Rendering

The field of computer graphics has advanced rapidly over the past several years; the quality and realism of computer renderings is often stunning, as can be seen in movies like Final Fantasy or Shrek. Yet many open problems remain in the area of immersive, realistic, and interactive virtual environments.

The computation times of high-quality, realistic images are very long. A single movie frame often takes hours to compute, yet many applications such as flight-simulators and architectural walkthroughs mandate immediate feedback. Solutions for these applications exist (e.g., through dedicated graphics hardware), but require a substantial decrease in quality and realism to meet time constraints. At UCL we are developing efficient algorithms to produce realistic images at interactive frame rates.

Rendering realistic images requires realistic scene data. Currently, most data is authored by hand, which allows for flexibility but is also very tedious. Recently, image- and video-based rendering has gained more popularity, which is due to the ease at which realism can be achieved.

At UCL we are investigating algorithms for the creation of realistic scenes and animations using image- and video-based rendering.

A more detailed look at all of the rendering projects undertaken can be found here.

Group members working on rendering include:

Jan Kautz

James Tompkin

Frederic Besse

Insu Yu