We present a lobe-based tree representation for modeling trees. The new representation is based on the observation that the tree’s foliage details can be abstracted into canonical geometry structures, termed lobe-textures. We introduce techniques to (i) approximate the geometry of given tree data and encode it into a lobe-based representation, (ii) decode the representation and synthesize a fully detailed tree model that visually resembles the input. The encoded tree serves as a light intermediate representation, which facilitates efficient storage and transmission of massive amounts of trees, e.g., from a server to clients for interactive applications in urban environments. The method is evaluated by both reconstructing laser scanned trees (given as point sets) as well as re-representing existing tree models (given as polygons).
@article{Livny2011TexturelobesTree, acmid = {1964948}, address = {New York, NY, USA}, articleno = {53}, author = {Y. Livny, S. Pirk, Z. Cheng, F. Yan, O. Deussen, D. Cohen-Or, B. Chen}, doi = {10.1145/2010324.1964948}, issn = {0730-0301}, issue_date = {July 2011}, journal = {ACM Transactions on Graphics}, keywords = {natural phenomena, plants synthesis and reconstruction, point-based modeling, rule-based tree modeling}, month = {jul}, number = {4}, numpages = {10}, pages = {53:1--53:10}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {Texture-lobes for Tree Modelling}, url = {http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/publikationen/Livny2011TexturelobesTree}, volume = {30}, year = {2011} }