Abstract:

This paper presents a survey of the work done in modeling deformable objects within the computer graphics research community. The research has a long history and a wide variety of approaches have been used. This paper organizes the diversity of research by the technique used rather than by the application, although applications are discussed throughout. This paper presents some purely geometric approaches for modeling deformable objects, but focuses on physically based approaches. In the latter category are mass-spring models, finite element models, approximate continuum models, and low degree of freedom models. Special emphasis is placed on finite element models, which offer the greatest accuracy, but have seen limited use in computer graphics. The paper also suggests important areas for future research.