Preserving detailed features in digital bas-relief making

This paper presents a novel algorithm for digitally making bas-reliefs. The problem requires visibly retaining fine details present in original 3D objects while greatly compressing their depths to produce an almost planar result. Our approach performs compression on the gradient domain: gradients are first estimated from a height field representing the input scene. A new compression function based on arctangent is introduced to preserve desired details of reliefs, allowing accurate height adjustment via a data-dependent threshold. We explicitly consider how to preserve fine details present in the original objects, which is crucial for producing high-quality bas-reliefs. Laplacian coordinates are used to store detailed features before depth compression and then restore them afterwards. Laplacian sharpening is also used to emphasize detailed features in the relief itself. Prior to depth compression, we process the input height field to reduce gaps in height, and detect the outer silhouette which allows to compute the output relief relative to a planar background or other surface, by solving a Poisson equation. This combination of techniques allows our method to produce bas-reliefs with well-preserved details. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.