Realistic Rendering and Modeling of Plants "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." (Anonymous)
In my final year of undergraduate studies Dr. Prusinkiewicz introduced me to the world of plant modeling through his graphics course, CPSC 553. I had a chance to learn L-systems and vLab, a language and set of tools (respectively) for building plant models and interactively adjusting parameters such as leaf width, stem curvature, and branching angles. The plant models can be viewed as real-time OpenGL models or output into a Rayshade readable file for rendering. Unfortunately, Rayshade has limitations in terms of global illumination and performance. After starting the Masters program in September 2001, I built two plugins for cpfg (the component of vLab in charge of rendering) to output plant models to Entropy, a Renderman compatible renderer from Exluna Inc., and Dali, a photon mapping render built by Henrik Wann Jensen. This opens up the opportunity to explore rendering of plants in earnest. I was particularly interested by the Dali renderer, as photon mapping is provides an accelerated global illumination rendering solution with very good performance and quality. During the past few years I have had the chance to explore both modeling and rendering issues, as I worked on plants with venation patterns, hairy surfaces, and translucent leaves and petals. The ride has been enjoyable, and the resulting images highlight the importance of paying attention to the small details, as well as the large. Refereed Publications "Modeling and Visualization
of Leaf Venation Patterns" "Modeling Hairy Plants" Thesis "Hairs, Textures, and Shades: Improving
the Realism of Plant Models Generated with L-systems"
Other Publications "Realistic Plant Rendering with Photon Mapping" "Lake
Scene" (realistic ecosystem rendering) Graphics Resources Useful resources for graphics development: Research Links Not too much here at the moment - but it's a start:
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