
56 2. Basic theory and mathematical results
Control points
Moved control points
Oblique view of patch
Oblique view
Polygonal mesh
Patch
Figure 2.33: A basic NURBS patch is controlled by its network of control points.
(Taken from OpenFX.)
2.17 Parametric surfaces
In section 2.16 methods of working with curves in computer gr ap h ics were dis-
cussed. The B´ezier and spline cur ves introduced there can be extrapolated into
a two-dimensional space to facilitate modeling curved surfaces. However, B´ezier
and simple polynomial based cur ves cannot model every form of curve, for exam-
ple a circle cannot be exactly modeled by a B´ezier cu r ve. Rational p oly n ...