# Algebraic Smooth Occluding Contours

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01973 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01973/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 3 Jun 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [WIR3D: Visually-Informed and Geometry-Aware 3D Shape Abstraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.04813/) (2025)
- [Meschers: Geometry Processing of Impossible Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.14960/) (2026)
- [Blended Chart Surfaces: A Seamless Explicit Representation for Smooth Surface Fitting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18069/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Computing occluding contours is a key building block of non-photorealistic rendering, but producing contours with consistent visibility has been notoriously challenging. This paper describes the first general-purpose smooth surface construction for which the occluding contours can be computed in closed form. For a given input mesh and camera viewpoint, we produce a G1 piecewise-quadratic surface approximating the mesh. We show how the image-space occluding contours of this representation may then be described as piecewise rational curves. We show that this method produces smooth contours with consistent visibility much more efficiently than the state-of-the-art.