Recently, the first computer-generated images of shells were presented. In this article, we present a way of modelling shells with generalized cylinders and textures. Generalized cylinders are defined by moving a 2D contour along a 3D trajectory, which is a natural way for describing the shape of shells. Reaction-diffusion and bump map textures are mapped onto the surfaces of the generalized cylinders to give, these the appropriate appearance.
Visualization is done by ray tracing, resulting in very realistic images.
Ray tracing generalized cylinders. A surface-scanning algorithm for displaying generalized cylinders. Deformed generalized cylinders.