Advanced Computer Graphics

Introduction
Matthias Teschner
Computer Graphics
Modeling - Rendering - Simulation
© Warner Bros.
Scanline VFX
V-Ray

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 3

Outline
− Organization
− Concepts
− Applications
− History

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 4

◼
Graphics Courses
− Key course
− Image processing and computer graphics
(modeling, rendering, simulation)
− Specialization courses
− Advanced computer graphics (global illumination)
− Simulation in computer graphics (solids and fluids)
− B.Sc. / M.Sc. project, lab course, B.Sc. / M.Sc. thesis
− Simulation track, rendering track
− By appointment per email, semester-aligned
University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 5
◼
Seminars / Projects / Theses in Graphics
Semester Simulation Track Rendering Track

Winter Simulation Course

Summer Key Course Key Course

Lab Course - Simple fluid solver Lab Course - Simple Ray Tracer
Simulation Seminar Rendering Seminar

Winter Master Project - PPE fluid solver Rendering Course

Rendering Seminar Master Project - Monte Carlo RT
Simulation Seminar

Summer Master Thesis Master Thesis

Research-oriented topic Research-oriented topic

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 6

Course Goals
− Concepts for image synthesis /
global illumination approaches
− Governing equation and solution techniques
− Radiometric quantities
− Rendering equation
− Radiosity
− Monte Carlo ray tracing
− Requirements:
− Key course in graphics and image processing
◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 7
Material
− Slide sets and video recordings on
https://cg.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/teaching.htm

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 8

◼
Material
− Matt Pharr, Wenzel Jakob, Greg Humphreys
Physically Based Rendering
Morgan Kaufmann
http://www.pbr-book.org/

− Kevin Suffern
Ray Tracing from the Ground Up
A K Peters

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 9

◼
Material
− Philip Dutre, Kavita Bala, Philippe Bekaert
Advanced Global Illumination
A K Peters

− Peter Shirley, R. Keith Morley

Realistic Ray Tracing
A K Peters

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 10

Material
− Andrew Glassner
Principles of Digital Image Synthesis

Available online from

http://www.realtimerendering.com

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 11

Material
− Peter Shirley
Raytracing in one Weekend
Raytracing – The Next Week
Raytracing – The Rest of Your
Life

Available online from

https://raytracing.github.io/

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 12

◼
Exercises
− Development of ray tracing components
− Check web page for information
and example frameworks
− Voluntary

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 13

◼
Exam
− Written
− Based on slide sets and recordings
− Relevant material will be summarized
− Text exam on our web page

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 14

Outline
− Organization
− Concepts
− Applications
− History
− Summary

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 15

◼
Light
− Modeled as energy parcels / photons that travel
− Along geometric rays ( radiance )
− At infinite speed
− Emitted by light sources
− Scattered / absorbed at surfaces
− Scattered / absorbed by participating media
− Absorbed / measured by sensors

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 16

◼
 Light

 
specular diffuse

Light travels Light is Incoming light Participating Sensors

along rays generated is scattered media scatters absorb
at light and absorbed and absorbs light
sources at surfaces light

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 17

◼
Color
− Photons are characterized by a wavelength
within the visible spectrum
− Distribution of wavelengths spectrum color

(): number of photons per time with

a wavelength in a range i around i.

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 18

◼
Governing Equations
− Light transport is governed by surfaces
and by participating media
− Interactions of light with surfaces and volumes
are described by governing equations
− Rendering equation
− Volume rendering equation

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 19

◼
Light at Surfaces – Rendering Equation
− Governing equation for reflected light at surfaces into a
particular direction given incident light from all directions

Rendering equation:
Outgoing light into direction is a sum of
incident light from all directions weighted
with material properties
Incoming light
from direction
Position

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 20

◼
Light in Volumes
− Governing equations for light changes along rays
through participating media, e.g. haze or fog
− Setting
− Absorption
− Emission In-scattering

− Out-scattering Out-scattering

− In-scattering

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 21

Light Transport
− Governing equations Emitted light

enable the computation

of light at all points
in space into all direction
No participating media

Reflected light due to material properties

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 22

◼
Rendering of the Result
− At an arbitrarily placed and oriented sensor
− Cast rays into the scene
− Lookup light that is transported along these rays

view
plane

Example: Cornell box

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 23

◼
Rendering Algorithms
− Goal: Solving the entire light transport
in a scene as accurate as possible

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 24

Radiosity
− Computes reflected light at all
surface points into all directions
− Typical simplifications: No participating media,
diffuse surfaces, equal reflected light
per finite-size surface patch, e.g. triangle
− Linear system with unknown reflected
light per surface patch

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 25

Ray Tracing
− Computation of light
transport along selected
line segments / rays
− Minimal setup
− Consideration of rays from
the scene towards the sensor
(viewing rays)
− Consideration of rays from
[Wikipedia: Ray Tracing]
the light source towards visible
scene elements (shadow rays)
◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 26
Ray Tracing - Challenge
Path 4
Computation of outgoing radiance
from surface towards camera is the
main goal of a ray tracer

1
  Path 1, 2, 3 …
Incoming / outgoing radiance
at all other paths is required
q to compute radiance at path 4
Path 3
2
Two surfaces illuminate each other.
4 Outgoing radiance from q towards p
3
depends on outgoing radiance from
p towards q which depends on …

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 27

◼
Towards Realistic Images
− Accurate modeling of the light interaction with
surfaces and participating media
− Parameterizing realistic light sources and materials
− Computing the light transport for as many rays as
possible
− In case of limited resources, choose relevant rays
with larger radiances

