Abstract: Computer graphics image rendering techniques render images using a precomputed radiance transfer (PRT) to model local effects such as bumps, wrinkles, or other detailed features on an arbitrarily deformable model's surface. The techniques apply zonal harmonics (ZH) which approximate spherical functions as sums of circularly symmetric functions around different axes. By spatially varying both the axes and coefficients of these basis functions, approximations can fit to spatially varying transfer signals. Compared to the spherical harmonic (SH) basis, the ZH basis yields a more compact approximation, and can be rotated at a low computational expense suitable for dense per-vertex or per-pixel evaluation. This allows PRT to be mapped onto deforming models which re-orient the local coordinate frame.