AbstractWe present a simple technique to model the structures and behaviors of flexible, elastic objects. We use an imaginary elastic wire frame, which is made of membranous, thin‐plate–type material, to model the surface structures of flexible objects. We demonstrate that in computational vision, such a flexible wire frame can be used for visual surface reconstruction with the structured‐light sensing technique. In graphic animation, we allow animation sequences to be generated automatically between prespecified key frames, the surface structures of which are described by our flexible mode. Furthermore, we allow collisions of objects' trajectories so that interactions of multiple flexible objects can be simulated. We believe that our technique is widely applicable in many computational vision and graphic animation processes.