Interactive local terrain deformation inspired by hand-painted panoramas

Painters of panoramic landscape maps use specific manual techniques to solve problems of occlusion, foreshortening and unfavourable orientation of landscape elements to the map viewer. Using digital means, the painters' techniques may be translated into geometry deformation algorithms for digital panorama creation. This article explores the advantages and the suitability of applying local geometry deformation to digital panoramas and reviews existing methods to perform such terrain editing with digital means. A new algorithmic solution based on inverse distance interpolation and moving least squares and specifically designed for regular 2.5D elevation models is presented. It allows the user to position and drag control handles on a 3D representation of the model to interactively deform the terrain.