea Prati,et al.  An Accurate System for Fashion Hand-Drawn Sketches Vectorization , 2017, 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops (ICCVW).

[16]  Adrien Bousseau,et al.  BendFields , 2015, ACM Trans. Graph..

[17]  A SethianJames,et al.  A Fast Level Set Method for Propagating Interfaces , 1995 .

[18]  G. Kanizsa,et al.  Organization in Vision: Essays on Gestalt Perception , 1979 .

[19]  Markus H. Gross,et al.  Topology-driven vectorization of clean line drawings , 2013, ACM Trans. Graph..

[20]  Pascal Barla,et al.  Diffusion curves: a vector representation for smooth-shaded images , 2008, ACM Trans. Graph..

[21]  Pascal Barla,et al.  Non‐Oriented MLS Gradient Fields , 2013, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[22]  K. Sasaki,et al.  Learning to simplify , 2016, ACM Trans. Graph..

[23]  Pascal Fua,et al.  Reconstructing Loopy Curvilinear Structures Using Integer Programming , 2013, 2013 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[24]  Daniele Panozzo,et al.  Directional Field Synthesis, Design, and Processing , 2016, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[25]  Gongning Luo,et al.  A graph-based method for fitting planar B-spline curves with intersections , 2016, J. Comput. Des. Eng..

[26]  Bruno Lévy,et al.  Ardeco: automatic region detection and conversion , 2006, EGSR '06.

[27]  Eugene Zhang,et al.  Rotational symmetry field design on surfaces , 2007, ACM Trans. Graph..

[28]  Adrien Bousseau,et al.  Fidelity vs. simplicity , 2016, ACM Trans. Graph..

[29]  Julie Delon,et al.  Accurate Junction Detection and Characterization in Natural Images , 2013, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[30]  Olga Sorkine-Hornung,et al.  Integrable PolyVector fields , 2015, ACM Trans. Graph..

[31]  Qunsheng Peng,et al.  Vectorization of line drawing image based on junction analysis , 2014, Science China Information Sciences.

[32]  Derek Nowrouzezahrai,et al.  Learning hatching for pen-and-ink illustration of surfaces , 2012, TOGS.

[33]  Markus H. Gross,et al.  BetweenIT: An Interactive Tool for Tight Inbetweening , 2010, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[34]  Eugene Zhang,et al.  Interactive Tensor Field Design and Visualization on Surfaces , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.