Global Parametrization by Incremental Flattening

Global parametrization of surfaces requires singularities (cones) to keep distortion minimal. We describe a method for finding cone locations and angles and an algorithm for global parametrization which aim to produce seamless parametrizations with low metric distortion. The idea of the method is to evolve the metric of the surface, starting with the original metric so that a growing fraction of the area of the surface is constrained to have zero Gaussian curvature; the curvature becomes gradually concentrated at a small set of vertices which become cones. We demonstrate that the resulting parametrizations have significantly lower metric distortion compared to previously proposed methods.