Sampling and modeling of shape and reflectance of 3-D objects

In this paper, we developed a method for sampling and modeling reflectance of 3-D objects and performing real-time rendering of modeled objects. Our method can be used to render modeled objects from an arbitrary viewing direction with illuminations from point lights at any given place or with any illumination map. To achieve this goal, we developed a platform that can sample appearances of target objects with 4DOFs parameters of light and viewing directions. Light-dependent variations of sampled data were approximated using spherical harmonics functions as bases. To render a modeled object, we generated its appearance by synthesizing the effects of illuminations using spherical harmonics functions and by interpolating between sampled viewing directions. The appearance was then texture-mapped to the shape model. Using our method, we could represent reflectance properties of surfaces of 3-D objects that were parametrized by 4DOFs light and viewing directions. We also successfully rendered the modeled objects using programmable vertex/pixel shaders with real-time performance.