Affiliation: Inria (researcher)
Project-team: manao
Email: pascal dot barla at inria dot fr
Address: 200, av. de la Vieille Tour
33405 Talence, France

Toward a perceptually plausible model of appearance

Computer graphics applications usually treat appearance in different ways, depending on whether they start from scratch, from 3D scenes or from videos. I argue that a common model of appearance would better serve such applications: it would greatly help the creation of complex appearance patterns in drawing applications; it would permit to connect physical descriptions to appearance percepts in rendering; and it would give a rich basis for image analysis at the compositing stage.  Such a model should describe appearance in a perceptually plausible manner, directly identifying invariants across different lighting or motion conditions. This requires to draw connections with Human Vision; but there is also potentially room for graphics to inspire new perceptual investigations. Most of the research projects I have been involved in work toward these goals.

Practical artistic & scientifc applications

Such an integrated approach opens interesting avenues for a range of applications. For the advertisement and film industries, the appearance of rendered 3D scenes could be manipulated based on specific artistic intent, and merged with video footage. In scientific illustration, measured object features (such as shape, or reflectance) could be visualized through stylized appearance as in classical illustrated text books. Video games would also likely benefit from a plausible model of appearance, for speeding up rendering or providing novel styles. Last but not least, traditional 2D drawings could be augmented with more complex appearance patterns, with appropriate tools for artists to control their evolution through time. A growing collection of prototype software will help getting into the saddle.

Academic & industrial collaborations

University of Giessen (Marie-Curie ITN): perceptual representations for illumination, shape and materials (PRISM).
University of Zaragoza (CTP research): acquisition, editing and stylization of material appearance.
Inria – REVES team (ANR JC): completion and learning tools for drawing (DRAO).
Inria – Maverick team (ADT): expressive shading library & tools (X-Shade).
Luxology (Beta program): shape enhancement and appearance editing.
Autodesk (ADN program): stylized rendering for 3D sculpting.