Archive

Archive for July, 2006

Image-Based Material Editing

July 24th, 2006 Mick Comments off

Another interesting topic: Image-Based material Editing

http://graphics.cs.ucf.edu/ekhan/project_ibme.htm

Material Edit Animation

Photo editing software allows digital images to be blurred, warped or re-colored at the touch of a button. However, it is not currently possible to change the material appearance of an object except by painstakingly painting over the appropriate pixels. Here we present a method for automatically replacing one material with another, completely different material, starting with only a single high dynamic range image as input. Our approach exploits the fact that human vision is surprisingly tolerant of certain (sometimes enormous) physical inaccuracies, while being sensitive to others. By adjusting our simulations to be careful about those aspects to which the human visual system is sensitive, we are for the first time able to demonstrate significant material changes on the basis of a single photograph as input.

Categories: Graphics, Rendering, Research Tags:

SIGGRAPH 2006

July 24th, 2006 Mick Comments off

Siggraph

I will be attending Siggraph 2006 this year in Boston, from 30 July through 3 August, and will try and present topics that I find interesting in a daily blog

http://mickssiggraphblog.blogspot.com/

Categories: Graphics Tags:

Graphics Research Group – Central Florida

July 24th, 2006 Mick Comments off

While browsing papers that are scheduled for presentation at Siggraph 2006, came across an interesting link to the Graphics Research Group in the School of Computer Science at the University of Central Florida.

http://graphics.cs.ucf.edu/

From the Realtime Caustics project

dragon

Topics under research include:

  • realtime rendering
    • Real-time Caustics Rendering
    • Interval Mapping: A Fast per-pixel displacement rendering technique.
    • GPU assisted Global Illumination
    • Beyond Triangles: GPU Ray Caster
  • Material Design Interface
    • BRDF-Shop: An Artistic Tool for Creating Physically Correct BRDFs
    • Maya-PBRT
  • realistic rendering
    • Radiance Caching
    • Real-time Rendering of Dynamic Objects in Dynamic, Low-frequency Lighting Environments
    • Non-Iterative, Robust Monte Carlo Noise Reduction
    • A Novel Hemispherical Basis for Accurate and Efficient Rendering
    • Perceptually Based Efficient Rendering
    • Global Illumination Computation
  • HDR imaging
  • mixed and augmented reality
  • Image completion
  • color

Another topic which caught my eye is BRDF-Shop …

brdfshop

abstract
We present an interface for quick and intuitive development of arbitrary, but physically correct, Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Functions, or BRDFs. Our interface, referred to as BRDF-Shop, provides artists the ability to create a BRDF through positioning and manipulating highlights on a spherical canvas. We develop a novel mapping between painted highlights and specular lobes of an extended Ward BRDF model. The implementation of BRDF-Shop utilizes programmable graphics hardware to provide a real-time visualization of the material on a complex object in environment lighting.

Read more about BRDF-Shop in the attached document

http://kf12.com/blogs/uploads/brdfshop.pdf

Categories: Graphics, Research, Research Projects Tags:

AMD to buy ATI

July 24th, 2006 Mick Comments off

AMD and ATI have announced plans to join forces (ie AMD has announced its intention to BUY ATI) in a deal valued at $5.4 billion.

The combination will create a processing powerhouse by bringing AMD’s technology leadership in microprocessors together with ATI’s strengths in graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics. The result: A new and more formidable company, determined to drive growth, innovation and choice for its customers, particularly in the commercial and mobile computing segments and in the rapidly-growing consumer electronics market. Combining technologies, people, and complementary strengths, AMD plans to deliver in 2007 customer-centric platforms for the benefit of customers who want to collaborate in the development of differentiated solutions.

Read the full story at the AMD Press Room

http://www.amd.com/…110899,00.html

Categories: Hardware Tags:

Blender 2.42

July 21st, 2006 Mick Comments off

Blender v2.42 is released.

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_2_42.727.0.html

Blender is Open Source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License

http://www.blender3d.org/cms/GPL_for_artists.495.0.html.

Blender is fully free to use and distribute within any educational, professional or commercial environment. Artwork created with Blender – including python scripts – is the sole property of the creator.

Categories: CAD, Rendering Tags:

Intel and Quad-Core Chips

July 21st, 2006 Mick Comments off

Intel Corp. plans to start shipping its quad-core cpu in the fourth quarter of 2006, moving shipment forward from the first half of 2007.

Read the story here

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060719233920.html

Also see an interesting comparison of dual-cores Contemporary Dual-Core Desktop Processors Shootout showing the interesting price/performance chart

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-shootout.html

Price Performance

Categories: Hardware, Systems Tags:

Autodesk Design Review 2007

July 17th, 2006 Mick Comments off

Autodesk has released Autodesk Design Review 2007, the product formerly known as Autodesk DWF Composer, at a cost of $199 (same as before). Other tools freely available are the DWF Viewer, and the DWF Writer.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6101753

An addin is provided for SW2005 and SW2006 that enables a user to create a DWF variant of his model directly from within SolidWorks. Plugins are also provided for other CAD systems including CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge, and NX.

The DWF writer includes the ability to capture 3D geometry from any application which uses opengl for drawing – similar to the capability offered by Adobe.

Another interesting feature is the ability to move (move/rotate) components of the assembly but this functionality is VERY limited (at the moment), and has no collision detection etc.

Categories: Autodesk Tags: