CAGD:

Design of curves

Splines & NURBS

Alexander Lauser
Ferienakademie Sarntal 2004
Agenda
 Motivation
 Polynomial Interpolation
 Bézier curves
 Splines
 Smoothness
 B-Splines
 Rational Bézier curves
 NURBS
Why designing curves?
 Many technological applications
 Design of products (e.g. CAD)
 Calculation of the path for a robot
Design of fonts


 Large sized fonts must be smooth

Interpolating measuring data
Approximating measuring data
Criterias for curves
 Controllability
 Changes must be predictable in effect
 Intuitive to use for the designer
 Locality
 Local changes should stay local
 Smoothness
 No sharp bends
Polynomial interpolation
 Several conditions (say n+1)
 For example: n+1 Points
n n 1
 Apply to y a n x a n 1 x a1 x a0
 Solve system of linear equations
 Either effective or if you like to, even
efficent

 Result: Polynomial of degree n

 Interpolates points by construction (i.e. the curve
goes through these points)
Polynomial interpolation
Disadvantages
 Very bad locality
 Tend to oscillate
 Small changes may result in catastrophe
 Bad controllability
 All you know is, that it interpolates the points
 High effort to evaluate curve
 Imagine a curve with several million given points
Approximation
 Unlike interpolation the points are not
necessarily interpolated
 Points give a means for controlling of
where the curve goes
 Often used when creating the design of
new (i.e. non-existing) things
 No strict shape is given
Bézier curves
Bézier curve
 Now we are no longer interested in
interpolating all points
 The curve only approximates a set of
points
 Bézier curves are a simple, yet good
method
 Given: n+1 control points b0 , , bn
 Bézier – definition
 Via Bernstein polynomials of
degree n
Bni t n 1 t n i t i , i 0, n ,t 0, 1
i
Bni t 0, i 0, n , t 0,1
Bernstein polynomials of degree 4
 Characteristics
 Nonnegative
n

 Sum to union
n
Bi t 1, t
i 0
Bézier – mathematical
 Definition of Bézier curve:
n
n
x t : bi Bi t with t 0,1
i 0

 Bernstein polynomials are like „cross-

faders“ to the points
 They are the weights in a weighted
linear combination
 Bézier – derivation
 Derivation of Bernstein polynomial
d n d n n i
B t 1 t ti
dt i dt i
n i ti 1
1 t n i
n i ti 1 t n i 1
product rule
i
n! n!
ti 1
1 t n i
ti 1 t n i 1
i 1 ! n i ! i! n i 1 !
n 1! n 1 !
n ti 1
1 t n i
ti 1 t n i 1
i 1 ! n i ! i! n i 1 !

n Bin 1
1
t Bin 1
t
 Bézier – derivation
 Derivation of Bézier
n n n
d d n d n n 1 n 1
x t bi B t i
bi Bi t n b i Bi 1
t Bi t
dt dt i 0 i 0 dt i 0

n n 1
n 1 n 1 n 1 n 1
n bi B i 1
t n bi Bi t with B 1
t 0 Bn t 0
i 1 i 0
n 1 n 1
n 1 n 1
n bi 1 Bi t n b i Bi t Indexshift
i 0 i 0
n 1
n 1
n bi 1
bi Bi t Joined sums
i 0
 Bézier – construction
 Repeated linear interpolation
0,5 0,5
P1
0,5 P2

0,5

t = 0,5
P0 P3
Bézier – characteristics
 Good controllability
 Interpolates endpoints (s(0) = b0, s(1) = b1)
 First two points determine the tangent vector at
the start: x 0 n b 1 b0
 Last two points determine the tangent vector at
the end: x 1 n b b
n n 1

 Good locality
 Local changes only have local impact
 Anyway changes are global
Bézier – characteristics
 Lies within the convex closure of the control
points
 Useful for collision detection
 Invariant under affine transformation
 You can rotate, translate and scale the control
polygon
 Complex shape of model implies a great
amount of control points
 This means the degree of the curve is high
 So the evaluation of such a curve is slow
 Splines

