Arkan

Arkan is designed to convert border of a raster mask (selection of an object in scene) or any closed polyline into B-spline (piecewise cubic Bezier curve) representation spread widely in vector graphics packages. Arkan chooses the best position both for node points (junctions of adjacent Bezier polynomial pieces) and for control points, which don’t lie on the curve but only affects its shape. Minimum description length approach powers the program. In addition to its unique outlining capabilities Arkan features nice and friendly user interface (see screenshot).

It’s typical task in computer graphics to describe contour of raster masks in terms of a set of cubic Bezier curves. For example, to allow changing (interpolation) of the mask during the time in a compositing environment, such as Adobe After Effects. Currently this task is performed manually for many frames and it’s really painful even for a skilled computer designer.

* Arkan can operate in one of two modes:
Semi-automatic. The user selects the number of node points, their very rough positions and type: should the spline be smooth or sharp at those nodes. Nothing more. The program then adjusts position of node points and locates the best position for controls points by itself. The processing in this mode is very fast.
Automatic. The user has to do nothing after loading the mask into the program. The number of nodes, their positions and positions of controls nodes, everything is detected automatically. However operating in this mode consumes significantly more processor power.

* Features & Benefits
Perfect quality of fitted B-splines, even if you limit the number of Bezier curve pieces.
Subpixel precision of node and control points.
Outstanding performance for that quality.
Ease of tuning due to built-in powerful properties editor.
Easy, familiar, and neat interface.
Adobe After Effects plug-in for handy importing constructed splines into AE.
Export of Bezier splines in text, BMP & EMF.