Morphological shape generation through user-controlled group metamorphosis

• Robust foundation for morphological design based on user-controlled metamorphosis.
• Generalization of feature-based metamorphosis to using variety of feature shapes, morphing methods and deformations.
• Generalization of user-controlled metamorphosis between two shapes to an arbitrary collection of shapes.
• Real world application of the presented foundation to morphological design in a particular domain leading to a museum exhibit.

Morphological shape design is interpreted in this paper as a search for new shapes from a particular application domain represented by a set of selected shape instances. This paper proposes a new foundation for morphological shape design and generation. In contrast to existing generative procedures, an approach based on a user-controlled metamorphosis between functionally based shape models is presented. A formulation of the pairwise metamorphosis is proposed with a variety of functions described for the stages of deformation, morphing and offsetting. This formulation is then extended to the metamorphosis between groups of shapes with user-defined, dynamically correlated and weighted feature elements. A practical system was implemented in the form of plugin to Maya and tested by an industrial designer on a group of representative shapes from a particular domain.

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