Computer Graphics II: Rendering

Content of the course

This course is part of the "Computer Graphics II" course, inside the Graphics, Vision, Robotics program of the MOSIG International Master in Grenoble. We focus on the rendering techniques: how to display a picture on the screen, so that it looks pleasing for the viewer:

Models of materials and BRDFs (Phong, Fresnel, Torrance...)
Shadows and shadow maps
Global Illumination techniques
Monte-Carlo ray-tracing
Level-Of-Detail techniques
Expressive Rendering

Practical Information

Lectures take place at: H101, every Monday from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
Each lecture is followed by a practical, so you can test your knowledge from the lecture (and make sure you understood it...)
These practicals use C++, OpenGL and GLSL. Most of the code is already written, with only a few functions to fill in.
The practicals are not supervised. You have to do them in your spare time, either at home on your own computer, or in room E103 in the ENSIMAG building.
The practicals will be marked.
I'll be available by for any advice you might need.
Marking of the practicals will be based on code and screen shots.

Organization and Practicals

November 07 : GPU programming and materials

Introduction: PDF
Material models: Phong, Lafortune, Fresnel, Torrance
GPU programming: PDF
GLSL basics: PDF
Practical 1
Bibliographie :
- A reflection model for computer graphics, R. L. Cook and K. E. Torrance, Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH '81), Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 307-316, 1981. doi: 10.1145/965161.806819
- Non-Linear Approximation of Reflectance Functions, E.P. Lafortune, S.C. Foo, K.E. Torrance and D.P. Greenberg. SIGGRAPH 97, pp 117-126. doi: 10.1145/258734.258801
- An Inexpensive BRDF Model for Physically-based Rendering, Schlick, C. (1994). Computer Graphics Forum 13 (3):233 (Eurographics '94). doi:10.1111/1467-8659.1330233
- Fresnel Reflection, NVidia white paper, 2002.
- OpenGL Shading Language, by the OpenGL consortium.

November 21 : Shadow algorithms and advanced material models

Shadows: PDF
Color models: PDF
Comparison with real materials
Practical 2
Bibliographie :
- Casting Curved Shadows on Curved Surfaces, Lance Williams, Computer Graphics, vol. 12, n° 3 (Siggraph 1978).
- Shadow Mapping (Wikipedia).
- A good tutorial on practical implementation of shadow maps in GLSL.
- Rendering: Appearance Modeling in Vision and Graphics, by P. Belhumeur (course at Columbia)
- Experimental Analysis of BRDF Models, by A. Ngan, F. Durand et W. Matusik

December 05 : Global Illumination and Monte-Carlo ray-tracing

Ray-tracing
Global Illumination methods
Monte-Carlo integration in 1D
Monte-Carlo Ray-tracing
Practical 3
Bibliographie :
- The rendering equation, by Jim T. Kajiya (Siggraph '86)
- An improved illumination model for shaded display, by Turner Whitted (CACM, v. 23, n° 6) (original ray-tracing paper)
- Distributed ray tracing, by Robert L. Cook et al. (Siggraph '84).
- Modeling the interaction of light between diffuse surfaces, by Cindy M. Goral et al. (Siggraph '84) (original radiosity paper).
- A rapid hierarchical radiosity algorithm, by Pat Hanrahan, David Salzman and Larry Aupperle (Siggraph '91, original paper for hierarchical radiosity).