The present invention is level set system for implementing interactive
editing operators for surfaces. Level set models are deformable implicit
surfaces where the deformation of the surface (editing operation) is
controlled by a speed function in the level set partial differential
equation. The level set system overcomes the self-interaction problems
associated with mesh models. One embodiment takes scan converts input
models such as polygon mesh, NURBS, CSGS models into level set models. An
interface is provided by which models can be edited with editing
operators such as blending, smoothing, embossing, etc. One embodiment
utilizes several methods to optimize computations related to the editing
operators. For example, shortest distance calculations, bounding boxes,
numerical integration, and the sparse-field methods are disclosed for the
implementation of the level set deformation operator embodiments
including blending, smoothing sharpening, and embossing. The resulting
level sets model can be volume rendered or extracted to a polygon mesh.