Semiautomatic 3D Virtual Fish Modeling based on 2D Texture

In the field of Virtual Reality, many studies have been reported. Especially, there are many studies on generating virtual creatures on computer systems. In this paper we propose an algorithm to automatically generate 3D fish models from 2D images which are printed in illustrated books, pictures or handwritings. At first, 2D fish images are captured by means of image scanner. Next, the fish image is separated from background and segmented to several parts such as body, anal fin, dorsal fin, ectoral fin and ventral fin using the proposed method“Active Balloon model”. After that, users choose front view model and top view model among six samples, respectively. 3D model is automatically generated from separated body, fins and the above two view models. The number of patches is decreased without any influence on the accuracy of the generated 3D model to reduce the time cost when texture mapping is applied. Finally, we can get any kinds of 3D fish models.