Abstract: A system and process for adding a photorealistic rendering of a body of water to a virtual 3D scene or image and creating a video therefrom having interactive water effects. A region of water is added to an image by adding an area depicting the original scene as it would appear if reflected by still body of water. Then, the appearance of the added water region is distorted over a series of image frames in such a way as to simulate how the reflected scene would look if the surface of the water were in motion. The water can have dynamic waves and the user can interact with the water in numbers of ways, including generating ripples on the water surface and creating rain. In addition, these effects can be achieved at full screen resolution with the use of the latest graphics hardware by employing a texture shifting technique.

Abstract: An exemplary computer-implementable method includes providing a computer-generated object wherein the object has characteristics, emitting a computer-generated particle, determining if the particle interacts with the object and, if the particle interacts with the object, altering one or more of the characteristic of the object wherein the altering simulates weathering or aging of the object. Various other exemplary techniques are also disclosed.

Abstract: Large mesh deformation using the volumetric graph Laplacian is described. In one aspect, information is received from a user, wherein the information indicates how an original mesh is to be deformed. The original mesh is then deformed based on the information and application of a volumetric differential operator to a volumetric graph generated from the original mesh.

Abstract: Representing quasi-homogenous materials is described. In one aspect, quasi-homogenous materials are modeled to generate a material model of a physical sample. The material model identifies how light is scattered by the quasi-homogenous materials. The material model, independent of an object model of the physical sample, provides information that is useful to texture surfaces of arbitrary types and sizes of mesh models (e.g., representing the physical sample or other objects) with the quasi-homogenous materials.

Abstract: Texture montage is described. In one aspect, feature correspondences are received. The feature correspondences map at least one region on a 3-D mesh to at least one region on an image of one or more images. Each of the images provides texture information. An atlas of texture patches is created based on the feature correspondences. The atlas of texture patches provides for rendering texture from the images onto the 3-D mesh.

Abstract: Pre-computed shadow fields are described. In one aspect, shadow fields for multiple entities are pre-computed. The shadow fields are pre-computed independent of scene configuration. The multiple entities include at least one occluding object and at least one light source. A pre-computed shadow field for a light source indicates radiance from the light source. A pre-computed shadow field for an occluding object indicates occlusion of radiance from the at least one light source.

Abstract: A bidirectional texture function (BTF) synthesizer serves to synthesize BTFs on arbitrary manifold surfaces using “surface textons” given a sample BTF as an input. The synthesized BTFs fit the surface geometry naturally and seamlessly, and not only look similar to a sample BTF in all viewing and lighting conditions, but also exhibit a consistent mesostructure when the viewing and lighting directions change. Further, the synthesized BTFs capture the fine-scale shadows, occlusions, and specularities caused by surface mesostructures, thereby improving the perceived realism of the textured surfaces. In addition, the BTF synthesizer can describe real-world textures to allow a user to decorate real-world geometry with real-world textures. Finally, BTF synthesis using surface textons works well for any materials that can be described by three-dimensional textons.

Abstract: A software-implemented graphics rendering system and method designed and optimized for embedded devices (such as mobile computing devices) using fixed-point operations including a variable-length fixed point representation for numbers and a normalized homogenous coordinates system for vector operations. The graphics rendering system and method includes a fixed-point mathematics library and graphics functions that includes optimized basic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, all vertex operations, matrix operations, transform functions and lighting functions, and graphics functions. The mathematical library and graphics functions are modified and optimized by using a variable-length fixed-point representation and a normalized homogenous coordinate system (NHCS) for vector operations.

Abstract: A novel method for synchronizing the lips of a sketched face to an input voice. The lip synchronization system and method approach is to use training video as much as possible when the input voice is similar to the training voice sequences. Initially, face sequences are clustered from video segments, then by making use of sub-sequence Hidden Markov Models, a correlation between speech signals and face shape sequences is built. From this re-use of video, the discontinuity between two consecutive output faces is decreased and accurate and realistic synthesized animations are obtained. The lip synchronization system and method can synthesize faces from input audio in real-time without noticeable delay. Since acoustic feature data calculated from audio is directly used to drive the system without considering its phonemic representation, the method can adapt to any kind of voice, language or sound.

Abstract: A method and system for efficient synthesis of photorealistic free-form knitwear, where a single cross-section of yarn serves as the basic primitive for modeling entire articles of knitwear. This primitive, called the lumislice, describes radiance from a yarn cross-section based on fine-level interactions, including occlusion, shadowing, and multiple scattering, among yarn fibers. By representing yarn as a sequence of identical but rotated cross-sections, the lumislice can effectively propagate local microstructure over arbitrary stitch patterns and knitwear shapes. This framework accommodates varying levels of detail and capitalizes on hardware-assisted transparency blending. To further enhance realism, a technique for generating soft shadows from yarn is also introduced.

