A way to calculate representative forms from given set of forms was developed, in which surface data is modeled by polygons based on landmarks. Inter-individual distances are defined as distortions in FFD control points. By calculating inter-individual distances for all possible pairs of forms, a distribution of 3D forms in n-dimensional space is obtained using MDS. Each MDS dimension represents independent shape factors. Forms with specific MDS scores such as (0.5,0,0,0), (1,0,0,0) in standard deviation units are calculated as weighted averages of all actual forms. An FFD transformation grid is calculated that represents systematic form transformation along an MDS dimension. Forms with different scores for only the first MDS dimension and average scores (=0) for other MDS dimensions are calculated using these transformation grids.
