Anamorphic Free-Form Deformation

In an optical anamorphosis, an object is seen distorted unless the viewer is positioned at a specific point, where the object appears normal. We describe how to endow a rational Free-Form Deformation with an anamorphic character in a simple manner, obtaining an AFFD (Anamorphic Free-Form Deformation). Given a (planar or 3D) initial object, which will appear normal from the desired viewpoint, we deform the object with a rational Bezier surface or volume as deformation tool. To achieve the desired deformation, the user input amounts to displacing the control points of the deformation tool along radial directions through the viewpoint, whereas the weights come as a byproduct. Mathematically, the deformation means changing the last homogeneous coordinate of the control points. An AFFD defined by a linear Bezier tetrahedron can be regarded as a user-friendly way to construct a perspective collineation. In this case, or when the deformation tool is a Bezier triangle of degree one, the AFFD transforms NURBS to NURBS keeping the original degree. With a deformation tool of higher degree, the rational composition required to obtain the exact result yields NURBS also of higher degree. For a quadratic Bezier triangle as deformation tool, our AFFD coincides with the inverse of a stereographic projection. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.