Free-form modelling for surface inpainting

In this paper, we describe a novel approach to 3D shape modelling, targeting at the reconstruction and repair of digitised models -- a task that is frequently encountered in particular in the fields of cultural heritage and archaeology. In these fields, faithfully digitised models are often to be restorated in order to visualise the object in its original state, reversing the effects of aging or decay. In our approach, we combine intuitive free-form modelling techniques with automatic 3D surface completion to derive a powerful modelling methodology that on the one hand is capable of including a user's expertise into the surface completion process. The automatic completion, on the other hand, reconstructs the required surface detail in the modelled region and thus frees the user from the need to model every last detail manually. The power and feasibility of our approach is demonstrated with several examples.