Modelling segmental
Splines
 Piecewise polynomial segments
 Modelling the curve locally by a segment
 The segments are joined to get the global curve
 Name derives from shipbuilding
 Splines are stripes of metal fixed at several points.
They have the same smoothness as cubic B-Splines
 Global parameter u and for each segment si a
local parameter t
Splines – parametrisation
 Globally parametrised over a sequence
of nodes ui
 Each segment si is locally parametrised
over [ui, ui+1]
Splines – parametrisation
 Uniform splines
 Uniformly distributed sequence over range
of global parameter u
 Nonuniform splines
 Sequence is not uniformly distributed
 Segments si „live“ over [ui, ui+1] with
local parameter
 t = (u – ui) / (ui+1 – ui–1)
Splines – smoothness
 What does smoothness
mean?
 Graphically clear: No
sharp bends
 Mathematical abstraction: Order of
continuous derivability
 Only nodes and the corresponding knot-
points are relevant
 others points are infinitely often derivable
Splines – smoothness
 C0-continuity
 The segments meet at the nodes
 C1-continuity
 Curve must be continuously derivable after the
global parameter u one time
 The „speed“ in respect to global parameter must
be the same in the joint both segments
 C2-continuity
 Curve must be continuously derivable 2 times
 The „acceleration“ must be equal in the joint
Splines – smoothness

C1-continuous Spline

C0-continuous Spline
Splines – smoothness
 Geometric smoothness: G1-continuity
 In every joint there exists a unique
tangent
 I.e. tangent vectors need not be equal in
magnitude, only direction
 Doesn‘t take global parametrisation into
account
Splines – smoothness
 An example for G1-continuous curve
that is not C1-continuous
1 2

u0 u1 u2

1 1
Splines – smoothness
 In general
 Cx-continuity  Gx-continuity
 But not: Gx-Continuity  Cx-continuity
 Special case: Stationary point
 All derivations are zero
 Then Cx-continuity  Gx-continuity doesn‘t
hold
Splines – smoothness
Linear Interpolation
P2

Why not interpolate the

P4

points linearily? P3
P1
 It is very controllable
 It is very local since it changes
only 2 segments
 Right. BUT
It is not very smooth
 It is only C0-continuous
B-Splines
 Spline consisting of Bézier curves
 Depending on the degree n of the
Bézier segments various orders of
continuity possible
 In general up to Cn–1-continuouity
possible
 Bézier: Tangents

B-Splines – C1-continuity
 C1-continuity at knot bi
 Tangent vectors must be equal
 Bézier: Tangent vectors in bi
 s0 - points from bi-1 to bi
 s1 - points from bi to bi+1
 This means bi-1, bi and bi+1 must be
collinear

bi-1 bi bi+1

s0
s1

B-Spline: Collinearity of bi-1, bi and bi+1

 B-Splines – C1-continuity
 But this alone isn‘t sufficient
 Furthermore bi-1, bi and bi+1 must satisfy a
specific ratio
bi bi 1
u1 u0 0
=:
bi 1
bi u2 u 1 1
u0 u1 u2
bi bi 1 1
(for uniform B-Splines)
bi 1
bi 1

 Why this?
 B-Splines – C1-continuity
 Because we are interested in derivability for
the global parameter
 Collinearity says that the „speed“ has the same
direction, but not necessarily magnitude
 Mathematical derivation
d d d 1 d u uj
s u t u sj t s j t , with j uj 1 u j,t u ,u u j , uj 1
du du dt j dt j

1 d 1 d
So we have to check s0 1 s1 0
0
dt 1
dt
d
1
bn b n 1 0
bn 1
b n , since s0 1 n bn b n 1
and s 1 0 n bn 1
bn
dt
B-Splines – C1-continuity
 Given: Two Bézier curves
 How to test C1-continuity
 Consider the joint points of the spline and its
direct neighbours
 When no joint it isn‘t even C0-continuous
 Are they collinear?
 No, then the spline is not C1-continuous
 Ok, they are collinear
 Then check the ratio of the distance from the knot point
neighbours to the knot point. It must be same ratio as of
the corresponding nodes
B-Splines – C2-continuity
 C2-continuity at knot bi
 Precondition: C1-continuity
 Nodes bn-2, bn-1, bn and bn, bn+1, bn+2
must describe a unique global quadratic
Bézier curve
 So there must exist a (unique) point d, so
that bn-2, d, bn+2 describe this curve
B-Splines – C2-continuity
 The point d must fulfill two conditions
bn 1
1 t bn 2 t d 0
at which t
bn 1
1 t d t bn 2 0 1

