Texture is an essential property of physical objects that affects aesthetics, usability, and functionality. However, designing and applying textures to 3D objects with existing tools remains difficult and time-consuming; it requires proficient 3D modeling skills. To address this, we investigated an auto-completion approach for efficient texture creation that automates the tedious, repetitive process of applying texture while allowing flexible customization. We developed techniques for users to select a target surface, sketch and manipulate a texture with 2D drawings, and then generate 3D printable textures onto an arbitrary curved surface. In a controlled experiment our tool sped texture creation by 80% over conventional tools, a performance gain that is higher with more complex target surfaces. This result confirms that auto-completion is powerful for creating 3D textures.
@article{arxiv.1703.05700,
title = {Autocomplete Textures for 3D Printing},
author = {Ryo Suzuki and Tom Yeh and Koji Yatani and Mark D. Gross},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.05700},
year = {2017}
}