This Ph.D. thesis specifically deals with the issue of metamorphosis of 3D objects represented as 3D triangular meshes. The objective is to elaborate a complete 3D mesh morphing methodology which ensures high quality transition sequences, smooth and gradual, consistent with respect to both geometry and topology, and visually pleasant. Our first contributions concern the two different approaches of parameterization: a new barycentric mapping algorithm based on the preservation of the mesh length ratios, and a spherical parameterization technique, exploiting a Gaussian curvature criterion. The experimental evaluation, carried out on 3D models of various shapes, demonstrated a considerably improvement in terms of mesh distortion for both methods. In order to align the features of the two input models, we have considered a warping technique based on the CTPS C2a radial basis function suitable to deform the models embeddings in the parametric domain maintaining a valid mapping through the entire movement process. We show how this technique has to be adapted in order to warp meshes specified in the parametric domains. A final contribution consists of a novel algorithm for constructing a pseudo-metamesh that avoids the complex process of edge intersections encountered in the state-of-the-art. The obtained mesh structure is characterized by a small number of vertices and it is able to approximate both the source and target shapes. The entire mesh morphing framework has been integrated in an interactive application that allows the user to control and visualize all the stages of the morphing process