u0 u1 u2
B-Splines
 How to test for C2-continuity
 First of all test for C1-continuity
 If it is not, it cannot be C2-continuous
 Check for uniqueness of point d
 Extrapolate d- from bn-2 and bn-1
 Extrapolate d+ from bn+2 and bn+1
 d- and d+ must be equal
 In Practice specify a tolerance

u0 u1 u2
Quadratic B-Splines
 Construction of a C1-continuous quadratic
B-Spline
 Different approach
 Per definition we want a C1-continuous curve
 We do not want to test two segments for
C1-continuity anymore
 Given are n+1 control points d0 ,..., dn
spanning the control polygon of the B-Spline
 Constructing Bézier control points for a
C1-continuous quadratic B-Spline
 Quadratic B-Splines
 Construction of Bézier polygon:
b0 : d 0 b2 n 2
: dn b 2 i 1 : d i , i 0, ,n 3

i i 1 1 1
b2 i : b2 i b2 i b2i b b For uniform B-Splines
i 1 i
1
i 1 i
1
2 2i 1
2 2i 1

0,5 b 3 = d2 b6 = d4
0,5 b2

b4
b1 = d1
Quadratic Bézier segments Control polygon
b5 = d3

Construction of a uniform quadratic C1-continuous B-Spline with n=5

b0 = d0
Cubic B-Splines
 Construction of a C2-continuous cubic B-
Spline
 As for quadratic B-Splines we construct the Bézier
control points bi from the B-Spline polygon
spanned by di
 Given are n+1 control points d0 ,..., dn again
spanning the control polygon of the B-Spline
 Constructing Bézier control points for a
C2-continuous cubic B-Spline
 d4= b8

b7

Cubic B-Splines
b9 = d5 d3

b6

 Formulas for uniform case Cubic Bézier segments

(nonuniform version is too ugly ;) b5

1 1
Left end: b0 : d 0 , b1 : d 1 , b2 : d1 d2
2 2
1 1
Right end: b3 : d n , b3 : d n 1 , b3 : dn dn b4
n 2 n 2 1 n 2 2 2 1
2 2
2 1
b3 i 2 : di 1 di b3
3 3
1 2 b0 = d0
b3i 1: di 1 di d2
3 3
1 1 1 b2
b3 i : b b (Remember C -condition)
2 3i 1 2 3i 1
b1 = d1 B-Spline polygon

Construction of a uniform C2-continuous cubic B-Spline

Cubic B-Splines – storage
 A little off-topic aspect: How to store a
B-Spline
 For example it could be approximated linearly and
these linear segments could be saved
 Obviously inefficient
 All Bézier control points could be saved
 It‘s more efficient but not perfect
 So what to save?
 Answer: Only the di need to be saved
 Curve can be reconstructed as shown before
Cubic B-Splines – storage
 The advantages are obvious
 No loss of data. The curve can be exactly
reconstructed
 No problems with rounding errors
 Little storage space needed
 The storage is distinct when low-level storage
information is known
 Theoretical interchangability of file format saving
B-Splines
 Practice is evidently different
B-Splines – basis
 What does the „B“ in the name stand
for?
 It does not stand for „Bézier“ as you may
guess, but for „Basis“
 Since there exists a basis representation for the
spline in contrary to natural splines
 The basis functions are called the minimum
support splines
 B-Splines – basis
 Definition of B-Splines via basis splines
N n 1
n n
s u : d i N i u , where N i u are the basis splines
i 0

 Definition of the basis splines

 Global over the whole domain of u
So that N i ui 1
n


 Cn-1-smoothness is assured
 The support is minimal
 That is the range in which it doesn‘t vanish
 B-Spline Basis
 Ok but how does this look like?

