Skin-detached surface for interactive large mesh editing

We propose a method for interactive deformation of large detail meshes. Our method allows the users to manipulate the mesh directly using freely-selected handles on the mesh. To best preserve surface details, we introduce a new surface representation, the skin-detached surface. It represents a detail surface model as a peeled "skin" added over a simplified surface model. The "skin" contains the details of the surface while the simplified mesh maintains the rough shape. The deformation process consists of three steps: first, the "detached skin" is precomputed according to the detail mesh at the loading stage. Then we deform the simplified mesh following the nonlinear gradient domain mesh editing approach to satisfy the handle position constraints. Finally the "detached skin" is remapped onto the simplified mesh, resulting in a deformed detail mesh. We investigate the advantages as well as the limitations of our method by implementing a prototype system and applying it to several examples.