Sketch-based cloud model retrieval for cumulus cloud scene construction

Cumulus cloud scene is essential in many applications like movie production and 3D game development. Realistic clouds with variant shapes are critical to enhancing the quality of virtual scenes. Therefore, many methods for constructing cumulus cloud scene have been proposed. However, current methods either require professional knowledge on modeling procedures and parameter adjusting, or only generate repetitive cloud shapes. It is a huge project even for experienced users to construct realistic cumulus cloud scene. Thus, it becomes a difficult task for novice users like movie producers and game designers. To address this problem, we propose a sketch-based retrieval system from pre-generated cumulus cloud models for cumulus cloud scene construction. In order to get realistic clouds, we first generate 3D cloud models from natural images, and construct a 3D cloud model database. Then the user is provided with an intuitive sketch interface for retrieving a cloud model with the desired shape and placed it at the desired position. Instead of retrieving 3D cloud volumes directly via 2D sketches, our method uses natural images in the database as index thus retrieval procedure is more robust and efficient. Our method allows novice users to intuitively design the desired and realistic cumulus cloud scene.