The basis splines over the full domain of u

B-Splines – characteristics
 Invariant under affine transformations
 You can scale, rotate and translate the
curve
 I.e. the control points and get the same result
as doing so with all the points on the curve
 Interpolation of end points
 Excellent locality
 Change of one control points affects at
most n+1 segments
B-Splines – characteristics
 Lies within convex closure of d7
the control points d6
 Stricter than for Bézier curve: Lies
within the the union of the
convex closures of all segments
d0

d1

Convex closure
d2
A C1-continuous quadratic B-Spline
B-Splines – characteristics
 Modelling of straight lines possible
 Even if all local segments are planar,
modelling of true 3D curves is possible
 E.g. quadratic B-Splines are planar in each
segment but the global curve may be true 3D
 The degree of the global curve doesn‘t
depend on the number of points
 Efficient for modelling curves with many points
 Rational Bézier curves

An even more powerful approach

Rational Bézier curves
 One major disadvantage of Bézier curves are
that they are not invariant under projection
 This means when perspectively projecting a 3D
Bézier curve on the screen the result is no longer
a Bézier curve
 For CAGD applications 3D curves are often
projected to be displayed on 2D screens
 When projected, the original nonrational curve
results in a rational curve
 This leads us to rational Bézier curves
 They are invariant under projective transformation
Rational Bézier curves
 Definition of a rational Bézier curve
n
n
w i bi Bi t
i 0
x t : n
n
wi B t
i
i 0

 As before the bi are the control points

 Additionaly every point bi has a weight wi
Rational Bézier curves
 You can think of a rational Bézier curve
of the projection of a nonrational one
from 4D space to the hyper-plane w=1
 The control polyhedron of this is
spanned by the 4D points (bi . wi , wi)
 The bi are the projection of the bi .wi to
the hyperplane w=1
 Rational Bézier curves
 Let‘s visualize this for a 2D rational Bézier
curve as a projected Bézier curve in 3D to
plane z=1

z=1 plane

3D Bézier curve

2D rational Bézier curve

Rational Bézier curves
 The weights give a further degree of liberty
to the designer
 Changing the weight differs from moving the
control point

Moving a control point (left) differs heavily from changing its weight (right)
Rational Bézier curves
 Because they are invariant under
projection the projected curve can be
modeled further
 E.g. a car designer may change the
projected car body
 Bézier curves are a subset of the
rational Bézier curves
 Special case: Equal weights
 NURBS

Puzzeling with rational curves

NURBS
 Non Uniform Rational B-Splines
 B-Splines with rational Bézier curves
 Since 3D rational Bézier curves can be thought of
as nonrational in 4D, all results of normal B-
Splines apply
 Especially the continuity conditions are exactly
identical, but with 4D control points
 This implies that their construction is
mathematical identical to that of B-Splines (but as
well in 4D)
NURBS
 Note: NURBS can be defined as well as B-
Splines with Basis Splines
N n 1
n
w i bi N ti
i 0
x t : N n 1
n
wi N t
i
i 0
NURBS – characteristics
 All conic sections (a circle for example)
can be modelled exactly

Constructing a 2D-circle with NURBS

NURBS – characteristics
 It inherits all advantages of B-Splines
(excellent locality, ...) while extending
the liberty of modelling
 Therefore today NURBS are standard
for modelling
 The next logical step is to model not
only curves but surfaces
 This will be discussed in the next lecture
 Programming is a race between the
programmer and the universe: The
programmer trying to make the programm
more and more foolproof and the universe

The End trying to make greater idiots

– so far the universe won.
-- Unkown source

 Questions?
 Thank you for paying attention

Sources
Farin, G.:
Kurven und Flächen im Computer Aided Geometric Design
H.-J. Bungartz, M. Griebel, C. Zenger:
Einführung in die Computergraphik
Foley, van Dam, Feiner, Hughes:
Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice - Second Edition in C
http://olli.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/Grafiti3/grafiti/flow10/page1.html
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sequin/CS284/IMGS/
http://escience.anu.edu.au/lecture/cg/Spline/bSplineFunction.en.html