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 28

◼
Towards Realistic Images
− Capturing all direct and indirect
illumination from all directions
− Less realistic images consider few and simple light sources

https://imgur.com/gallery/MXbNt
University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 29
◼
Towards Realistic Images
− Realistic reflection properties of materials
− Surfaces are not perfectly diffuse or specular

Next Limit / Maxwell Render

http://support.nextlimit.com/display/maxwelldocs/IOR+files

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 30

Towards Realistic Images
Emitted light

Reflected light due to material properties

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 31

Outline
− Organization
− Concepts
− Applications
− History
− Summary

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 32

◼
Areas
− Movies and commercials
− Architecture
− Automotive
− Flight and car simulators
− Computer games

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 33

◼
Architecture

Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House Delta Tracing

(Artist Alessandro Prodan)
[www.mentalimages.com]

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 34

Automotive

zerone cgi GmbH and Daimler AG [www.mentalimages.com]

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 35

◼
Commercials
− Spellwork Pictures

Modeling Rendering

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 36

◼
Commercials
− Spellwork Pictures

Animation Animation + Rendering

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 37

Commercials
− Spellwork Pictures

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 38

◼
Outline
− Organization
− Concepts
− Applications
− History
− Summary

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 39

◼
Rasterization
1965: Rasterized lines (Bresenham)
1967: Rasterized flat-shaded polygons (Wylie)
1973: Phong illumination model
1974: Depth buffer (Catmull)
1977: Shadow volumes (Crow)
1978: Shadow maps (Williams)

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 40

◼
Ray Tracing
− Ray casting
1968: viewing and shadow rays, non-recursive (Appel)
− Recursive ray tracing
1980: ideal reflection, refraction (Whitted)
− Rendering equation
1986: general description of light interaction at surfaces
(Kajiya):
− Stochastic ray tracing
1986: Monte-Carlo integration for approximately solving
the rendering equation (Kajiya), e.g. path tracing
University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 41
◼
Ray Casting and Rasterization
− Solve the visibility problem

Transform

Ray

 
Matrix in homo-
geneous notation

Ray Casting computes

Rasterizers apply transformations
ray-scene intersections
to p in order to estimate q. p is
to estimate q from p.
projected onto the sensor plane.

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 42

Ray Tracing and Rasterization
− Ray tracing
− Can potentially compute entire light transport in a scene
− Natural incorporation of numerous visual effects with
unified concepts
− Trade-off between quality and performance
− Rasterization
− Focus on light transport along viewing rays
− Specialized realizations of global illumination effects
− Well-established, parallelizable algorithms
− Popular in interactive applications
◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 43
Some Ray Tracing History
Ray generation
−
 light
 light

− Ray traversal shadow

− Intersection rays

− Shading
− Frame buffer viewing / camera /
primary ray

camera

Viewing and shadow rays return

a radiance value / transported
light along the ray.

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 44

◼
Some Ray Tracing History
− Arthur Appel: Some techniques for shading machine
renderings of solids, 1968.

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 45

◼
Recursive Ray Tracing
Ray generation
−
 light
 light

− Ray traversal shadow

rays
− Intersection
− Shading
− Frame buffer viewing / camera /
primary ray

camera
reflection
ray
diffuse
material

Viewing rays return a radiance. specular

Shadow rays return a radiance. material
Reflection and refraction rays return a radiance.
◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 46
Recursive Ray Tracing
− Turner Whitted: An Improved Illumination Model for
Shaded Display, 1980.

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 47

Stochastic Ray Tracing
− Consider randomly sampled reflection / refraction
rays to approximately solve the rendering equation

Rendering equation:
Outgoing light into direction is a sum of
incident light from all directions weighted
with material properties
Incoming light
from direction
Position

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 48

◼
Ray Tracing
stochastic ray tracing, multiple rays are traced recursively until predefined termination conditions are reached.

− More light transport paths → more visual effects,

realism and improved accuracy

Viewing rays Viewing and Recursive stochastic

shadow rays ray tracing
[Thomas Kabir: Wikipedia Raytracing]
University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 49
◼
Ray Tracing - Capabilities
− Reflection
− Refraction
− Soft shadows
− Caustics
− Diffuse interreflections
− Specular interreflections
− Depth of field [sean.seanie, www.flickr.com]
rendered with POVray 3.7
− Motion blur
University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 50
◼
Ray Tracing - Challenges
− Ray-primitive intersections
− Spatial data structures for accelerated ray traversal
− Dynamic scenes are particularly challenging
− Number of rays (quality vs. costs)
− More rays typically improve the rendering quality
− Recursion depth (quality vs. costs)
− Dependent on the recursion depth, effects are
captured or not, e.g. transparency or caustics

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 51

Outline
− Organization
− Concepts
− Applications
− History
− Summary

University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 52

◼
Aspects for High-quality Image Synthesis
− Radiometric quantities
− Reflection properties of surfaces / materials
− Rendering equation
− Radiosity
− Monte Carlo ray tracing
− Ray-primitive intersections (see key course)
− Data structures for ray traversal

◼University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 53

Announcement
− Monday, 10:15, Advanced Computer Graphics
− Monday, 16:15, Simulation in Computer Graphics
− Wednesday, 10:15, Rendering Seminar
− Wednesday, 12:15, Animation Seminar
− Thursday, 10:15, Proseminar Graphik
− Tuesday next week, 12:15, Simulation Tutorial
− Tuesday next week, 14:15, Rendering Tutorial
− No tutorials tomorrow
University of Freiburg – Computer Science Department – 54