Communications of the ACM
Triple Shadows and Fake Reflections: Future Graphics
Film makers and artists sometimes use computer-generated imagery to show viewers an impossible reflection for instance, a metallic ring clearly reflecting a character reaching down to grab it. A program designed by Tobias Ritschel and colleagues at the
Credit: Tobias Ritschel et al / ACM Siggraph
At the second annual ACM SIGGRAPH Asia conference, which takes place December 16-19 in Yokohama, Japan, computer graphics professionals and researchers will demonstrate the most recent developments in graphics. For example, Seoul National University researchers will use high-speed, high-resolution photography to reveal how water breaks into sheets and droplets as it splashes over an object. The researchers built a computer model that focuses on the interface between air and water, allowing it to simulate the complex dynamics of the interface. View a video on stretching and wiggling liquids.
A team from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has developed a new take on shadow art, which presents users with a seemingly random assortment of objects that, when lit in a certain way, creates a recognizable two-dimensional (2D) shadow. The 2D shadow art uses a computer model to calculate the object shape needed to cast up to three distinct shadows simultaneously. View a video on shadow art.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics say they have developed a program that makes creating reflections far easier than existing methods. Current models produce reflections by tracing the path that virtual light rays take through a model's three-dimensional space. The Max Planck program enables users to manipulate those rays so the desired effect is created. View a video on interactive reflection editing.
Meanwhile, researchers at China's Tsinghua University have developed a photo-editing program that requires users to just roughly sketch and describe images they want to combine and the system then searches through online photo libraries to find, isolate, and reproduce the desired images in a new combined image. View a video on the Sketch2Photo software.
From New Scientist
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