![]() ![]() The equivalents in object-space, or in the scene, are color, pattern, reflection, illumination, shape, and motion. The causes of visual complexity in the computer-generated image are the ingredients of perception: color, texture, edges, depth, and motion. This book is about using the computer to generate visual complexity, an approach called procedural modeling. This definition resonates with computer scientists, since computers are very good at both supporting a wide range of computational primitives and processing enormous amounts of data. Two factors underlie visual complexity, diversity in the types of primitives and their sheer numbers. The definition of realism that I like the most is the one I first heard from my colleague, then at Pixar, Alvy Ray Smith: he claimed photorealism was roughly equivalent to visual complexity. For example, real can mean a choice of subject matter, such as everyday life versus a myth or an idealized form. There are many other definitions of realism. In this sense the montage of composite layers in a movie is photoreal, since different elements come from different film sequences. Thus, another definition of real is to be traced or copied from an image. Masters such as Vermeer used optical devices to aid them in painting realistic pictures, and modern photorealists such as Richard Estes paint over a projected image of a photograph. A major achievement in the last two decades is that computers allowed us to achieve veridical realism of imagined scenes.īesides direct comparison, there are other definitions of real. Although few would be fooled into believing these worlds are real, it is more the artistic choice of the storyteller than a technological limitation. Equally amazing are full-length, computer-generated pictures such as Shrek. It is impossible to tell what is real and what is synthesized. Almost every movie involves hundreds of special effects that are seamlessly combined with live action. Nowadays the ultimate in fooling the eye is special effects in the movies. Does the picture pass the comparison test? That is, would an observer judge the picture to be real? This is traditionally described by Pliny's story (in Book 35 of his Natural History) of the ancient painter Zeuxis who painted a picture of a boy carrying some grapes, and when the birds flew up to the picture, he approached the work and, in irritation, said, ''I have painted the grapes better than the boy, for if I had rendered him perfectly, the birds would have been afraid." The classic definition of realism has been veridical realism. This book provides a modern answer involving the computer and a new definition of realism. What is a realistic image? This is an age-old question in art, and a contemporary question in computer graphics. ![]()
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