OVERPAINT: Automatic Multi-Layer Stencil Generation without Bridges

Stencil art is a drawing technique for reproducing designs by repeatedly painting pigments through stencil sheets. Each stencil sheet is a connected surface maintained via thin connections called bridges. Existing computer-aided stencil art creation studies focus on choosing a set of bridges that causes the least amount of distortion while fully connecting all islands to the sheet. Unlike previous works, we propose a novel method called OVERPAINT that sidesteps the use of bridges by overpainting pigments. Our method automatically generates an ordered set of bridge-free stencil sheets from an input image. By painting sequentially, one can obtain a result resembling the appearance of the input image. We demonstrate our method on several artworks and a user study. The results show that our method enables the user to create visually precise and delicate stencil arts.