Abstract: A “light field morpher,” as described herein, provides a computationally efficient system and method for image-based three-dimensional (3D) morphing and texture transfer of 3D objects by morphing “light fields” or “lumigraphs,” associated with source and target 3D objects. The light field morpher is applicable to morphing of objects having either or both Lambertian, or non-Lambertian surfaces, including surfaces having complex properties such as fur, subsurface scattering, and hypertextures, without the need for object modeling, or otherwise recovering detailed object geometry. Light field morphing begins by first specifying corresponding 2D and 3D feature elements, such as, “feature lines,” “feature polygons,” and “background edges,” in the input light fields representing the source and target light fields. Once the feature elements have been specified, “ray-space warping” of both light fields then warps those light fields to produce feature alignment.

Abstract: Methods for synthesizing progressively-variant textures based on texton masks are provided. A first method creates a synthesized texture image guided by a sample texture, first texton mask corresponding to the sample texture and a second texton mask modified based on the first texton mask. A second method also creates a synthesized texture image guided by a first and second sample textures and corresponding first and second texton masks. A method for rendering a synthesized texture on an image of a three-dimensional object includes creating a synthesized texture on the object guided by a two-dimensional progressively-variant sample texture, a texton mask for the sample texture and a mesh of a plurality of vertices representing the object.

Abstract: A novel method for synchronizing the lips of a sketched face to an input voice. The lip synchronization system and method approach is to use training video as much as possible when the input voice is similar to the training voice sequences. Initially, face sequences are clustered from video segments, then by making use of sub-sequence Hidden Markov Models, a correlation between speech signals and face shape sequences is built. From this re-use of video, the discontinuity between two consecutive output faces is decreased and accurate and realistic synthesized animations are obtained. The lip synchronization system and method can synthesize faces from input audio in real-time without noticeable delay. Since acoustic feature data calculated from audio is directly used to drive the system without considering its phonemic representation, the method can adapt to any kind of voice, language or sound.

Abstract: The present invention provides a computer implemented method for placing feathers on a surface. The method includes providing a surface having a plurality of vertices and establishing a growing direction for each of the plurality of vertices on the surface. Feathers are placed on the surface based on the plurality of vertices and the growing direction.

Abstract: Surfaces can be decorated with texture tiling and/or texture painting using one or more sample textures, such as BTFs. In a described implementation of texture tiling, a patch-based BTF synthesis algorithm is utilized. In an example embodiment, a mesh of a target surface is re-sampled to produce a dense mesh such that there is a one-to-one correspondence between vertices of the dense mesh and pixels of an image. Patch matching is then employed with a working image that corresponds to a working patch. In an example embodiment, the patch matching is effectuated using translations and rotations of the sample texture. In a described implementation of texture painting, irregular feature(s) of a sample texture are synthesized onto a target surface. In an example embodiment, user-specified constraints as to a desired foreground feature of a sample texture and an intended foreground region of a targeted surface are factored into a graphcut operation.

Abstract: A system and process for adding a photorealistic rendering of a body of water to a virtual 3D scene or image and creating a video therefrom having interactive water effects. A region of water is added to an image by adding an area depicting the original scene as it would appear if reflected by still body of water. Then, the appearance of the added water region is distorted over a series of image frames in such a way as to simulate how the reflected scene would look if the surface of the water were in motion. The water can have dynamic waves and the user can interact with the water in numbers of ways, including generating ripples on the water surface and creating rain. In addition, these effects can be achieved at full screen resolution with the use of the latest graphics hardware by employing a texture shifting technique.

Abstract: The present invention provides a systematic method for rendering feathers. In one aspect, a segment of a rachis having a first barb and second barb is generated. The first barb is generated based on a first barb length and the second barb is generated based on a second barb length.

Abstract: A video rewrite technique for rendering a talking head or agent completely simulates a conversation by including a waiting or listening state. Smooth transitions are provided to and from a talking state.

Abstract: An approach for morphing between planar shapes is disclosed. Correspondences are established between perceptual feature points that are extracted from both source and target shapes. A similarity metric between two feature points is defined using the intrinsic properties of their local neighborhoods. The optimal correspondence is found by an efficient dynamic programming technique. This approach treats shape noise by allowing the discarding of small feature points, which introduces skips in the traversal of the dynamic programming graph. Intermediate shapes are obtained by interpolating the overall shapes constructed by feature points and the detailed information of the shapes respectively.

Abstract: A system and process for reconstructing optimal texture maps from multiple views of a scene is described. In essence, this reconstruction is based on the optimal synthesis of textures from multiple sources. This is generally accomplished using basic image processing theory to derive the correct weights for blending the multiple views. Namely, the steps of reconstructing, warping, prefiltering, and resampling are followed in order to warp reference textures to a desired location, and to compute spatially-variant weights for optimal blending. These weights take into consideration the anisotropy in the texture projection and changes in sampling frequency due to foreshortening. The weights are combined and the computation of the optimal texture is treated as a restoration problem, which involves solving a linear system of equations.