Painterly Rendering via Auxiliary Surface Cards
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Solution Overview
Problem
Computer-generated 3-D animation struggles to achieve a painterly look, often resulting in unrealistic, smooth surfaces and edges, lacking the imperfections and stylization of traditional hand-drawn animation, with previous attempts at incorporating painterly elements leading to distracting effects like the 'screen door' effect and 'popping' of virtual paint.
Innovation Solution
The technique involves defining a reference surface with associated attributes and auxiliary surfaces, such as 'cards,' which provide transparency and other attributes, allowing for the creation of a painterly effect by tracing rays through these surfaces to determine pixel colors, enabling loose paint-like appearances that move smoothly with the object.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional rendering techniques are used to achieve photorealistic look, then smooth edges and surfaces are obtained, but the result lacks roughness and imperfections of real-life objects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the object's surface into multiple discrete polygons that are intentionally positioned to create gaps and irregularities. Instead of using a continuous smooth surface, the surface is segmented into separate polygonal elements that can be individually controlled to produce rough, imperfect appearances that mimic real-world objects.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different rendering qualities to different regions of the object surface. By controlling the position, size, and orientation of individual polygons locally, the system creates varied surface characteristics across different areas, allowing some regions to appear smooth while others appear rough or imperfect, matching the natural variation found in real objects.
2Adaptability or versatility
If paintbrush textures are applied to rendered scenes, then painterly look is achieved, but the 'screen door' effect appears as characters move under a fixed texture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the texture application dynamic by associating paintbrush textures with individual polygons rather than applying a fixed global texture. As polygons move and reposition during animation, the textures move with them, creating a dynamic painterly effect that adapts to object motion and eliminates the screen door effect caused by static textures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates multiple copies of paintbrush textures, assigning one to each polygon. This allows each polygon to carry its own texture instance, enabling the textures to move independently with their respective polygons rather than being locked to screen space, thereby eliminating the screen door effect while maintaining the painterly aesthetic.
3Adaptability or versatility
If loose paint textures are applied to objects, then painterly effect is achieved, but distracting popping occurs as paint fragments appear and disappear between frames
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-positions paintbrush textures on polygons during the modeling phase, ensuring that all necessary paint fragments are present from the start. This preliminary placement prevents the popping effect by ensuring continuous visibility of paint elements as objects move, eliminating the need for paint to appear or disappear between frames.
Solution Approach 2:
By creating texture copies on each polygon that move with the polygon, the system ensures continuous presence of paint elements. The texture copies are bound to their respective polygons, so as polygons move continuously through space, the paint textures move with them, preventing the pop-in/pop-out effect that occurs with static or poorly managed texture systems.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple surfaces are used to represent different attributes, then painterly look with smooth movement is achieved, but the rendering process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple surface attributes (color, transparency, texture, lighting) into a unified polygon-based system. Instead of treating each attribute separately on different surfaces, the system merges them all onto the same polygonal primitives, simplifying the rendering process while maintaining the ability to achieve painterly effects through coordinated control of these combined attributes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes polygons universal by enabling them to handle multiple surface attributes simultaneously. Each polygon can carry color information, transparency maps, texture coordinates, and lighting properties all at once, eliminating the need for separate auxiliary surfaces for each attribute and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining painterly rendering capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Objects are modeled and rendered using multiple surfaces to provide attributes used in rendering. In some embodiments, a reference surface for an object is defined, e.g., using conventional modeling techniques. One or more auxiliary surfaces are associated with portions of the reference surface. Some of the surface attributes (e.g., color, surface normal, texture, lighting) are associated with the reference surface, while other attributes (e.g., transparency) are associated with the cards. To render an image, a ray associated with a pixel is traced to its intersection with the reference surface and to its intersection with one of the auxiliary surfaces. The attributes associated with the reference surface are determined based on the intersection point of the ray with the reference surface, and the attributes associated with the auxiliary surface are determined based on the intersection point of the ray with the auxiliary surface.