DIRECTIONS: In this applet, you can create a Bezier
patch by dragging the control points control points to an appropriate
location. You drag the point in perspective view on the image
plane and move the point in and out of the image plane by using
the A and Z buttons where A moves point directly on a line towards
your eye so the point will not move apparently on the image
screen and Z moves the point directly on a line away from your
eye. Alternatively, you can move the point using the C and D
buttons perpendicularly to the image plane, C moves away from
you and D moves the point toward you. The patch can be rotated
using the arrow keys, and you can zoom out and zoom in using
the page up and page down keys.
The save/load button enables an editing window where you can
alter the coordinates of the control points and cut and paste the
coordinates into an editor for storage. The reset button reloads the applet
to its initial configuration. The PERSPECTIVE/PARALLEL button toggles between
the two different projections to view the patch. The resize button allows
you choose the size of the Bezier patch you are creating (the number of control
points you are using), initially you are manipulating a 4 x 4 grid of control
points to create a Bezier patch that is 3rd polynomial in both directions
(a bicubic Bezier patch). The last feature is the ability to color the patch
by the root mean curvature, instead of coloring based on position. In the coloring
scheme the coloring from low curvature to high curvature is blue, green, orange, red
and then purple.