Signed distance fields have been used in VFX since the mid-1990s.  One of the first paper formalizing its editing techniques was by Ken Museth in 2002:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;diyhpl.us&#x2F;~bryan&#x2F;papers2&#x2F;frey&#x2F;applications&#x2F;Museth%20K.,%20Level%20set%20surface%20editing%20operators.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;diyhpl.us&#x2F;~bryan&#x2F;papers2&#x2F;frey&#x2F;applications&#x2F;Museth%20K...</a><p>My contribution to the field (in collaboration with Ken, the author of the above) is making these scalar volumetric representations more scalable via using a recursive hierarchical sparse representation:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.ubc.ca&#x2F;nest&#x2F;imager&#x2F;tr&#x2F;2006&#x2F;Batty_HRLE&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.ubc.ca&#x2F;nest&#x2F;imager&#x2F;tr&#x2F;2006&#x2F;Batty_HRLE&#x2F;</a><p>Ken Museth is now the head of R&amp;D at Dreamworks Animation and picked up a Sci Tech Oscar two years for his level set work:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=5FwOc4OSOR0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=5FwOc4OSOR0</a>