MarmotViz: An Extensible Framework for Illustrative Visualization of Time-Varying Flows
Alexander Rattner, Georgia Institute of Technology
Photo- and physically realistic techniques are often insufficient for visualization of simulation results, especially for 3-D and time-varying datasets. Substantial research effort has been dedicated to the development of non-photorealistic and illustration-inspired visualization techniques for compact and intuitive presentation of such complex datasets. However, a great deal of work has been reproduced in this field, as many research groups have developed specialized visualization software. Additionally, interoperability between illustrative visualization software is limited due to diverse processing and rendering architectures employed in different studies. In this investigation, a framework for illustrative visualization is proposed and implemented in MarmotViz, a ParaView plug-in, enabling its use on a variety of computing platforms with various data file formats and mesh geometries. Region-of-interest identification and feature-tracking algorithms incorporated into this tool are described. Implementations of multiple illustrative effect algorithms also are presented to demonstrate the use and flexibility of this framework. By providing a framework and underlying functionality, MarmotViz can act as a springboard for future research in the field of illustrative visualization.
Abstract Author(s): A.S. Rattner, D.P. Guillen, S. Garimella, A. Joshi