Image Synthesis Theory and Practice

Image Synthesis: Theory and Practice is the first book completely dedicated to the numerous techniques of image synthesis. Both theoretical and practical aspects are treated in detail. Numerous impressive computer-generated images are used to explain the most advanced techniques in image synthesis. The book contains a detailed description of the most fundamental algorithms; other less important algorithms are summarized or simply listed. This volume is also a unique handbook of mathematical formulae for image synthesis. The four first chapters of the book survey the basic techniques of computer graphics which play an important role in the design of an image: geometric models, image and viewing transformations, curves and surfaces and solid modeling techniques. In the next chapters, each major topic in image synthesis is presented. The first important problem is the detection and processing of visible surfaces, then two chapters are dedicated to the central problem of light and illumination. As aliasing is a major problem in image rendering, the fundamental antialiasing and motion blur techniques are explained. The most common shadow algorithms are then presented as well as techniques for producing soft shadows and penumbrae. In the last few years, image rendering has been strongly influenced by ray tracing techniques. For this reason, two chapters are dedicated to this important approach. Then a chapter is completely dedicated to fractals from the formal Mandelbrot theory to the recursive subdivision approaches. Natural phenomena present a particularly difficult challenge in image synthesis. For this reason, a large portion of the book is devoted to latest methods to simulate these phenomena: particle systems, scalar fields, volume density scattering models. Various techniques are also described for representing terrains, mountains, water, waves, sky, clouds, fog, fire, trees, and grass. Several techniques for combining images are also explained: adaptive rendering, montage and composite methods. The last chapter presents in detail the MIRALab image synthesis software.

1 Modeling primitives.- 1.1 3D space.- 1.2 Wire-frame, surface and volume representations.- 1.3 Creating the database.- 1.4 Procedural models and data abstraction.- 2 Transformations, cameras, and colors.- 2.1 Image transformations.- 2.2 Viewing system.- 2.3 Colors.- 2.4 MIRALab virtual camera model.- 3 Free-form curves and surfaces.- 3.1 Introduction to curves and surfaces.- 3.2 Smooth interpolation by piecewise cubics.- 3.3 Coons surfaces.- 3.4 Bézier curves and surfaces.- 3.5 B-spline curves and surfaces.- 3.6 ?-spline curves and surfaces.- 3.7 Propagation control graphs.- 4 Solid modeling.- 4.1 Representation of solid objects.- 4.2 Spatial occupancy enumeration, cell decomposition, quadtrees, and octrees.- 4.3 Sweep representations.- 4.4 Constructive solid geometry.- 4.5 Boundary representations.- 4.6 Superquadrics, global and local deformations.- 4.7 Solid modeling at MIRALab.- 5 Visible surface algorithms.- 5.1 Object-space and image-space techniques.- 5.2 Essential tests for hidden-line and hidden-surface algorithms.- 5.3 Depth buffer algorithm.- 5.4 Scan-line algorithms.- 5.5 List-priority algorithms.- 5.6 Recursive subdivision algorithms.- 5.7 Algorithms for curved surfaces.- 5.8 Visible surface algorithms for solids.- 6 Illumination, shading, and transparency models.- 6.1 Introduction to illumination.- 6.2 Phong illumination model.- 6.3 Surface shading.- 6.4 Light transmission.- 7 Complex light-source and illumination models.- 7.1 Complex light sources.- 7.2 Complex reflection models.- 7.3 Interreflection between surfaces and energy equilibrium.- 8 Antialiasing and motion blur.- 8.1 Aliasing problem.- 8.2 Digital-processing convolution theory.- 8.3 Hidden-surface algorithms with antialiasing.- 8.4 Edge-inference and specific algorithms.- 8.5 Temporalaliasing and motion blur.- 9 Shadows.- 9.1 Role of shadows.- 9.2 Shadows generated during display process.- 9.3 Shadow volumes.- 9.4 Object-space polygon-clipping approach.- 9.5 z-Buffer shadows.- 9.6 Soft shadows and penumbrae.- 9.7 MIRALab implementation of shadows.- 10 Ray-tracing.- 10.1 Basic ray-tracing algorithm.- 10.2 Ray-tracing of spheres and polyhedra.- 10.3 Ray-tracing of algebraic and parametric surfaces.- 10.4 Ray-tracing of surfaces defined by sweeping.- 10.5 Depth of field and motion blur.- 10.6 Antialiasing, stochastic sampling, and distributed ray-tracing.- 10.7 Ray-tracing at MIRALab.- 11 Optimization techniques for ray-tracing.- 11.1 Survey of optimization techniques.- 11.2 Bounding volumes.- 11.3 Use of coherence in ray-tracing.- 11.4 Space division for ray-tracing.- 12 Texture.- 12.1 What is texture?.- 12.2 Methods derived from texture analysis.- 12.3 Texture mapping.- 12.4 Bump mapping.- 12.5 Solid texture.- 12.6 Ray-traced textures.- 12.7 Implementation of textures at MIRALab.- 13 Fractals and stochastic models.- 13.1 Mandelbrot fractal geometry.- 13.2 Formal approach: fractional Brownian motion.- 13.3 Random midpoint displacement algorithms.- 13.4 Other researches on fractals.- 13.5 Fractals and stochastic modeling at MIRALab.- 14 Fuzzy and soft objects.- 14.1 Phenomena modeling.- 14.2 Particle systems.- 14.3 Soft objects.- 14.4 Volume density scattering models.- 14.5 Cellular automata.- 14.6 Fuzzy objects at MIRALab.- 15 Natural phenomena.- 15.1 Synthesis of natural phenomena: a challenge.- 15.2 Representation of terrain and mountains.- 15.3 Representation of water.- 15.4 Representation of sky, atmosphere, clouds and fog.- 15.5 Representation of fire.- 15.6 Representation of trees, forests, and grass.- 15.7 Water waves, fire, clouds, and fog atMIRALab.- 16 Combination and composite images for complex 3D scenes.- 16.1 Integrated systems.- 16.2 Compositing.- 17 MIRALab image synthesis software.- 17.1 Image synthesis and animation software at MIRALab.- 17.2 INTERMIRA specification language.- 17.3 SABRINA image-synthesis system.- 17.4 Particle systems.- References.